la tour eiffel guillaume apollinaire

En route vers la découverte de Paris !

La Tour Eiffel -Apollinaire- Calligramme

Nous sommes en 1918, avec ce calligramme  Guillaume Apollinaire présente la Tour Eiffel comme un symbole de la force de la France devant les allemands.

Calligrammes , sous-titré  Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre 1913-1916 , recueil de poésie de Guillaume Apollinaire publié le 15 avril 1918 aux éditions Mercure de France, et contenant de nombreux calligrammes.

Un calligramme est un  texte  généralement poétique dont la disposition forme un  dessin  en rapport étroit avec le sujet du poème. Comme un tableau, il se contemple : il se saisit en un seul regard, dans un premier temps ; il ne doit pas être lu mais  observé .

Quand l’Allemagne a envahi  Paris,  Hitler se fit photographier devant la tour Eiffel.  Cette photo est  symbolique de la puissance allemande sur l’Europe en 1940.

La tour Eiffel est aussi le symbole de la libération de Paris: 

Le 25 août 1944, après avoir fait confectionner un drapeau tricolore au moyen de six draps, teintés et cousus par les épouses des sous-officiers de la caserne Dupleix, le capitaine Sarniguet met sur pied un détachement du régiment de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris, composé de cinq hommes (les sergents Henri Duriaux et Pierre Noël, le caporal Charles Rouard et le sapeur Marcel Conversy) pour hisser le drapeau au sommet de la Tour Eiffel. A 11H00, le « commando » quitte la caserne. Arrivés au pied de la Tour, les sapeurs-pompiers entament l’ascension des escaliers sous les tirs des Allemands barricadés à l’Ecole militaire. Arrivés sur la troisième plate-forme, le capitaine Sarniguet commande : « Envoyez les couleurs ! » C’est le sergent Duriaux qui tire sur la drisse, afin de monter le drapeau en haut du mât.

Il est 12H50 lorsque les trois couleurs flottent à nouveau sur la capitale.

Quelques calligrammes présents dans le recueil de 1918.

15 réflexions sur «  La Tour Eiffel -Apollinaire- Calligramme  »

J’aime tous ces calligrammes sauf la tour Eiffel.

Les goûts et les couleurs ….. ce n’est pas mon préféré, c’est surtout pour le symbole que représente la tour.

Tous les calligrammes sont magnifiques, bravo.

Très intéressant, merci! Est-ce que le chat est d’Apollinaire? Je ne le trouve pas dans le livre. Merci de m’aider. Antonella

Le Chat Guillaume Apollinaire Je souhaite dans ma maison : Une femme ayant sa raison, Un chat passant parmi les livres, Des amis en toute saison Sans lesquels je ne peux pas vivre.

Guillaume Apollinaire, Le Bestiaire, ou Cortège d’Orphée, 1911

Merci, je connaissais le poème mais pas le calligramme en forme de chat.

merci à vous ! gérard

j’apprécie tous les calligrammes et je me suis mis à écrire des poemes et à mettre certains en calligramme pour imiter Guillaume Apollinaire.

j’espère que vous nous en ferez profiter !

bonjour j’adore tous les calligrammes mais vous savez quelle message Apollinaire voulait faire passer avec so calligramme de la tour eiffeil

on est impatient de connaître votre interprétation !

Donc c’est quoi le message ?

La tour effel en caligrame de guillaume date de quand svp

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Projet : Apollinaire

Guillaume Apollinaire

Calligrammes

Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre 1913-1916, [dédicace] §, calligrammes §, les fenêtres 7 §, paysage 14 §.

Transcription [Maison] voici la maison où naissent les étoiles et les divinités [Arbre] cet arbrisseau qui se prépare à fructifier te ressemble [Personnage] amants couchés ensemble vous vous séparerez mes membres [Cigare] un cigare allumé qui fume

Les collines 15 §

Lundi rue christine 34 §, lettre-océan 40 §.

