Henri-Pierre Rocher Multiple Portrait 1917

Henri-Pierre Roché (28 May 1879 – 9 April 1959) was a French author who was involved with the artistic avant-garde in Paris and 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 ...

movement. Late in life, Roché published two novels. The first was ''Jules et Jim'' (1953), a semi-autobiographical work published when he was 74. His second novel, ''Deux Anglaises et le continent'' (Two English Girls, 1956), also was inspired by his life. Both were adapted as films by the director

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...

, in 1962 and 1971 respectively. The popularity of the film '' Jules and Jim'' brought renewed attention to Roché's novels and life.

Biography

Roché was born in Paris, France. In 1898, he was an art student at the

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

. Roché became a journalist as well as an art collector and dealer. At the turn of the 20th century, he became close friends with young European artists in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, including Manuel Ortiz de Zárate and Marie Vassilieff; and from Montmartre, Max Jacob and

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 ...

. He was at home in the world of artists, collectors and gallerists. In November 1905, he introduced the Americans Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo to Picasso. Leo Stein described Roché as "a tall man with an inquiring eye under an inquisitive forehead, wanted to know something more about everything. He was a born liaison officer, who knew everybody and wanted everybody to know everybody else." Gertrude, in chapter 3 of her '' The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas'', described Roché in much the same terms. She particularly appreciated his having read her '' Three Lives'' and early recognition of her value as a writer. Roché was also a friend of

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 ...

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter, and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and a pioneer of modernism ...

and

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 ...

. Following his discharge from the French army, Roché and Duchamp traveled to New York City in 1916. There, they worked with

Beatrice Wood Beatrice Wood (March 3, 1893 – March 12, 1998) was an American artist and studio potter involved in the Dada movement in the United States; she founded and edited '' The Blind Man'' and '' Rongwrong'' magazines in New York City with French ...

to create '' The Blind Man'' and ''

Rongwrong ''Rongwrong'' was a New York Dadaist magazine of which one issue was published in May 1917. The magazine was co-created and edited by Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, and Beatrice Wood. History In May 1917, Henri-Pierre Roché played and los ...

'', two magazines that were among the early manifestations in the United States of the Dada art movement. Roché became the chief advisor to the American art collector John Quinn in 1917 and made many acquisitions for him from 1917 to 1924. Known for his womanizing, Roché married twice, first to Germaine Bonnard (1927–1948; separated 1933), then to Denise Renard (1948–1959). He had no children with Bonnard. His only child, a son with Renard, Jean-Claude Roche, was born in 1931.

Later years and writing

In his later years, he wrote and published two successful novels. His first novel, ''Jules et Jim'' (1952), was published when he was 74. His second novel, also inspired by his life, was ''Deux Anglaises et le continent'' (Two English Girls, 1956). Both novels, although written by a man who was quite advanced in age, express a vitality and freshness not often seen in French romantic stories of the time. The French film director

came across a copy of ''Jules et Jim'' secondhand. He located Roché and befriended the writer in his final years. Roché died in 1959 in Sèvres, Hauts-de-Seine. Truffaut was so impressed by Roché's two novels that he adapted each of them as films. Truffaut's first adaptation, '' Jules and Jim'' (1962), was followed by the earliest English translation of the novel as a Panther paperback published in Great Britain in 1963. Truffaut's version of ''Deux Anglaises et le continent'' was released with the trivially different title ''Les Deux Anglaises et le continent'' in 1971 ('' Two English Girls'' or ''Anne and Muriel'' in

anglophone The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...

markets). The opening credits of the second film roll over images of the novel's cover ( Gallimard edition) and internal pages with Truffaut's annotations, in homage to Roché and emphasising the film's debt to its source. ''Jules et Jim'' was inspired by the love triangle involving Roché, the German writer Franz Hessel (who translated

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

into German, as the character Jules did) and Helen Grund, who married Hessel. It is not based on the triangle involving Roché, Beatrice Wood and Marcel Duchamp, as sometimes suggested in Wood's later years. Roché did, however, allude to the Roché-Wood-Duchamp triangle in his unfinished novel, ''Victor''.The unfinished text of ''Victor'' has been published in English a
''Three New York Dadas and The Blindman''
(London: Atlas Press, 2013). Retrieved 22 April 2023. Beatrice Wood herself saw little resemblance between ''Jules et Jim'' and her relationship with Roché and Duchamp, writing in her 1985 autobiography, ''IShock Myself'':

Notes

References

* Lake, Carlton and Linda Ashton. (1991). ''Henri-Pierre Roché: an Introduction'', Austin, Texas: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas.
OCLC 24929441

External links

Henri-Pierre Roché Papers
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roche, Henri-Pierre 1879 births 1959 deaths Writers from Paris Dada Académie Julian alumni French Army soldiers French art collectors French journalists 20th-century French novelists French male novelists 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers