Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright,

short story writer A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

, novelist and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the early 20th century, as well as one of the most impassioned defenders of

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

and a forefather of

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

. He is credited with coining the term "Cubism"Daniel Robbins, 1964, ''Albert Gleizes 1881–1953, A Retrospective Exhibition'', Published by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, in collaboration with Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund
/ref> in 1911 to describe the emerging

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific art philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined ...

, the term

Orphism Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into the Greek underworld and returned ...

in 1912, and the term "Surrealism" in 1917 to describe the works of

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...

. He wrote poems without punctuation, in his attempt to be resolutely modern in both form and subject. Apollinaire wrote one of the earliest Surrealist literary works, the play ''

The Breasts of Tiresias ''The Breasts of Tiresias'' () is a surrealist play by Guillaume Apollinaire. Written in 1903, the play received its first production in a revised version subtitled ''Drame surréaliste'' in 1917. With this subtitle and in the preface to the p ...

'' (1917), which became the basis for

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodie, songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among th ...

's 1947 opera ''

Les mamelles de Tirésias LES or Les may refer to: People * Les (given name) * Les (surname) * L.E.S. (producer), hip hop producer Space flight * Launch Entry Suit, worn by Space Shuttle crews * Launch escape system, for spacecraft emergencies * Lincoln Experimental ...

''. Influenced by Symbolist poetry in his youth, he was admired during his lifetime by the young poets who later formed the nucleus of the Surrealist group (

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

, Soupault). He revealed very early on an originality that freed him from any school of influence and made him one of the precursors of the literary revolution of the first half of the 20th century. His art is not based on any theory, but on a simple principle: the act of creating must come from the imagination, from intuition, because it must be as close as possible to life, to nature, to the environment, and to the human being. Apollinaire was also active as a journalist and art critic for '' Le Matin'', ''

L'Intransigeant ''L'Intransigeant'' was a French newspaper founded in July 1880 by Henri Rochefort. Initially representing the left-wing opposition, it moved towards the right during the Boulanger affair (Rochefort supported Boulanger) and became a major right-wi ...

'', ''L'Esprit nouveau'', ''

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 publis ...

'', and ''Paris Journal''. In 1912 Apollinaire cofounded ''

Les Soirées de Paris ''Les Soirées de Paris'' was a French literary and artistic review founded in February 1912 by Guillaume Apollinaire and four of his associates - André Billy, René Dalize, André Salmon, and . It was last published in August 1914. «Les Soi ...

'', an artistic and literary magazine. Two years after being wounded in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Apollinaire died during the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

pandemic of 1918 and was recognized as "Fallen for France" (''

Mort pour la France (, ) is a legal expression in France and an honour awarded to people who died during a conflict, usually in service of the country. Definition The term is defined in L.488 to L.492 (bis) of the ''Code of Military Disability Pensions and War ...

'') because of his commitment during the war.Catherine Moore, Mark Moore, Guillaume Apollinaire official website, Biographie: Chronologie
Western Illinois University

Life

Family and early life

Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki was born in Rome, Italy, and was raised speaking French, Italian, and

. He emigrated to France in his late teens and adopted the name Guillaume Apollinaire. His mother, born Angelika Kostrowicka, was a Polish-Lithuanian noblewoman born near

Navahrudak Novogrudok or Navahrudak (; ; , ; ) is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Novogrudok District. As of 2025, it has a population of 27,624. In the Middle Ages, the city was ruled by King Mindaugas' son ...

Grodno Governorate Grodno Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Northwestern Krai of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Grodno. It encompassed in area and consisted of a population of 1,603,409 inhabitants by 1897. Gro ...

(former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, present-day

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

). His maternal grandfather participated in the 1863 uprising against occupying Russia and had to emigrate when the uprising failed. Apollinaire's father is unknown but may have been Francesco Costantino Camillo Flugi d'Aspermont (born 1835), a Graubünden aristocrat who disappeared early from Apollinaire's life. Francesco Flugi d'Aspermont was a nephew of Conradin Flugi d'Aspermont (1787–1874), a poet who wrote in Ladin

Putèr Puter (also spelled Putèr; ) is a variety of Romansh spoken in the Engadin valley in Graubünden, which is in the southeastern part of Switzerland. It is spoken in the central northwestern end of the valley between S-chanf and St. Moritz, as ...

(an official language dialect of Switzerland spoken in Upper

Engadin The Engadin or Engadine (;This is the name in the two Romansh idioms that are spoken in the Engadin, Vallader and Puter, as well as in Sursilvan and Rumantsch Grischun. In Surmiran, the name is ''Nagiadegna'', and in Sutsilvan, it is ''Gidegna'' ...

), and perhaps also descendant of the

Minnesänger (; "love song") was a tradition of German lyric- and song-writing that flourished in the Middle High German period (12th to 14th centuries). The name derives from '' minne'', the Middle High German word for love, as that was ''Minnesangs m ...

Oswald von Wolkenstein Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376 or 1377 in Pfalzen – August 2, 1445, in Meran) was a poetry, poet, composer and diplomacy, diplomat. In his diplomatic capacity, he traveled through much of Europe to as far as Georgia (country), Georgia (as recoun ...

(born c. 1377, died 2 August 1445; see ''Les ancêtres Grisons du poète Guillaume Apollinaire'' at

Geneanet Geneanet (previously stylized as GeneaNet) is a Paris-based genealogy website with 4 million members. Since 2021 it is a subsidiary of Ancestry, the largest genealogy company in the world. Its website consists of data added by registered particip ...

Paris

Apollinaire eventually moved from Rome to Paris in 1900 and became one of the most popular members of the artistic community of Paris (both in

Montmartre Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...

and

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

). His friends and collaborators in that period included

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gug ...

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

Max Jacob Max Jacob (; 12 July 1876 – 5 March 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. Life and career After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic c ...

André Salmon André Salmon (4 October 1881, Paris – 12 March 1969, Sanary-sur-Mer) was a French poet, art critic and writer. He was one of the early defenders of Cubism, with Guillaume Apollinaire and Maurice Raynal. Biography André Salmon was born i ...

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. In 2025, all of Derain’s work entered the public domain in the United States. Life and career Early ...

Faik Konitza Faik Bey Konica (later named Faïk Dominik Konitza, 15 March 1875 – 15 December 1942) was an important figure in Albanian language and culture in the early decades of the twentieth century. As the Albanian minister to Washington, D.C., his lit ...

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars (), was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European ...

Giuseppe Ungaretti Giuseppe Ungaretti (; 8 February 1888 – 2 June 1970) was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic, academic, and recipient of the inaugural 1970 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A leading representative of the experi ...

Pierre Reverdy Pierre Reverdy (; 13 September 1889 – 17 June 1960) was a French poet whose works were inspired by and subsequently proceeded to influence the provocative art movements of the day, Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. The loneliness and spiritual app ...

Alexandra Exter Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster (née Grigorovich; ; ; 18 January 1882 – 17 March 1949), also known as Alexandra Exter, was a Russian and French painter and designer. As a young woman, her studio in Kiev attracted all the city's creative lum ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

Ossip Zadkine Ossip Alexeevich Zadkine (; 28 January 1888 – 25 November 1967) was a Russian and French artist of the School of Paris. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs. Early years and education Zadkine was born o ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

and

Jean Metzinger Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger (; 24 June 1883 – 3 November 1956) was a major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes wrote the first theoretical work on Cubism. His earliest works, from 1 ...

. He became romantically involved with

Marie Laurencin Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d'Or. Biography Laurencin was born in Par ...

, who is often identified as his muse. While there, he dabbled in

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

and spoke out as a Dreyfusard in defense of Dreyfus's innocence.Claude Schumacher, ''Alfred Jarry and Guillaume Apollinaire''
Modern Dramatists, Macmillan International Higher Education, 1984, pp. 4, 14, 23, 148, 168, Metzinger painted the first Cubist portrait of Apollinaire. In his ''Vie anecdotique'' (16 October 1911), the poet proudly writes: "I am honoured to be the first model of a Cubist painter, Jean Metzinger, for a portrait exhibited in 1910 at the Salon des Indépendants." It was not only the first Cubist portrait, according to Apollinaire, but it was also the first great portrait of the poet exhibited in public, prior to others by

Louis Marcoussis Louis Marcoussis (born Ludwik Kazimierz Wladyslaw Markus or Ludwig Casimir Ladislas Markus; 1878 or 1883 – October 22, 1941) was a Polish-French avant-garde painter active primarily in Paris. Markus studied law in Warsaw before attending the Kr ...

