Guillaume Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire
Born	August 26 1880(1880-08-26) Rome, Italy1
Died	9 November 1918 (aged 38) Paris, France
Occupation	Poet, Writer, Art critic

Guillaume Apollinaire (in French pronounced [ɡijom apɔliˈnɛʁ]) (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a French poet, writer, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother.

Among the foremost poets of the early 20th century, he is credited with coining the word surrealism and writing one of the earliest works described as surrealist, the play Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1917, later used as the basis for an opera in 1947).

Two years after being wounded in World War I, he died at age 38 of the Spanish flu during the pandemic.

Life

File:Apollinaire by Vlaminck 1903.jpg

Maurice de Vlaminck, "Portrait du poète (Guillaume Apollinaire)," 1903, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Template:French literature (small) Born Wilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris Kostrowitzky / Wąż-Kostrowicki and raised speaking French, among other languages, he emigrated to France and adopted the name Guillaume Apollinaire. His mother, born Angelica Kostrowicka, was a Polish noblewoman born near Navahrudak (now in Belarus). His father is unknown but may have been Francesco Flugi d'Aspermont, a Swiss Italian aristocrat who disappeared early from Apollinaire's life. He was partly educated in Monaco.

Apollinaire was one of the most popular members of the artistic community of Montparnasse in Paris. His friends and collaborators during that period included Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, André Salmon, Marie Laurencin, André Breton, André Derain, Faik Konica, Blaise Cendrars, Pierre Reverdy, Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, Ossip Zadkine, Marc Chagall and Marcel Duchamp. In 1911, he joined the Puteaux Group, a branch of the cubist movement.

On September 7, 1911, police arrested and jailed him on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa, but released him a week later. Apollinaire then implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning in the art theft, but he was also exonerated.

He fought in World War I and, in 1916, received a serious shrapnel wound to the temple. He wrote Les Mamelles de Tirésias while recovering from this wound. During this period he coined the word surrealism in the program notes for Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie's ballet Parade, 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, whose works were for a long time obscure, yet arising in popularity as an influence upon the Dada 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 of influenza during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. He was interred in the Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

Works

Apollinaire's first collection of poetry was L'enchanteur pourrissant (1909), but Alcools (1913) established his reputation. The poems, influenced in part by the Symbolists, juxtapose the old and the new, combining traditional poetic forms with modern imagery. In 1913, Apollinaire published the essay Les Peintres cubistes on the cubist painters, a movement which he helped to define. He also coined the term orphism to describe a tendency towards absolute abstraction in the paintings of Robert Delaunay and others.

In 1907, Apollinaire wrote the well-known erotic novel, 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 (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. The book was made into a movie in 1987.

Shortly after his death, Calligrammes, a collection of his concrete poetry (poetry in which typography and layout adds to the overall effect), was published.

In his youth Apollinaire lived for a short while in Belgium, but mastered the Walloon language sufficiently to write poetry through that medium, some of which has survived.

Selected bibliography

Henri Rousseau, "La Muse inspirant le poète," 1909. (A portrait of Apollinaire and Marie Laurencin).

Poetry

• Le bestiaire ou le cortège d’Orphée, 1911
• Alcools, 1913
• Vitam impendere amori', 1917
• Calligrammes, poèmes de la paix et de la guerre 1913-1916, 1918 (published shortly after Apollinaire's death)
• Il y a..., 1925
• Ombre de mon amour, poems addressed to Louise de Coligny-Châtillon, 1947
• Poèmes secrets à Madeleine, pirated edition, 1949
• Le Guetteur mélancolique, previously unpublished works, 1952
• Poèmes à Lou, 1955
• Soldes, previously unpublished works, 1985
• Et moi aussi je suis peintre, album of drawings for Calligrammes, from a private collection, published 2006

Prose

• Mirely ou le Petit Trou pas cher, 1900
• "Que faire?",
• Les Onze Mille Verges ou les amours d'un hospodar, 1907
• L'enchanteur pourrissant, 1909
• L'Hérèsiarque et Cie (short story collection), 1910
• Les exploits d’un jeune Don Juan, 1911
• La Rome des Borgia, 1914
• La Fin de Babylone - L'Histoire romanesque 1/3, 1914
• Les Trois Don Juan - L'Histoire romanesque 2/3, 1915
• Le poète assassiné, 1916
• La femme assise, 1920
• Les Épingles (short story collection), 1928

Plays and screenplays

• Les Mamelles de Tirésias, play, 1917
• La Bréhatine, screenplay (collaboration with André Billy), 1917
• Couleurs du temps, 1918
• Casanova, published 1952

Articles, essays, etc.

• Le Théâtre Italien, illustrated encyclopedia, 1910
• Pages d'histoire, chronique des grands siècles de France, chronicles, 1912
• Méditations esthétiques. Les peintres cubistes, 1913
• La Peinture moderne, 1913
• L'Antitradition futuriste, manifeste synthèse, 1913
• Case d'Armons, 1915
• L'esprit nouveau et les poètes, 1918
• Le Flâneur des Deux Rives, chronicles, 1918

Additional references

• Apollinaire, Marcel Adéma, 1954
• Apollinaire, Poet among the Painters, Francis Steegmuller, 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

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Guillaume Apollinaire

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Guillaume Apollinaire

• Official site
• The Musician of Saint-Merry (a poem) at New Translations (English)
• Works by Guillaume Apollinaire. Project Gutenberg
• Poemas de Apollinaire en español:
• Guillaume Apollinaire at amediavoz.com
• Audio recording of Apollinaire reading his poem "Le Pont Mirabeau"
• Apollinaire at ubuweb (includes examples of his work)
• The Exploits of a Young Don Juan an e-book (in French)
• Les exploits d'un jeune Don Juan at the Internet Movie Database
• Les onze mille verges an e-book (in French)
• Apollinaire-rif at rifondou.walon.org (re. Walloon poetry]

French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) and muse was painted by Henri Rousseau in 1909. The original painting is located at the Art Museum of Bâle.