Transcription [Première image] Je traverse la ville nez en avant et je la coupe en 2 J’étais au bord du Rhin quand tu partis pour le Mexique Ta voix me parvient malgré l’énorme distance Gens de mauvaise mine sur le quai à la Vera Cruz [Carte postale] 41 Les voyageurs de l’Espagne devant faire le voyage de Coatzalcoalcos 42 pour s’embarquer je t’envoie cette carte au lieu de profiter du courrier de Vera Cruz qui n’est pas sûr Tout est calme ici et nous sommes dans l’attente Des événements. [à gauche] Juan Aldama 43 Correos Mexico 4 centavos U.S. Postage 2 cents 2 [au centre] Ypiranga 44 Republica Mexicana Tarjeta Postal [à droite] 11.45 29-5 14 Rue des Batignolles [motif circulaire, centre] Sur la rive gauche devant le pont d’Iéna [motif circulaire, rayons] Zut pour M. Zun 45 arrêtez cocher Vive le Roy Evviva il Papa ta gueule mon vieux pad 46 non si vous avez une moustache La Tunisie tu fondes un journal 47 Jacques c’était délicieux A bas la calotte Des clefs j’en ai vu mille et mille 48 Hou le croquant Vive la République [à droite du motif circulaire] TSF 49 [bas de l’image] Bonjour Anomo Anora 50 Tu ne connaîtras jamais bien les Mayas [Deuxième image] Te souviens-tu du tremblement de terre entre 1885 et 1890 51 on coucha plus d’un mois sous la tente bonjour mon frère Albert à Mexico Jeunes filles à Chapultepec 52 [Motif circulaire, centre] Haute de 300 mètres Sirènes Hou ou ou ou ou ou ou ou Hou Hou Hou Autobus R r o o o to ro ro ro ting ting ro o changement de section ting ting Gramophones z z z z z z z z z z z z ou ou ou o o o o o o de vos jardins fleuris fermez les portes 53 Les chaussures neuves du poète cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré cré [Motif circulaire, rayons] et comment j’ai brûlé le dur avec ma gerce 54 rue St-Isidore à La Havane ça n’existe + Chirimoya 55 A la Crème à Pendeco c’est + qu’un imbécile 56 Il appelait l’Indien Hijo de la Cingada 57 priétaire de 5 ou 6 im je me suis levé à 2h. du matin et j’ai déjà bu un mouton le câblogramme comportait 2 mots en sûreté allons circulez Mes ture les voyageurs pour Chatou Toussaint Luca est maintenant à Poitiers 58

Sur les prophéties 59 §

Le musicien de saint-merry 63 §, la cravate et la montre 73 §.

Transcription [cravate] la cravate douloureuse que tu portes et qui t’orne ô civilisé ôte-la si tu veux bien respirer [montre, remontoir] comme l’on s’amuse bien [bord droit de la montre] la beauté de la vie passe la douleur de mourir [heures] mon cœur les yeux l’enfant 74 Agla 75 la main Tircis 76 semaine l’infini redressé par un fous de philosophe 77 les Muses aux portes de ton corps 78 le bel inconnu 79 et le vers dantesque luisant et cadavérique 80 les heures [aiguilles] Il est – 5 Et tout sera fini

Un fantôme de nuées 81 §

Cœur couronne et miroir 84 §.

Transcription [cœur] Mon Cœur semblable à une flamme renversée [couronne] Les rois qui meurent tour à tour renaissent au cœur des poètes [miroir] Dans ce miroir je suis enclos vivant et vrai comme on imagine les anges et non comme sont les reflets Guillaume Apollinaire

Voyage 86 §

Transcription [nuage] Adieu amour nuage qui fuis et n’a pas chu pluie fécondante refais le voyage de Dante [oiseau] télégraphe oiseau qui laisse tomber ses ailes partout [train] où va donc ce train qui meurt au loin dans les vals et les beaux bois frais du tendre été si pâle [ciel] la douce nuit lunaire et pleine d’étoiles c’est ton visage que je ne vois plus

À travers l’Europe 87 §

Il pleut 96 §.

Transcription Il pleut des voix de femmes comme si elles étaient mortes même dans le souvenir c’est vous aussi qu’il pleur merveilleuses rencontres de ma vie ô gouttelettes et ces nuages cabrés se prennent à hennir tout comme un univers de villes auriculaires 97 écoute s’il pleut tandis que le regret et le dédain pleurent une ancienne musique écoute tomber les liens qui te retiennent 98 en haut et en bas

Étendards §

La petite auto 99 §.

Transcription Ô départ sombre où mouraient nos 3 phares 103 ô nuit tendre d’avant la guerre ô villages où se hâtaient les maréchaux-ferrants rappelés entre minuit et une heure du matin vers Lisieux la très bleue ou bien Versailles d’or

La mandoline l’œillet et le bambou 104 §

Transcription [la mandoline] comme la balle à travers le corps le son traverse la vérité car la raison c’est ton art femme o batailles la terre tremble comme une ma[n] doline [l’œillet] Que cet œillet te dise la loi des odeurs qu’on n’a pas encore promulguée et qui viendra un jour régner sur nos cerveaux bien + précise & + subtile que les sons qui nous dirigent Je préfère ton nez à tous tes organes ô mon amie Il est le trône de la future sagesse [le bambou] Ô nez de la pipe les odeurs-centre fourneau y forgent les chaînes univers infiniment déliées qui lient les autres raisons formelles

Fumées 105 §

Transcription Et je fume du tabac de zone

À Nîmes 106 §

La colombe poignardée et le jet d’eau 114 §.