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

Mikhail Larionov Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov (; – May 10, 1964) was a Russian avant-garde painter who worked with radical exhibitors and pioneered the first approach to abstract Russian art. He was founding member of two important artistic groups Knave ...

and Picasso. In 1911 Apollinaire joined the Puteaux Group, a branch of the Cubist movement soon to be known as the

Section d'Or The Section d'Or ("Golden Section"), also known as Groupe de Puteaux or Puteaux Group, was a collective of painters, sculptors, poets and critics associated with Cubism and Orphism. Based in the Parisian suburbs, the group held regular meetings ...

. He delivered the opening address of the 1912 Salon de la Section d'Or — the most important pre-World War I Cubist exhibition.La Section d'Or
Numéro spécial, 9 Octobre 1912.
, p. 5. On 7 September 1911, police arrested and jailed Apollinaire on suspicion of aiding and abetting the theft of the ''

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, ...

'' and a number of Egyptian statuettes from the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, but released him a week later. The theft of the statues had been committed in 1907 by a former secretary of Apollinaire, Honoré Joseph Géry Pieret, who had recently returned one of the stolen statues to the French newspaper the ''Paris-Journal''. Apollinaire implicated his friend Picasso, who had bought

Iberian Iberian refers to Iberia. Most commonly Iberian refers to: *Someone or something originating in the Iberian Peninsula, namely from Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. The term ''Iberian'' is also used to refer to anything pertaining to the fo ...

statues from Pieret, and who was also brought in for questioning in the theft of the ''Mona Lisa'', but he was also exonerated.Richard Lacayo
"Art's Great Whodunit: The Mona Lisa Theft of 1911"
''Time'', 27 April 2009. In fact, the theft of the ''Mona Lisa'' was perpetrated by

Vincenzo Peruggia Vincenzo Peruggia (8 October 1881 8 October 1925) was an Italian decorator best known for stealing the ''Mona Lisa'' from the Louvre, a museum in Paris where he had briefly worked as glazier, on 21 August 1911. Early life and work at the Louvre ...

, an Italian house painter who acted alone and was only caught two years later when he tried to sell the painting in Florence.

Cubism

Apollinaire wrote the preface for the first Cubist exposition outside of Paris; ''VIII Salon des Indépendants'', Brussels, 1911. In an open-handed preface to the catalogue of the Brussels Indépendants show, Apollinaire stated that these 'new painters' accepted the name of Cubists which has been given to them. He described Cubism as a new manifestation and high art 'manifestation nouvelle et très élevée de l'art'' not a system that constrains talent 'non-point un système contraignant les talents'' and the differences which characterize not only the talents but even the styles of these artists are an obvious proof of this.Douglas Cooper, 1971
Douglas Cooper, ''The Cubist Epoch''
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, p. 97 The artists involved with this new movement, according to Apollinaire, included

(who represented Apollinaire in his '' Three Musicians'' painting),

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with ...

Albert Gleizes Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...

Robert Delaunay Robert Delaunay (; 12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist of the School of Paris movement; who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism (art), Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and g ...

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

, and

Henri Le Fauconnier Henri Victor Gabriel Le Fauconnier (; July 5, 1881 – December 25, 1946) was a French Cubist painter born in Hesdin. Le Fauconnier was seen as one of the leading figures among the Montparnasse Cubists. At the 1911 Salon des Indépendants Le ...

.Daniel Robbins, 1985, ''Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, Jean Metzinger: At the Center of Cubism'', University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, J. Paul Getty Trust, University of Washington Press, pp. 9–23 By 1912 others had joined the Cubists:

Jacques Villon Jacques Villon (July 31, 1875 – June 9, 1963), also known as Gaston Duchamp, was a French Cubist and Abstract art, abstract painter and printmaker. Early life Born Émile Méry Frédéric Gaston Duchamp in Damville, Eure, Damville, Eure, ...