Guillaume Apollinaire (French IPA: [gi'jom apɔli'nɛʀ]) (August 26, 1880 – November 9, 1918) was a French poet, writer, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother. Known for his daring poetic and artistic ideas, Apollinaire led French poetry in new directions towards abstract verbal interpretations which coincided with the rise of cubism in modern art. Two years after being wounded in World War I, he died at 38 of the Spanish flu during a pandemic.

Life

Born Wilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris Kostrowitzky / Wąż-Kostrowicki in Rome, Italy, and raised speaking French, among other languages, he emigrated to France and adopted the name Guillaume Apollinaire. His mother, born Angelica Kostrowicka, was a Polish noblewoman born near Nowogródek (now in Belarus). His father is unknown but may have been Francesco Flugi d'Aspermont, a Swiss-Italian aristocrat who disappeared early from Apollinaire's life.

Apollinaire was one of the most popular members of the artistic community of Montparnasse in Paris. His friends and collaborators during that period included Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, André Salmon, Marie Laurencin, André Breton, André Derain, Faik Konica, Blaise Cendrars, Pierre Reverdy, Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, Ossip Zadkine, Marc Chagall and Marcel Duchamp. In 1911, he joined the Puteaux Group, a branch of the cubist movement. On September 7 of the same year, police arrested and jailed him on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa, but released him a week later.

File:ApollinaireArmy.jpg

Guillaume Apollinaire

He fought in World War I and, in 1916, received a serious shrapnel wound to the temple (see photo). He wrote Les Mamelles de Tirésias while recovering from this wound. During this period he coined the word surrealism in the program notes for Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie's ballet Parade, first performed on 18 May 1917. He also published an artistic manifesto, L'Esprit nouveau et les poètes. The war-weakened Apollinaire died of influenza during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. He was interred in the Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

Works

Template:French literature (small) Apollinaire's first collection of poetry was L'enchanteur pourrissant (1909), but Alcools (1913) established his reputation. The poems, influenced in part by the Symbolists, juxtapose the old and the new, combining traditional poetic forms with modern imagery. In 1913, Apollinaire published the essay Les Peintres cubistes on the cubist painters, a movement which he helped to define. He also coined the term orphism to describe a tendency towards absolute abstraction in the paintings of Robert Delaunay and others.

In 1907, Apollinaire wrote the well-known erotic novel, 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 (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. The book was made into a movie in 1987.

Shortly after his death, Calligrammes, a collection of his concrete poetry (poetry in which typography and layout adds to the overall effect), was published.

Legacy

Among the foremost poets of the early 20th century, Apollinaire is credited with coining the word surrealism and writing one of the earliest works described as surrealist, the play Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1917). His poems and stage works were instrumental in leading French poetry into evoking expressions of abstraction and daring concepts. His status as a literary critic is most famous and influential in his recognition of the Marquis de Sade, whose works were for a long time obscure, yet arising in popularity as an influence upon the Dada and Surrealist art movements going on in Montparnasse at the beginning of the twentieth century as, "The freest spirit that ever existed."

Bibliography

File:Herb Waz.jpg

Wąż Coat of Arms, the Coat of Arms of Apollinaire's Mother's family

• La Gráce et le Maintien Français, 1902 (with Molina da Silva)
• Les exploits d’un jeune Don Juan, 1907
• Les onze mille verges, 1907
• L'enchanteur pourrissant, 1909
• L'Hérèsiarque et Cie, 1910
• Le Théâtre Italien, 1910
• Le bestiaire ou le cortège d’Orphée, 1911
• Alcools, 1913
• Les peintres cubistes, 1913
• La Fin de Babylone, 1914
• Case d'Armons, 1915
• Le poète assassiné, 1916
• Les mamelles de Tirésias, 1917
• L'esprit nouveau et les poètes, 1918
• Calligrammes, 1918
• Le Flâneur des Deux Rives, 1918
• La femme assise, 1920
• Le guetteur mélancolique

Selected references

• Apollinaire, Marcel Adéma, 1954
• Apollinaire, Poet among the Painters, Francis Steegmuller, 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

References

• Bates, Scott, Guillaume Apollinaire, NY: Twayne Publishers, 1967. OCLC 649498
• Breunig, LeRoy C., Guillaume Apollinaire, NY: Colubia University Press, 1969. ISBN 0-231-02995-0
• Little, Roger, Guillaume Apollinaire, London: Athlone Press; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1976. ISBN 0-485-14608-8

External links

• Official site Retrieved July 10, 2007.
• Works by Guillaume Apollinaire. Project Gutenberg Retrieved July 10, 2007.
• Poemas de Apollinaire en español:

http://amediavoz.com/apollinaire.htm Retrieved July 10, 2007.

• Audio recording of Apollinaire reading his poem "Le Pont Mirabeau" Retrieved July 10, 2007.
• Apollinaire at ubuweb (includes examples of his work) Retrieved July 10, 2007.
• The Exploits of a Young Don Juan an e-book (in French) Retrieved July 10, 2007.
• Les exploits d'un jeune Don Juan at the Internet Movie Database Retrieved July 10, 2007.
• [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Onze_Mille_Verges_ou_les_Amours_d%E2%80%99un_Hospodar Les onze mille verges Retrieved July 10, 2007.

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