MAX JACOB. — Born at Quimper (France) on 11 July 1876, died in the Drancy concentration camp on 5 March 1944. Poet, novelist, painter, he counted among his friends P. Picasso, Matisse, Apollinaire, Mac Orlan and many other Montparnassian artists. Formed in this milieu, he became an exponent of that vast Parisian avant-garde movement to which all the art of our time owes its new direction.
In 1909 he had a vision of Christ on the wall of his room, and later, in 1915, in a cinema, he suddenly saw the image of Jesus superimposed upon the screen. Yet his conversion was not taken seriously either by his circle or by ecclesiastical circles, and it was only in 1915 that he was able to receive Baptism. Beneath the eccentricity and bohemianism of the Montparnassian artist he concealed the anguish of his search for truth; his stance as an avant-garde poet in reality concealed the work of grace that drove him toward the search for his divine centre.
From 1921 to 1928 he lived in retreat near the monastery of St-Benoît-sur-Loire, returning there definitively in 1936, and there, in 1944, because of his Jewish origins, he was captured by the Germans. His death was serene, in perfect abandonment to the will of God.
Among his works are: St Matorel (1911); Le cornet à dés (prose poem, 1917); La défense de Tartufe. Extases, remords, etc. d'un juif converti (1919); Cinématoma (1920); Le laboratoire central (1922); Visions des souffrances et de la mort de Jésus (poetic meditations, 1928); Art poétique (aesthetic writings, 1925).
Jacob’s personality is incredible and enigmatic. The elements of his art, disordered and scattered, range from the burlesque and irony to the most serene mysticism. In the most diverse aspects of his work, unity is provided by pure poetry that clothes his enchanting world, fantastic and absurd.