Jacques Prévert

Major player in the Maeght adventure.

Jacques Prévert, Pierre Bonnard and Aimé Maeght. One of my favorite photos, it tells so many things about my grandfather's life, it announces his choices, his universe mixing all forms of art. They are here in Cannes around 1945.

Here, a lot of memories. I am there, under the benevolent gaze of Jacques Prévert and Pablo Picasso. I am 3 1/2 years old, already curious and daring, I WANT TO KNOW! To know, to learn, to understand… I question the Ogre because on a collage, a man, unlike the others, does not have his head glued upside down!
So that makes these two giants of surrealism smile.

One of my favorite photos. Jacques Prévert and Pablo Picasso, at La Colombe d'or, my godfather's famous inn, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Jacques Prévert is one of those men who give France this special cachet. A free thinker who shares his talent with other artists.

We do not always realize his immense contribution to what is called the French spirit. If we were to remove the nuggets he gave us, our culture would be terribly impoverished. In particular the cinema, he who wrote the screenplay and dialogues for the masterpiece "Les enfants du Paradis" or "Quai des Brumes" which made Jean Gabin say "you have beautiful eyes, you know" and respond to Michèle Morgan "Kiss me", who chiseled the song from the film "The doors of the night" where Montand sings "The Dead Leaves".

For me, he's still the one I called the Ogre when I was little, because he had fun sticking his cigarette on his tongue, pretending to swallow it, then taking it out in wisps of smoke and grumbling, "I'm the Ogrrrre I will eat you".

Prévert/Picasso, still together, at Madoura's studio in Vallauris, during the filming of "Life begins tomorrow" by Nicole Védrès 1949-1950.

Collage by Jacques Prévert. I he images of Prévert transform commonplaces, divert the expected meaning, reveal the poetry of everyday life.

In the garden of La Colombe d'Or in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Jean Gabin, Marcel Carné, Jacques Prévert and Alexandre Trauner, in 1945.

Holàlà, all my childhood, a little book co-written by two friends Jacques Prévert and André Verdet, this collection of poems flirts with surrealism under the southern sun. Published in 1949, a painting by Émilienne Delacroix adorns the cover.

Jacques Prévert and my grandfather Aimé Maeght. A friendship has bound them since the first days, in Cannes from the 1940s. Prévert will write sublime texts and poems on the artists of the Galerie Maeght.

Doisneau photographing his friend Prévert in front of the MERODE store, damn it! I often pass, even today, in front of the sign on the avenue du Général Leclerc in Paris. And each time, I smile, thinking of this photo.

Jacques Prévert in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Here is the lane of Saint-Paul which goes up to the church, as I knew it, minus the characters pasted by Prévert, of course. To the right was an antique shop, to the left a wonderful woman made mohair shawls in color combinations that would make Yves Saint Laurent pale. In the evening, when the beautiful clients of the Colombe d'Or were shivering, Titine Roux sent the kids to buy the sparkling wools. We strolled around, Molière 500-franc notes in hand, proud to have to choose the colors that would best match the jewels of the South Americans and Balenciaga silks.

Collage made with the poster of Jacques Prévert's first exhibition at the Galerie Maeght rue du Bac in 1956.

When the children are good, we give them pictures. Prévert was THE poet, simply the poet of life. His favorite occupation? Spend your time unraveling the mysteries of everyday life. Prévert is a child, a cheerful and happy child in all circumstances, a child he remained until the end. He loves the circus and the theater where his father takes him. These tastes will never leave him. All his life, he will remain this wide-eyed child. He lives on the roofs of the Moulin Rouge, what could be better for a poet? He writes for the October Group and for children. And scenarios and dialogues with his brother Pierre. Not the least: “Quai des Mists”, “Children of Paradise”, “Evening Visitors”, songs “Barbara”, “Dead Leaves”… Only masterpieces.

Collage for the little Maeghts, 1970, 1969, collage on paper, 37x28 cm. An unfailing friendship is shared with the children of Paule and Adrien Maeght. In the evening, he comes to tell them, with tenderness and humor, frightening stories populated by monsters and gorgons. That's why little Florence and Yoyo call him "the ogre".
When he puts words together, it's like no other. All this is not enough for him, of course, he cuts out and sticks chromos on photographs. And when he stitches images together, it's like no other. Yes, to Prévert. Words, images and, above all, the meaning of friendship. Braque, Miró, Picasso, Calder, Doisneau, Topor…

His collages will be exhibited for the first time at Galerie Maeght in 1956, for the inaugural exhibition of the gallery on the left bank.

Opening of the exhibition of collages by Jacques Prévert at the new Maeght gallery created by Paule and Adrien Maeght, 1956.

Jacques Prévert signs the catalog of his collages.

Alberto Giacometti and Jacques Prévert in 1956 at the Galerie Maeght rue du Bac.

Joan Miró, Virginia Chagall, Aimé Maeght, André Verdet, Marc Chagall, Jacques Prévert, La Colombe d'Or, Saint-Paul, 1953.
In Saint-Paul, La Colombe d'Or brings together a new family, an ideal family, where artists, writers, actors, singers, filmmakers, and even Hollywood stars meet. And everyone exhausts themselves in laughter and conversation until the end of the night. Prévert is there, sometimes he leads the dance and in the afternoon he is already under the plane trees in the square playing pétanque with a glass in his hand and a cigarette hanging from his lips.

Photo dedicated by Jacques Prévert to Robert Doisneau.