Tristan Klingsor, birth name (Arthur Justin) Léon Leclère (born Lachapelle-aux-Pots,

Oise Oise ( ; ; pcd, Oése) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

, 8 August 1874; died

Nogent-sur-Marne Nogent-sur-Marne () is a Communes of France, commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. Nogent-sur-Marne is a ''Subprefectures in France, sous-préfecture'' of the Val-de-Marne ''Depar ...

, 3 August 1966), was a

French poet List of poets who have written in the French language: A * Louise-Victorine Ackermann (1813–1890) * Adam de la Halle (v.1250 – v.1285) * Pierre Albert-Birot (1876–1967) * Anne-Marie Albiach (1937–2012) * Pierre Alféri (1963) * Marc ...

, musician, painter and art critic, best known for his artistic association with the composer

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

. His

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

, combining the names of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's hero Tristan (from ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was compose ...

'') and his (Wagner's) villain Klingsor (from ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...

''), indicates one aspect of his artistic interests, though he said that he chose the names because he liked the "sounds" they made, the associations with Arthurian and Breton legends he had read as a child, and that there were already too many literary men in Paris with the surname Leclère. Some of his "orientalist" poems are addressed to a mysterious "jeune étranger," possibly symbolising his

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

orientation, although he did marry in 1903, and had a daughter two years later. His first collection, ''Filles-fleurs'' (1895), was in eleven-syllable verse. After this he often used a personal form of

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definit ...

. He was a member of the ' group of French poets. Certain of his poems were set to music by composers including

Charles Koechlin Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin (; 27 November 186731 December 1950), commonly known as Charles Koechlin, was a French composer, teacher and musicologist. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things ...

Georges Hüe Georges Adolphe Hüe (6 May 1858 – 7 June 1948) was a French composer of classical music. Biography Hüe was born in Versailles into a noted family of architects. His musical education included studies with Charles Gounod and César Franck. ...

and

Georges Migot Georges Elbert Migot (27 February 1891 – 5 January 1976) was a prolific French composer. Though primarily known as a composer, he was also a poet, often integrating his poetry into his compositions, and an accomplished painter. He won the 1921 ...

, and he is best remembered as providing the texts for Ravel’s

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...

'' Shéhérazade'' (1903). He and Ravel belonged to the

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

artistic group known as

Les Apaches Les Apaches (or Société des Apaches) was a group of musicians, writers and artists which formed in Paris, France in 1903. The core was formed by the French composer Maurice Ravel, the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes and the writer and critic Mic ...

for whose meetings he was sometimes the host. He recorded his long acquaintance with the composer in an essay, "L'Époque Ravel". Ravel dedicated the first of his '' Trois Chansons'' to him in 1915. Klingsor was also a painter (exhibiting from 1905 at the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

and being awarded the Prix Puvis de Chavannes in 1952). His visual art was reviewed twice by

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

: In 1906, he called Klingsor's attempts "Merde!" but in 1908, he was kinder, stating: "Klingsor animates his painting with the same sentimental delicacy that gives his poetry its somewhat contrived, dated charm. For my part, I prefer the poet to the painter.” He was also the author of several studies on art, and a composer in his own right, with several collections of melodies, four-part songs, and piano music. Tristan_Klingsor

List of writings

* ''Filles-Fleurs'', poems,

Mercure de France The was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was published f ...

, 1895 * ''Squelettes fleuris'', poems, Mercure de France, 1897 * ''L’Escarpolette'', poems, Mercure de France, 1899 * ''La Jalousie du Vizir'', story, Mercure de France, 1899 * ''Le Livre d'Esquisses'', poems, Mercure de France, 1900 * ''Schéhérazade'', poems, Mercure de France, 1903 * ''Petits métiers des rues de Paris'', prose, 1904 * ''La Duègne apprivoisée'', comedy, 1907 * ''Le Valet de Cœur'', poems, Mercure de France, 1908 * ''Les caprices de Goya'', critical essay, 1909 * ''Les Femmes de théâtre au XVIIIe siècle'', 1911 * ''Poèmes de Bohème'', poems, Mercure de France, 1913 * ''Hubert Robert et les paysagistes français du XVIIIe siècle'', 1913 * ''Les derniers-états des lettres et des arts : la peinture'', 1913 * ''Chroniques du Chaperon et de la Braguette'', poems, 1913 * ''La Peinture (L’art français depuis vingt ans)'', Rieder, Paris, 1921 * ''Humoresques'', poems, 1921 * ''L'Escarbille d'or'', poems, Chiberre, Paris, 1922 * ''La Peinture (L’art français depuis vingt-cinq ans)'', Rieder, Paris, 1922 * ''Cézanne'', Rieder, Paris, 1923 * ''Chardin'', collection Maîtres Anciens et Modernes, Nilsson, Paris, 1924 * ''Essai sur le chapeau'', Les Cahiers de Paris, 1926 * ''Léonard de Vinci'' (Maîtres de l'art ancien), Rieder, Paris, 1930 * ''Poèmes du Brugnon'', 1933 * ''Mesures pour rien'', in ''Poésie 42'', 1942 * ''Cinquante Sonnets du Dormeur éveillé'', 1949 * ''Florilège poétique'', poems selected by Georges Bouquet and Pierre Menanteau, L’Amitié par le livre, Blainville-sur-Mer, 1955 * ''Album'', 1955 * ''Claude Lepape'', 1958 * ''Le Tambour voilé'', Mercure de France, 1960 * ''Second florilège'', with illustrations by the poet, 1964 * ''Maisons Aloysius'', 1964 * ''L’Art de peindre'', collection Initiations, Braun, Paris * ''Poèmes de la princesse Chou'', 1974

References

External links

* * * * Tristan Klingsor Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Klingsor, Tristan 1874 births 1966 deaths People from Oise Writers from Hauts-de-France French poets 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French musicians French LGBT musicians French LGBT poets French male poets 19th-century French male artists

List of writings

References

Further reading

External links