Raymond Duchamp-Villon Raymond Duchamp-Villon (5 November 1876 – 9 October 1918) was a French sculptor. Life and art Duchamp-Villon was born Pierre-Maurice-Raymond Duchamp in Damville, Eure, in the Normandy region of France, the second son of Eugène and Lucie Duch ...

Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, writer, filmmaker, magazine publisher, poet, and typography, typographist closely associated with Dada. When consid ...

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic g ...

, and

Roger de La Fresnaye Roger de La Fresnaye (; 11 July 1885 – 27 November 1925) was a French Cubist painter. Early years and education La Fresnaye was born in Le Mans where his father, an officer in the French army, was temporarily stationed. The La Fresnayes were ...

, among them.Guillaume Apollinaire, ''Les Peintres Cubistes'' (''The Cubist Painters'') published in 1913
Peter Read (Translator), University of California Press, 2004Herschel Browning Chipp, Peter Selz, ''Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics'', University of California Press, 1968, pp. 221–248

Orphism

The term

was coined by Apollinaire at the Salon de la

in 1912, referring to the works of

and

František Kupka František Kupka (23 September 1871 – 24 June 1957), also known as ''Frank Kupka'' or ''François Kupka,'' was a Czech painter and graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, eit ...

. During his lecture at the Section d'Or exhibit Apollinaire presented three of Kupka's abstract works as perfect examples of ''pure painting'', as anti-figurative as music. In '' Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques'' (1913) Apollinaire described Orphism as "the art of painting new totalities with elements that the artist does not take from visual reality, but creates entirely by himself. ..An Orphic painter's works should convey an ''untroubled

aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

pleasure'', but at the same time a ''meaningful structure and sublime significance''. According to Apollinaire Orphism represented a move towards a completely new art-form, much as music was to literature.Hajo Düchting
''Orphism''
MoMA, From Grove Art Online, 2009 Oxford University Press. In 2025, New York's Guggenheim Museum mounted a major retrospective on Orphism, an oft-overlooked artistic movement.

Surrealism

The term Surrealism was first used by Apollinaire concerning the ballet ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

'' in 1917. The poet

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he s ...

wanted to be a visionary, to perceive the hidden side of things within the realm of another reality. In continuity with Rimbaud, Apollinaire went in search of a hidden and mysterious reality. The term "surrealism" appeared for the first time in March 1917 (Chronologie de Dada et du surréalisme, 1917) in a letter by Apollinaire to

Paul Dermée Paul Dermée (1886–1951) was a Belgian writer, poet, literary critic. Born Camille Janssen in Liège, Belgium in 1886, he died in Paris in 1951. He knew the painters Picasso, Juan Gris, Sonia and Robert Delaunay and the poets Valéry Larbaud a ...

: "All things considered, I think in fact it is better to adopt surrealism than supernaturalism, which I first used" 'Tout bien examiné, je crois en effet qu'il vaut mieux adopter surréalisme que surnaturalisme que j'avais d'abord employé'' He described ''Parade'' as "a kind of surrealism" (''une sorte de surréalisme'') when he wrote the program note the following week, thus coining the word three years before Surrealism emerged as an art movement in Paris.

World War I and death

Apollinaire served as an infantry officer in

and, in 1916, received a serious shrapnel wound to the temple, from which he would never fully recover. He wrote ''

Les Mamelles de Tirésias LES or Les may refer to: People * Les (given name) * Les (surname) * L.E.S. (producer), hip hop producer Space flight * Launch Entry Suit, worn by Space Shuttle crews * Launch escape system, for spacecraft emergencies * Lincoln Experimental ...

'' while recovering from this wound. During this period he coined the word "

" in the programme notes for

and

's ballet ''

'', first performed on 18 May 1917. He also published an artistic manifesto, ''L'Esprit nouveau et les poètes''. Apollinaire's status as a literary critic is most famous and influential in his recognition of the

Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...

, whose works were for a long time obscure, yet arising in popularity as an influence upon the

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

and Surrealist art movements going on in Montparnasse at the beginning of the twentieth century as, "The freest spirit that ever existed." The war-weakened Apollinaire died at the age of 38 on 9 November 1918 of

influenza Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...

during the

pandemic of 1918 ravaging Europe at the time, two years after being wounded in

. Due to his military service for the duration of the war, he was declared to have "Died for France" (''Mort pour la France'') by the French government. He was interred in the

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

, Paris.

