A to Z Challenge, Apollinaire, Picasso

#AtoZChallenge: Apollinaire, Guillaume (Picasso)

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Apollinaire, the renowned French poet and playwright, was not really French since he was born in Rome. However, he was not really Italian either. Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki was of Polish descent. Born in 1880, he was less than a year older than Picasso. When he moved to France as a teenager, young Kostrowicki changed his name to Guillaume Apollinaire. The writer/poet and the artist/painter met when Picasso was living in Paris in the early 1900s. Apollinaire was said to have first recognized the artistic genius of Picasso.

Throughout his relatively short life, Apollinaire wrote much poetry, works of fiction, and many journal articles as he was a working journalist and critic. Apollinaire was seeing a young woman painter named Marie Laurencin at the same time Picasso was living in Montmartre with a model named Fernande Olivier. They were all part of a large group that socialized often together and this group also included Max Jacob, André Breton, André Derain, and Blaise Cendrars. Picasso, as well as Apollinaire, also was part of the group that frequented Gertrude Stein’s salon. In the painting by Marie Laurencin below, Apollinaire is surrounded by Stein, Olivier, Picasso, and others. Laurencin is seated at the right.

–Marie Laurencin, 1909, Réunion à la campagne (Apollinaire et ses amis), oil on canvas, 130 x 194 cm, Musée Picasso, Paris. Reproduced in The Cubist Painters, Aesthetic Meditations (1913), Agence Photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, PD-US, Wikipedia

In 1911, a young Italian custodian stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. No one knew who had stolen La Gioconda until two years later when Vincenzo Peruggia tried to sell the painting to some dealers in Florence. After the theft, Peruggia had fled back to Italy with the masterpiece. In the meantime, Apollinaire’s private secretary had stolen some statuettes from the Louvre and Apollinaire was implicated in that theft as well as the theft of the Mona Lisa. When he talked to the police, he blamed Picasso for the theft of Leonardo’s painting. Picasso was brought in to be questioned and both men were released. (Picasso had bought some stolen statuettes at some point, hence the implication.)

–Apollinaire in uniform after a head injury from serving in World War 1.

After this incident, Apollinaire and Picasso’s great friendship was not as vibrant as it once was. Soon war broke out and Apollinaire joined the cause to show his loyalty to France. He actually enjoyed being a soldier. Unfortunately, Apollinaire died in 1918 from the Spanish influenza epidemic at 38. His once best friend, Picasso, lived to be 91.

Sources: mcah.columbia.edu; poets.org; Picasso and Apollinaire: The Persistence of Memory, Peter Read, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008

  13 comments for “#AtoZChallenge: Apollinaire, Guillaume (Picasso)”

    • Thanks, Martha! I am already enjoying the format of the signups, etc, and the posts that I have already read. Very impressed. Cheers to a good month!

  2. I know precious little about Picasso, but want to learn more. I look forward to reading your daily posts – and then putting this newfound knowledge into practice when I visit our local museum’s Picasso exhibit this month. My A-Z topic this month is Boston https://bit.ly/2GnW0qZ

    • Wonderful, Molly, that you will get to see a Picasso exhibit. I want to know what you think about the exhibit. I think some of my posts will enhance your experience. At least you will have some background on the people in his life and can explore further!

  4. Hi Denise – I didn’t know much about Apollinaire … so am glad you’ve given me some background … fascinating life – and yes another struck down too early by War or the Spanish flu … great start – cheers Hilary

  5. Fabulous first post! Looking forward to reading them all.

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