French Literature Reviews - 2026

A.-M. Conas and Cl. Leroy, Blaise Cendrars, Portraits
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Anne-Marie Conas and Claude Leroy

Blaise Cendrars, portraits

Presses Universitaires de Rennes

2010

176 p.

ISBN: 978-2-7535-1055-5

12.00 euros

Publisher's overview:

Just as he wanted to be read between the lines, Cendrars intended for readers to seek the enigma of a constantly shifting identity somewhere among his various faces. The full extent of this fundamental instability becomes apparent through the 64 portraits and 7 self-portraits gathered in this volume. Some are well known, while others are presented here for the first time, together forming an intimate kaleidoscope whose transformations stand in defiance of those the poet termed the "Bertillons of the soul."

Drawings by Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Bauquier, Jean Boullet, Yves Brayer, Mario Carrieri, Blaise Cendrars, Jacques Chapiro, Charles Clément, Jean Cocteau, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, Hatim Elmekki, Pol Ferjac, Jean-Jacques Gailliard, Pierre-Antoine Gallien, Jean Guérin, Richard Hall, Henri Hayden, Maurice Henry, Adolf Hoffmeister, Gabriel Laurin, André Lebon, Fernand Léger, Bernard Milleret, Amedeo Modigliani, Conrad Moricand, Jean Oberlé, Manuel Ortis de Zarate, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Raymone, Albert Rièra, Carlo Rim, Morgan Russel, Joseph Sima, Josep Maria Subirachs, Orfeo Tamburi, Tarsila Do Amaral, Frédéric Jacques Temple, Marie Vassiliev, Maximilien Vox, Roger Wild, Angel Zarraga, and Alexandre Zinoviev.

Published by Presses Universitaires de Rennes, this volume assembles sixty-four portraits and seven self-portraits of the iconic modernist author. The collection brings together works by notable artists such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Cocteau, Fernand Léger, Amedeo Modigliani, Francis Picabia, and Pablo Picasso. These visual representations capture the complex persona of a writer renowned for his restless mobility and adventurous spirit. By uniting diverse artistic interpretations, the book offers readers a rare kaleidoscopic view into the physical and psychological facets of a central figure in twentieth-century literature.

This work serves as an essential resource for scholars of twentieth-century French literature, art historians, and enthusiasts of modernist aesthetics. It helps illuminate the intersections between avant-garde visual arts and literary creation during a transformative era. Readers interested in biographical criticism, portraiture, and the construction of artistic identity will find valuable insights within its pages. The volume deepens our understanding of how Cendrars navigated and shaped his public image alongside his contemporaries in the Parisian artistic community.