Works

In 1900 he wrote his first novel ''Mirely, ou le petit trou pas cher'' (pornographic), which was eventually lost. Apollinaire's first collection of poetry was ''L'enchanteur pourrissant'' (1909), but '' Alcools'' (1913) established his reputation. The poems, influenced in part by the

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

s, juxtapose the old and the new, combining traditional poetic forms with modern imagery. In 1913, Apollinaire published the essay '' Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques'' on the

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

painters, a movement which he helped to define. He also coined the term ''

orphism Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into the Greek underworld and returned ...

'' to describe a tendency towards absolute abstraction in the paintings of

and others. In 1917, Apollinaire produced ''Peintures de Léopold Survage; Dessins et aquarelles d’Irène Lagut (Paintings by Léopold Survage; Drawings and Watercolors by Irène Lagut),'' which is included in the permanent collection of Pérez Art Museum Miami, in the United States. In 1907 Apollinaire published the well-known

erotic novel Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros (passionate, romantic or sexual relationships) intended to arouse similar feelings in readers. This contrasts erotica, which focuses more specifically on sexual feeli ...

, '' The Eleven Thousand Rods'' (''Les Onze Mille Verges''). Officially banned in France until 1970, various printings of it circulated widely for many years. Apollinaire never publicly acknowledged authorship of the novel. Another erotic novel attributed to him was ''The Exploits of a Young

Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni ( Italian), is a legendary fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. The original version of the story of Don Juan appears in the 1630 play (''The Trickster of Seville and t ...

(Les exploits d'un jeune Don Juan)'', in which the 15-year-old hero fathers three children with various members of his entourage, including his aunt. Apollinaire's gift to Picasso of the original 1907 manuscript was one of the artist's most prized possessions. The book was made into a movie in 1986. Shortly after his death, Mercure de France published ''

Calligrammes ''Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War 1913–1916'', is a collection of poems by Guillaume Apollinaire which was first published in 1918. ''Calligrammes'' is noted for how the typeface and spatial arrangement of the words on a page plays just a ...

'', a collection of his

concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...

(poetry in which typography and layout adds to the overall effect), and more orthodox, though still modernist poems informed by Apollinaire's experiences in the First World War and in which he often used the technique of automatic writing. In his youth Apollinaire lived for a short while in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, mastering the Walloon dialect sufficiently to write poetry, some of which has survived. File:Guillaume Apollinaire, Poème Calligramme.jpg, A

Calligramme A calligram is a set of words arranged in such a way that it forms a thematically related image. It can be a poem, a phrase, a portion of scripture, or a single word; the visual arrangement can rely on certain use of the typeface, calligraphy o ...

by Guillaume Apollinaire Image:La muse inspirant le poète.jpg, '' The Muse Inspiring the Poet'', portrait of Apollinaire and

, by

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gug ...

, 1909 Image:Père-Lachaise - Division 86 - tombe Apollinaire 01.jpg, Apollinaire's grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery File:ApollinaireLeidenWallPoems.jpg, Poem by Apollinaire on a wall in Leiden

Poetry

* ''L'enchanteur pourrissant'' (1909). ''The Enchanter Rotting'' * '' Le Bestiaire ou Cortège d'Orphée'' (1911) * '' Alcools'' (1913) * ''Vitam impendere amori'' (1917) * ''

, poèmes de la paix et de la guerre 1913–1916'' (1918) (published shortly after Apollinaire's death) * ''Il y a...'' (1925) Albert Messein * ''Julie ou la rose'' (1927) * ''Ombre de mon amour'' (1947). Poems addressed to Louise de Coligny-Châtillon * ''Poèmes secrets à Madeleine'' (1949). Pirated edition * ''Le Guetteur mélancolique'' (1952). Previously unpublished works * ''Poèmes à Lou'' (1955) * ''Soldes'' (1985). Previously unpublished works * ''Et moi aussi je suis peintre'' (2006). Album of drawings for ''Calligrammes'', from a private collection * ''Calligrammaire, les calligrammes de Guillaume Apollinaire / Kalligrammatika, Guillaume Apollinaire kalligrammái'' (2025). Bilingual French–Hungarian edition

Novels

* ''Mirely ou le Petit Trou pas cher'' (1900). ''Mirely, or The Cheap Little Hole'' (unpublished) * ''Que faire ?'' (1900). ''What to Do?'' * '' Les Onze Mille Verges ou les Amours d'un hospodar'' (1907). ''The Eleven Thousand Rods''; ''The Debauched Hospodar'' * ''Les Exploits d'un jeune Don Juan'' (1911). ''The Amorous Exploits of a Young Rakehell'', trans. Reaves Tessor (1959) * ''La Rome des Borgia'' (1914). ''The Rome of the Borgias'' * ''La Fin de Babylone'' (1914). ''The Fall of Babylon'' * ''Les Trois Don Juan'' (1915). ''The Three Don Juans'' * ''La Femme assise'' (1920). ''The Sitting Woman''

Short story collections

* ''L'Hérèsiarque et Cie'' (1910). ''The Heresiarch and Co.'', trans. Rémy Inglis Hall (1965) * ''Le Poète assassiné'' (1916). ''The Poet Assassinated'', trans.

Matthew Josephson Matthew Josephson (February 15, 1899 – March 13, 1978) was an American historian, biographer and journalist. He authored works on French novelists of the 19th century, and on U.S. political and economic history of the 19th and early 20th centu ...

(1923, title story); trans.

Ron Padgett Ron Padgett (born June 17, 1942) is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School (art), New York School. ''Great Balls of Fire'', Padgett's first full-length collection of poems, was published in 1969 ...

(1968, unabridged) * ''Les Épingles'' (1928). ''The Pins''

Plays

* ''

'' (1917). ''The Breasts of Tiresias'' * ''La Bréhatine'' (1917). Screenplay (collaboration with André Billy) * ''Couleurs du temps'' (1918) * ''Casanova'' (published 1952)

Articles

* ''Le Théâtre italien'', illustrated encyclopedia, 1910 * Preface, Catalogue of 8th ''Salon annuel du Cercle d'art Les Indépendants'', Musée moderne de Bruxelles, 10 June – 3 July 1911. * ''La Vie anecdotique'', Chroniques dans Le Mercure de France, 1911–1918 * ''Pages d'histoire, chronique des grands siècles de France'', chronicles, 1912 * '' Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques'', 1913 * ''La Peinture moderne'', 1913 * ''L'Antitradition futuriste, manifeste synthèse'', 1913 * ''Jean Metzinger à la Galerie Weill'', Chroniques d'art de Guillaume Apollinaire, ''L'Intransigeant'', Paris Journal, 27 May 1914 * ''Case d'Armons'', 1915 * ''L'esprit nouveau et les poètes'', 1918 * ''Le Flâneur des Deux Rives'', chronicles, 1918

Translations into English

* ''The Poet Assassinated'', trans.

(The Broom Publishing, 1923) * ''Selected Writings'', trans.

Roger Shattuck Roger Whitney Shattuck (August 20, 1923 in Manhattan, New York – December 8, 2005 in Lincoln, Vermont) was an American writer best known for his books on French literature, art, and music of the twentieth century. Background and education Born ...

(New Directions, 1948) *''Alcools: Poems 1898–1913'', trans. Walter Meredith (Doubleday, 1964) *''Alcools'', trans. Anne Hyde Greet (University of California Press, 1965) * ''Selected Poems'', trans.

Oliver Bernard Oliver Bernard (6 December 1925 – 1 June 2013) was an English poet and translator. He is perhaps best known for translating Arthur Rimbaud into English as part of the Penguin Classics collection. Biography Bernard was born in London, to th ...

(Penguin, 1965; expanded, bilingual edition, Anvil Press, 1986) * ''The Heresiarch and Co.'', trans. Rémy Inglis Hall (1965), published in the UK as ''The Wandering Jew and Other Stories'' (1967) * ''The Poet Assassinated'', trans.

(Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968) * ''Calligrams'', trans. Anne Hyde Greet (Unicorn Press, 1970) * ''Apollinaire on Art: Essays and Reviews, 1902–1918'', trans. Susan Suleiman (1972) * ''Zone'', trans.

