Jean Cocteau

1 portrait by Jane Bown

© The Jane Bown Literary Estate / National Portrait Gallery, London

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Jean Cocteau

by Jane Bown
gelatin silver print, 1950
15 1/4 in. x 14 3/4 in. (386 mm x 376 mm) image size
Purchased, 2009
Photographs Collection
NPG x133113

Sitterback to top

  • Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), Poet, playwright and film-director; Artist. Sitter in 11 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Jane Bown (1925-2014), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 73 portraits, Sitter in 7 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This photograph was first published to coincide with the opening of Cocteau's film The Strange Ones, a version of his novel, Les Enfants Terribles (1929). Cocteau's play The Holy Terrors starring Fay Compton was also being performed on the London stage. Cocteau was so delighted with this photograph that he wrote to Bown: 'Rare are they who think of those whose images they carry away. And so I am very grateful to you. All the proofs are magnificent. Madeleine [Cocteau's cat] is in ecstasy over the Siamese cat. All the household embraces you.'
Published in the Observer, 30 November 1952

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Bown, Jane, Exposures, 2009, p. 215

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1950back to top

Current affairs

Princess Anne is born at Clarence house, the only daughter of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

Art and science

C.S. Lewis publishes The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Lewis was an Oxford Don, specialising in Medieval Literature and its use of allegory. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is often seen as an allegory of the Christian struggle between good and evil.

International

Following the Soviet and American withdrawal from the occupation of North and South Korea respectively, the Korean War breaks out as each side seeks to unify Korea under its own political system. While the U.S.A., U.K and other UN nations came to the defence of South Korea, North Korea had support from the Soviet Union and China. The war continued until 1953.

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