A Day with Picasso

by Billy Kluver

In 1978, while collecting documentary photographs of the artists' community in Montparnasse from the first decades of the century, Billy Klüver discovered that some previously unassociated photographs fell into significant groupings. One group in particular, showing Picasso, Max Jacob, Moïse Kisling, Modigliani, and others at the Café de la Rotonde and on Boulevard du Montparnasse, all seemed to have been taken on the same day. The people were wearing the same clothes in each shot and had the same accessories. Their ties were knotted the same way and their collars had the same wrinkles. A total of twenty-four photographs—four rolls of film with six photographs each—were eventually found. With the challenge of identifying the date, photographer, and circumstances, Klüver embarked on an inquiry that would illuminate the minute texture of that time and place. Biographical research into the subjects' lives led Klüver to focus on the summer of 1916 as the likely time the photos were taken. He then measured buildings and plotted angles and lengths of shadows in the photographs to narrow the time frame to a spread of three weeks. Further investigation eventually allowed Klüver to identify the photographer as Jean Cocteau and to determine the day that Cocteau had taken the August 12, 1916. A computer printout of the sun's positions on that date, obtained from the Bureau des Longitudes, together with the length of the shadows, enabled Klver to calculate the time of day of each photograph, and thus to put them in proper sequence. In a tour de force of art historical research, Klüver then reconstructed a scenario of the events of the four hours depicted in the photographs. With evocative attention to detail—noting when Picasso is no longer carrying an envelope or Max Jacob has acquired a decoration in his lapel—Klüver recreates a single afternoon in the lives of Picasso and friends, a group of remarkable people in early twentieth-century Paris. Besides the central "portfolio" of photographs by Cocteau, the book contains additional photographs and drawings, short biographies of all the subjects, and a historical section on the events and activities in the Paris art world at the time.

Genres: Art, Photography, History

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Adrian]

Twenty four photographs taken by Jean Cocteau on a day's outing with Picasso, Max Jacob and friends in Paris. It became Kluver's mission to determine the day the photos were taken through research and time them by studying angles of shadows in the photos. Peculiarly fascinating. Kluver arrives at a date of August 12, 1916 and times ranging from just after noon to around 4:00. He provides the reasons why all participants were there and background on what was going on in their lives at the time. Only 90 pages or so.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great quirky (eccentric?) book. Basically a commentary and study of a series of photos that were taken by the great Jean Cocteau of his friend Picasso and others at a particular time and all in one day. Basically an afternoon with the gang that is documented and studied in such a high degree.

Eventually it's a book about photography and what the image(s) mean to us. Wonderful book and a great slice of Bo-ho living - at least on one particular afternoon.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very slight book. It is simply a collection of snapshots taken by Jean Cocteau during one day. Cocteau spends a part of the day traveling with Picasso, Modigliani, Max Jacob, and several others who laugh, good off, and spend a good chunk of the day hanging out at cafes. There's nothing to it more than that, but if that sounds good to you, then this is the only book of it's kind available. It is an AWESOME document of daily 'bohemian' artist life in 1916 Paris. Fantastic.