Transcription [colombe] douces figures poignardées chères lèvres fleuries Mia Mareye Yette Lorie Annie et toi Marie où êtes-vous ô jeunes filles Mais près d’un jet d’eau qui pleure et prie cette colombe s’extasie [jet d’eau] Tous les souvenirs de naguère Ô mes amis partis en guerre Jaillissent vers le firmament Et vos regards en l’eau dormant Meurent mélancoliquement Où sont-ils Braque et Max Jacob Derain aux yeux gris comme l’aube Où sont Raynal Billy Dalize 115 Dont les noms se mélancolisent Comme des pas dans une église Où est Cremnitz 116 qui s’engagea Peut-être sont-ils morts déjà De souvenirs mon âme est pleine Le jet d’eau pleure sur ma peine [bassin] Ceux qui sont partis à la guerre au nord se battent maintenant Le soir tombe Ô sanglante mer Jardins où saigne abondamment le laurier rose fleur guerrière

2 e canonnier conducteur 117 §

Transcription [trompette] As-tu connu la putain de Nancy qui a foutu la vxxxxx à toute l’artillerie l’artillerie ne s’est pas aperçu qu’elle avait mal au [cul] [botte 120 ] Sacré nom de Dieu quelle allure nom de Dieu quelle allure 121 cependant que la nuit descend [Notre-Dame] souvenirs de Paris avant la guerre ils seront bien plus doux après la victoire [Tour Eiffel] salut monde dont je suis la langue éloquente que sa bouche ô Paris tire et tirera toujours aux Allemands [obus] j’entends chanter l’oiseau le bel oiseau rapace

Veille 122 §

Ombre 125 §, c’est lou qu’on la nommait 126 §, case d’armons §.

La 1 re  édition à 25 exemplaires de Case d’Armons a été polygraphiée sur papier quadrillé, à l’encre violette, au moyen de gélatine, à la batterie de tir (45 e  batterie, 38 e  Régiment d’artillerie de campagne) devant l’ennemi, et le tirage a été achevé le 17 juin 1915.

Loin du pigeonnier 129 §

Transcription Et vous savez pourquoi Pourquoi la chère couleuvre 130 Se love de la mer jusqu’à l’espoir attendrissant de l’Est Xexaèdres 131 barbelés mais un secret collines bleues en sentinelle Malourène 75 Canteraine 132 Ô gerbes des 305 en déroute Dans la Forêt où nous chantons

Reconnaissance 133 §

S.p 135 . §.

Transcription Qu’est-ce qu’on y met Dans la case d’armons 136 Espèce de poilu de mon cœur Pan pan pan Perruque à perruque 137 Pan pan pan Perruque à canon Pour lutter contre les vapeurs 138 les lunettes pour protéger les yeux au moyen d’un masque nocivité gaz un tissu trempé mouchoir des nez dans la solution de bicarbonate de sodium les masques seront simplement mouillés des larmes de rire de rire

Visée 139 §

Transcription Chevaux couleur cerise limite des Zélandes 140 Des mitrailleuses d’or coassent des légendes Je t’aime liberté qui veilles dans les hypogées 141 Harpe aux cordes d’argent ô pluie ô ma musique L’invisible ennemi plaie d’argent au soleil Et l’avenir secret que la fusée élucide Entends nager le Mot poisson subtil 142 Les villes tour à tour deviennent des clefs 143 Le masque bleu comme met Dieu son ciel Guerre paisible ascèse solitude métaphysique Enfant aux mains coupées 144 parmi les roses oriflammes

Transcription 1915 soldats de faïence et d’escarboucle 146 ô amour

Carte postale 147 §

Transcription Nous sommes bien 148 mais l’auto-bazar que l’on dit merveilleux 149 ne vient pas jusqu’ici LUL 150 on les aura faire suivre route transparente France

Saillant 151 §

Transcription [quand survient la] torpille aérienne Le balai de verdure T’en souviens-tu Il est ici dans les pierres Du beau royaume dévasté [à gauche] Salut le Rapace 155 Salut [à droite] grain de blé [fin du poème] Lou Lou Verzy Vive le capiston

Guerre 156 §

Mutation 163 §, oracles 164 §, 14 juin 1915 170 §, de la batterie de tir 175 §, échelon 178 §.

Transcription [à gauche] On tire contre avions Verdun [au centre] Le Ciel Coquelicots Flacon au col d’or On a pendu la mort A la lisière du bois On a pendu la mort Et ses beaux seins dorés Se montrent tour à tour [à droite] L’orvet Le sac à malice 182 La trousse à boutons

Vers le sud 183 §

Les soupirs du servant de dakar 184 §, toujours 190 §, madeleine 197 §.

Transcription [étoile] Dans le village arabe 198 Des Souvenirs mais il y a d’autres chansons [lettre] Bonjour mon poète 199 Je me souviens de votre voix Votre petite fée Photographie tant attendue 200 [canons] Far tiz rose 201

Les saisons 202 §

Venu de dieuze 207 §.

Transcription Halte là [ficelle] mesure du doigt 208 Qui vive France Avance au ralliement Halte là Le Mot 209 Claire-Ville-Neuve-En-Cristal-Eternel 210 [portée] forte s’allantanado 211 funambule des lianes du printemps tu assassines les arbres qui sont tes G.V.C. 212 La poule d’eau caquète et plonge à ton approche Cantato Ah ! mon Dieu m’ quiot’ fille 213 L’hommé qu’ j’ai C’est eun’ mouq’ dans d’ l’huile Tout à fouait Couple des marais les turquoises Hennissements partout Amour sacré amour de la Patrie 214 Le général Il était Antisthène et c’était Fabius 215

La nuit d’avril 1915 216 §

Lueurs des tirs §, la grâce exilée 221 §, la boucle retrouvée §, refus de la colombe §, les feux du bivouac §, les grenadines repentantes 228 §, tourbillon de mouches 232 §, l’adieu du cavalier §, le palais du tonnerre 241 §, photographie 244 §, l’inscription anglaise 245 §, dans l’abri-caverne 250 §, fusée 251 §, désir 252 §, chant de l’horizon en champagne 258 §, océan de terre 268 §, obus couleur de lune §, merveille de la guerre 271 §, exercice 279 §, à l’italie 282 §, la traversée 297 §, il y a 301 §, l’espionne 305 §, le chant d’amour 306 §, aussi bien que les cigales 307 §.

Transcription gens du midi                   vous ne savez pas                        M gens du mi                   creuser que                               ais di vous n’                  vous ne sa                               vous avez donc               vez pas vous                        savez pas regar              éclairer ni                            encore dé les ciga         voir Que vous                        boire com le jour les que vous   manque-t-il                   me les ci           de gloire                     donc pour                          gales ô                    se                        voir aus                  gens du mi            c           ra                    si bien                    di gens du              reusez      ce                 que les                   soleil gens qui          voyez bu    lui               ciga                        devriez savoir           vez pissez   où             les                        creuser et voir           comme         vous                                    aussi bien pour le            les ciga         sau                                  moins aussi bien                  les              rez                               que les cigales                                        creu                Eh quoi ! vous savez         g e ns du Midi il faut         ser             boire et ne savez                  creuser voir boire          pour           plus pisser utile                      pisser aussi bien que     bien         ment comme les                                   les cigales           sor     cigales                       LA JOIE                 pour chan            tir                                   ADORABLE                ter com                au                                  DE LA PAIX                 me elles              so                                     SOLAIRE                                           leil

Simultanéités 308 §

Du coton dans les oreilles 310 §.

Transcription [première page] Tant d’explosifs sur le point vif ! Ecris un mot si tu l’oses ? Les points d’impact dans mon âme toujours en guerre Ton troupeau féroce crache le feu Ô Mégaphone [écriteau] Les Cénobites tranquilles [pluie] puis écoutez tomber la pluie si tendre et si douce soldats aveugles perdus parmi les chevaux de frise sous la lune liquide des Flandres à l’agonie sous la pluie fine la pluie si tendre et si douce confondez-vous avec l’horizon beaux êtres invisibles sous la pluie fine la pluie si tendre la pluie si douce                Les longs boyaux où tu chemines                    Adieu les cagnats d’artilleurs

La tête étoilée §

Le départ 320 §, le vigneron champenois 321 §, carte postale 323 §, éventail des saveurs 324 §.

Transcription [coiffure] Attols 325 singuliers de brownings 326 quel goût de vivre Ah ! [œil gauche] Des lacs versicolores dans les glaciers solaires [œil droit] Mes tapis de la saveur moussons des sons obscurs et ta bouche au souffle azur [doigt] 1 tout petit oiseau qui n’a pas de queue et qui s’envole quand on lui en met une [bouche] ouïs ouïs les pas le phonographe ouïs ouïs l’aloès éclater et le petit mirliton

Souvenirs 327 §

L’avenir 328 §, un oiseau chante 330 §, chevaux de frise 332 §, chant de l’honneur 333 §.

la tranchée

Chef de section 336 §

Tristesse d’une étoile 337 §, la victoire 338 §, la jolie rousse 347 §.

Salut monde  

From the art and popular culture encyclopedia.

" Salut monde " [1] [2] (English: " Hello World ") is a calligram by Guillaume Apollinaire . Its form evokes the form of the Eiffel Tower .

The full text of the poem reads "Salut monde dont je suis la langue éloquente que sa bouche Ô Paris tire et tirera toujours aux allemands". It translates as "Hello world, of which I am the eloquent tongue which your mouth, O Paris, will forever stick out at the Germans."

The poem is published in Calligrammes [3] .

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La tour Eiffel en citations et poèmes

Vendredi 16 août 2019

Modifié le : 12/01/21

Ecrivains, poètes, philosophes, chanteuses et chanteurs, et bien sûr Gustave Eiffel : ce sont eux qui parlent le mieux de la tour Eiffel ! Voici un florilège de citations, d'extraits de romans, de poèmes ou de chansons, par ceux que la Tour a inspiré depuis sa naissance.

• “Symbole universel de Paris, elle est partout sur la Terre où Paris doit être énoncé en image”  Roland Barthes
• "La tour Eiffel figure souvent sur mes clichés, c’est incontestablement une icône avec sa structure unique et imposante. Dès qu’on la voit, on sait immédiatement que l’on est à Paris." Elliott Erwitt, Photographe américain.
• "J’adore sincèrement la tour Eiffel, cette énorme masse de métal et son côté un peu punk, intemporel… perdue au milieu de la ville, elle ressemble à une plate-forme flottant en pleine mer." Jean Pierre Jeunet, cinéaste
• “Nous sommes tous citoyens de la tour Eiffel” Jules Simon, président du Conseil sous la IIIème République
• "La tour Eiffel est vraiment d’une laideur qui déconcerte et elle n’est même pas énorme !"  Joris-Karl Huysmans, Certains , 1889.
• “J’ai quitté Paris et même la France, parce que la tour Eiffel finissait par m’ennuyer trop.” Guy de Maupassant, La Vie errante , 1890
• "Regard, objet, symbole, la Tour [Eiffel] est tout ce que l'homme met en elle, et ce qui est infini. Spectacle regardé et regardant, édifice inutile et irremplaçable, monde familier et symbole héroïque, témoin d'un siècle et monument toujours neuf, objet inimitable et sans cesse reproduit, elle est le signe pur, ouvert à tous les temps, à toutes les images et à tous les sens, la métaphore sans frein..." Roland Barthes, La tour Eiffel , 1964
• “Pour célébrer le Centenaire de 1789, il fallait oser dresser un monument incomparable, digne du génie industriel de la France.” Emile Monod, L’Exposition Universelle de 1889
• "Je pense que la Tour est devenue une des merveilles du monde. Pour l’avoir aimée et pour le plaisir qu’elle m’a donné, je ne trouve pas de mérite de lui avoir donné depuis 1910 des multiples formes de mon amour." Robert Delaunay, La Tour Eiffel 1909-1910.
• "En face de la Notre-Dame gothique, c’est le vrai clocher du Paris moderne qui se dresse au Champ de Mars. Les deux œuvres, la Tour et la Nef, sont nées du même désir, et toutes deux réalisent un rêve semblable d’exaltation surhumaine."  Raymond Duchamp-Villon, L’architecture et le fer , 1913.

Extraits de romans

• "- Et puis, on l’a assez vue, la tour Eiffel ! - On l’a trop vue !... Conservons-la, soit, mais donnons-lui un autre aspect. - Si on la renversait la tête en bas, les pieds en l’air ?"  Alphonse Allais, Le bec en l’air , 1897.
• “La tour Eiffel grelottait dans le brouillard, on distinguait à peine ses pieds humides dans les flaques qu'un fin crachin agrandissait lentement.” Michel Bussi, Un avion sans elle , 2012
• “Dans leur idée, la tour Eiffel était ce qu'il y a de plus beau au monde. Moi je crois que tout ce que les gens font est beau.” Beatrix Beck,   La décharge , 1979
• "La tour Eiffel est comme une femme nue, sans ses habits, avec tout au plus du maquillage."  Olivier Delahaye, Le Ventre lisse , 2014.
• "Tour Eiffel Guitare du ciel, Ta télégraphie sans fil, Attire les mots, Comme un rosier les abeilles."  Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948), Tour Eiffel , 1917
• "Le moindre vent me dirige. Au lieu de remonter la Seine j’ai suivi son courant. Des patrouilles escortaient  ce poète qui allait au travail - et voici la Tour Eiffel ! Mon Dieu, quelle confiance il possédait en la gravitation universelle, son ingénieur ! Sainte-Vierge, si un quart de seconde l’hypothèse de la loi de la pesanteur était  controuvée, quel magnifique décombre ! Voilà ce qu’on  élève avec des hypothèses. Voilà réalisée en fer la corde que lance au ciel le fakir et à laquelle il invite ses amis à grimper…" Extrait de Jean Giraudoux, Juliette au pays des hommes , 1924
• " ... Autour du cou charmant Eiffel la belle girafe en dentelle rendez-vous de pigeons voyageurs inconnus et laisse en bas l'azur éloquent choir au bord de l'eau... Le chant du Paveur" Jean Cocteau, Le Cap de bonne Espérance , 1919
• "La tour Eiffel, cèdre en acier, s’élance soudain et fuit la suie, le trépignement, l’asphalte roussi."  Extrait de Abraham Chlonsky,  Au bois de Boulogne .
• "Bergère ô tour Eiffel le troupeau des ponts bêle ce matin."  Guillaume Apollinaire, Alcools Poèmes 1898-1913.
• "Tour Eiffel d’ossements Catacombes aériennes Tibias escaliers Et à trois cents mètres au-dessus du sol Le crâne antenne Qui ne parle que pour l'écoute" Raymond Queneau, Courir les rues , 1967
• “La tour Eiffel, jupe en dentelle et tête au ciel depuis cent ans veille et attend en regardant passer la vie sur les toits gris du vieux Paris.”  Inconnu

En chansons

• "…Y’a d’la joie la tour Eiffel part en balade Comme un’ foll’ elle saut’ la Seine à pieds joints…"  Charles Trenet, Y’a d’la joie , 1936.
• "...La tour Eiffel est toujours là Bonjour la tour, bonjour, bonjour Paris..."  Mistinguett (1875-1956), La tour Eiffel est toujours là, 1942

Gustave Eiffel l'a dit

• "Je vais être jaloux de cette Tour. Elle est plus célèbre que moi"
• "La tour Eiffel sera le plus haut édifice qu’aient jamais élevé les hommes. Ne sera-t-elle pas grandiose à sa façon ?"
• “La France sera la seule nation dont le drapeau aura une hampe de 300 mètres.” 

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Guillaume Apollinaire

French Art Critic, Poet, Playwright

Summary of Guillaume Apollinaire

The name of Guillaume Apollinaire is synonymous with the rise of the early-twentieth-century avant garde. A fixture of Parisian café society, he rubbed shoulders with other young bohemians, making friends with numerous artists including Raoul Dufy , André Derain , Maurice de Vlaminck and Pablo Picasso . Though not a painter himself, nor formally schooled in art history (unlike, say, Vasari or Greenberg , writers who brought their own indominable influence to bear on Renaissance Art and Abstract Expressionism respectively), he was an enthusiastic, infatigable, champion of the modernists, and is credited with alerting these kindred spirits to the new artistic horizons opened up by studying African masks and the "naïve" paintings of Henri Rousseau . Through his lyrical art criticism, for which he remains best remembered, Apollinaire did more than any other writer of his generation in establishing the legends of some of the most important artists of the century.

Accomplishments

• Apollinaire set himself the task of defining the key principles of the burgeoning Cubist movement . His one full-length book, Peintures cubistes ( Cubist Painters ) was published in 1913 and was at that time considered the most authoritative book on the movement and its aesthetics. Though his poetic style was considered by some to be a little verbose, the book confirmed Apollinaire's reputation as a modern art critic to be reckoned with.
• Through his poetry, Apollinaire set out to disorient his reader by means of incredulous verbal associations. Indeed, Apollinaire's poetry was considered daringly experimental and this was especially true of his so-called "calligrammes" which featured an ingenious typographic arrangement whereby the words of his poem were arranged in a way that formed an image (the Eifel Tower, for example).
• Apollinaire's enthusiasm for modern art saw his words matched by actions. It was he who instigated one of the most significant partnerships in the history of art when he introduced Georges Braque to Pablo Picasso . He was also active in organizing, and speaking at, several of the Cubist movement's most important exhibitions.
• Having already introduced the term " surrealism " into the lexicon of modernist terms, Apollinaire coined the name " Orphism " to describe a brand new movement. He saw the need to distinguish the colorful and harmonious patched compositions of Robert Delaunay from the more austere elements of Cubism. Apollinaire was a great supporter of Delaunay who he championed as the very epitome of what a progressive artist should be. He took the name Orphism from the mythological Greek poet and musician Orpheus since it related to the idea that painting could share similarities with the beauty and scope of music.

The Life of Guillaume Apollinaire

This sculpture by Picasso, Head of a Woman (Dora Maar) was unveiled in 1959 as an homage to Apollinaire. To this day, the tribute stands in the garden next to the church in the intimate St-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood in Paris.

Guillaume Apollinaire and Important Artists and Artworks

Women Bathing (1900)

Artist: Paul Cézanne

Five nude women in the woods, clustered in a circle in a variety of seated, crouching, and standing positions dominate the foreground of Paul Cézanne's painting. While the women are engaged in the basic act of cleansing, here in the artist's masterful hands they possess a sense of graceful movement and rhythm which imbues the act of bathing with an almost sensual quality. A masterpiece of Post-Impressionism, the forest background in which the figures are placed is rendered in loose brushstrokes of brown, greens, and yellow. For Apollinaire, "the trees in these delicate landscapes are so alive that they appear almost human". When considering the pantheon of nineteenth-century artists, Apollinaire wrote that "Paul Cézanne must be reckoned one of the greatest". During his short career, he wrote many reviews of key Parisian exhibitions and salons. It was during a review of a 1910 exhibition of Cézanne's work at the Bernheim Gallery that he specifically distinguished his paintings of women bathing as proof of his skill in extending the long tradition of female nudes into the realm of modernity. He wrote "[the painting] constitutes a formidable argument against the critics who used to tell us in their inimitable fashion that Cézanne did not know how to paint nudes".

Oil on canvas - Collection of Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark

Acrobat and Young Harlequin (1905)

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Early in his career, Picasso took as his subject humble performers for a series of paintings such as this one depicting a young man dressed in a red clown costume who rests his hand on the shoulder of a boy posing in an acrobat's leotard with a multicolored diamond design. Even before heralding his development of Cubism, Apollinaire discussed some of Picasso's early paintings, including those of performers, in one of his first articles about the artist. Written for the May 1905 issue of La Plume magazine, it was, according to author Leroy Breunig, "the first serious piece to appear on the Spanish painter, and for Apollinaire it was only the beginning of a series of eulogies of the artist whom he considered without question the greatest of his generation". Set against a background of barely discernible buildings, the scene is rendered in a soft palette of blues, browns, and white and yet the presence of the vibrant shades of red in both the outfits and pot of flowers behind them firmly place this work among those of the artist's rose period. Even here, however, Apollinaire was able to see the modernity in Picasso's approach and he acknowledged how in this work, "color has the flat quality of frescoes, and the lines are firm". Distinguishing Picasso's style from the art of the past, Apollinaire added that, "one cannot confuse these saltimbanques [acrobats] with mere actors on a stage. The spectator who watches them must be pious, for they celebrate wordless rites with painstaking agility. This is what distinguishes this painter from the Greek potters, whom his drawing sometimes calls to mind. On the painted vases, bearded, verbose priests sacrificed resigned animals bound to destiny. In these paintings virility is beardless, but it manifests itself in the muscles of the skinny arms and flat cheekbones, and the animals are mysterious". His praise for this painting is an important contribution to the writer's faith in the young Pablo Picasso's potential. There was something Apollinaire admired about the stark humanity of these figures. Brought to life through Picasso's capable hands, they are not mere figure studies, but rather suffering creatures whose lives are spent in the role of entertaining others which, according to Apollinaire, was supported by the observation that "the cheeks and brows of taciturn clowns are withered by morbid sensibilities".