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

(Dolmen Press, 1972) * ''Alcools: Poems'', trans.

Donald Revell Donald Revell (born 1954 in Bronx, New York) is an American poet, essayist, translator and professor. Revell has won numerous honors and awards for his work, beginning with his first book, ''From the Abandoned Cities'', which was a National Poetr ...

(Wesleyan University Press, 1995) * ''The Self-Dismembered Man: Selected Later Poems'', trans. Donald Revell (Wesleyan University Press, 2004) * ''The Little Auto'', trans. Beverley Bie Brahic (CB editions, 2012) *"Zone", trans.

David Lehman David Lehman (born June 11, 1948) is an American poet, non-fiction writer, and literary critic, and the founder and series editor for '' The Best American Poetry''. He was a writer and freelance journalist for fifteen years, writing for such pub ...

, in ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' (2013) * ''Zone: Selected Poems'', trans. Ron Padgett (New York Review Books, 2015) * ''Selected Poems'', trans. Martin Sorrell (Oxford University Press, 2015)

In popular culture

*French composer

has set Apollinaire's poems to music in his five-part song cycle '' Banalités'' (1940), which in turned inspired

Pink Martini Pink Martini is an American band founded in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale in Portland, Oregon. Group members call it a little orchestra that crosses several styles, such as Classical music, classical, Latin music, Latin, traditional pop, and ...

's song ''

Sympathique ''Sympathique'' is the first studio album from American band Pink Martini. It was released on November 11, 1997 by Pink Martini's own record label, Heinz Records. As of 2013 it has sold over one million copies worldwide. Their first single, Sym ...

(je ne veux pas travailler)'' in 1997. *Dutch composer

Marjo Tal Marjo Tal (15 January 1915 - 27 August 2006) was a Dutch composer and pianist who wrote the music for over 150 songs and often performed them while accompanying herself on the piano. Life and career Early life Tal was born in The Hague, the oldes ...

set some of Apollinaire’s poetry to music. *French composer

Denise Roger Denise Isabelle Roger (21 January 1924 – 15 November 2005) was an award-winning French composer who wrote both instrumental and vocal works. Roger was born in Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine in the northwest suburbs of Paris. She entered the Paris Cons ...

set Apollinaire’s poetry to music. *Apollinaire is played by

Seth Gabel Seth Gabel (born October 3, 1981) is an American actor. He is known for his roles of agent Lincoln Lee on Fox's television series ''Fringe'', Cotton Mather on WGN America's series '' Salem'', and Adrian Moore on the FX series ''Nip/Tuck''. He ...

in the 2018 television series ''

Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

'', which focuses on the life and work of Pablo Picasso.

Notes

References and sources

;References ;Sources * ''Apollinaire'', Marcel Adéma, 1954 * ''Apollinaire, Poet among the Painters'',

Francis Steegmuller Francis Steegmuller (July 3, 1906 – October 20, 1994) was an American biographer, translator and fiction writer, who was known chiefly as a Flaubert scholar. Life and career Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Steegmuller graduated from Columbia U ...

, 1963, 1971, 1973 * ''Apollinaire'', M. Davies, 1964 * ''Guillaume Apollinaire'', S. Bates, 1967 * ''Guillaume Apollinaire'', P. Adéma, 1968 * ''The Banquet Years'', Roger Shattuck, 1968 * ''Apollinaire'', R. Couffignal, 1975 * ''Guillaume Apollinaire'', L.C. Breuning, 1980 * ''Reading Apollinaire'', T. Mathews, 1987 * ''Guillaume Apollinaire'', J. Grimm, 1993

External links

* *
Reading Apollinaire’s ‘Vendémiaire’
'' Cordite Poetry Review'' 2014
"Official" site hosted by Western Illinois University
* Becker, Annette
Apollinaire, Guillaume
in

* ttp://www.ubu.com/sound/app.html Audio recordings of Apollinaire reading his poems "Le Pont Mirabeau", "Marie" and "Le Voyageur"
English verse translation of ''Le Pont Mirabeau''
*
Guillaume Apollinaire
(poems in French and English)
''Les onze mille verges'' an e-book (in French)

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