Oil on canvas - Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Muse Inspiring the Poet (1909)

Artist: Henri Rousseau

In The Muse Inspiring the Poet (the second of two versions featuring this subject), Rousseau has shown a couple standing in a landscape with trees in the background and a row of pink, red, and white flowers in front of them. Here Rousseau has in fact depicted Apollinaire with his then girlfriend, artist Marie Laurencin, appearing as his muse, arm raised in a fashion reminiscent of the mythological goddess of the art of antiquity. Here Rousseau pays homage to the creative genius of Apollinaire by depicting him holding a scroll of paper and feather quill pen. Interestingly, when the work was created many failed to recognize Apollinaire's likeness in the male figure. This shocked the poet who wrote of it in 1914, "some found the painting touching, others thought it bordered on the grotesque, but as far as the resemblance was concerned, everyone was in agreement: there was none at all". However, Apollinaire felt the painting accurately represented him stating, "I tend to think that that portrait was such a good likeness - at once so striking and so new - that it dazzled even those who were not aware of the resemblance and did not want to believe in it. Painting is the most pious art".

Oil on canvas - Collection of Oeffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel, Switzerland

Study for the portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire (1911)

Artist: Jean Metzinger

In this work on paper, Jean Metzinger has depicted Guillaume Apollinaire, seated with arms crossed in front of him, well dressed in suit and tie and smoking a pipe. On the table in front of him is a drink and the tools of his trade; sheets of paper and a pen. Rendered in the Cubist style, the subject is depicted in crisp geometric lines while sitter and table seem jammed into the foreground of the picture plane. In what can only be seen as an act of reverence, many of the artists that Apollinaire promoted during his career took him as their subject. While no direct copy of this work exists in painted form (although Metzinger did create an earlier painted portrait), his later work Man with Pipe (Le Fumeur) (1912-13) which bears some similarities to this study is believed to be either a portrait of poet Max Jacob or Apollinaire. More than just a physical representation of the subject, here Metzinger has captured the essence of a close friend. Known for his dapper dress sense and what author Francis Steegmuller describes as the sometimes, "false impression of extravagance", he is here depicted as well dressed and with his trademark pipe of which friend Fernande Olivier said, "it was always with a pipe in his mouth or in his hand that he told his stories, always with a very serious air even when they were trivial or rollicking". That Apollinaire's portrait would be a Cubist work is fitting and he called attention to Metzinger whom he described as, "one of the most appealing figures among today's young French painters. Believing him to be an important figure in the Cubist movement, Apollinaire once wrote of his works that the "attractiveness they all possess proves that the discipline of cubism is not incompatible with reality". In Metzinger, he found proof that Cubism was more than a passing phase and rather a strong force in shaping the trajectory of modern art.

Graphite on paper - Collection of Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

The City of Paris (1912)

Artist: Robert Delaunay

Delaunay's painting is a celebration of Parisian modernity. In describing the work, Apollinaire wrote, "on the left, the Seine and Montmartre; on the right, the Eiffel Tower and some houses: in the center, three slim, powerful figures who critics claim are copied from the wall paintings of Pompeii but who nevertheless are incarnations of French grace and power". Apollinaire was mesmerized by this painting when it debuted at the 1912 Salon des Indépendents and wrote of it more than once. Calling it, "the most important picture in the Salon," it represented for him the next important step in modern art, Orphism. According to Apollinaire, this painting was, "more than an artistic manifestation. This painting marks the advent of a conception of art that seemed to have been lost with the great Italian painters. And [...] it also epitomizes, without any scientific paraphernalia, all the efforts of modern painting. It is broadly executed. Its composition is simple and noble. And no fault that anyone might find with it can detract from this truth: It is a painting, a real painting, and it has been a long time since we have seen anything of the kind". Apollinaire's praise of this work provides a glimpse into his own ideas of what modern art can and should be and the reason why he wanted to be its champion. Apollinaire praised Delaunay as, "one of those rare painters of the younger generation who, after taking part in all the foremost artistic movements, has now cut himself off from them in a reaction against their exclusively decorative tendencies. Robert Delaunay's art is full of movement and does not lack power. Rows of houses, architectural views of cities, especially the Eiffel Tower - these are the characteristic themes of an artist who has a monumental vision of the world, which he fragments into powerful light".

Oil on canvas - Collection of Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, France

Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire (1913)

This work on paper features a bust portrait of Apollinaire. Created in the Cubist style, here Picasso has depicted the figure in a composition of broken-down geometric shapes and black lines and sharp contrasts of white and dark. An immediate kinship was established when Picasso and Apollinaire met in 1904 with the two bonding over the desire to break with the past and push forward in an embrace of a modern future that would change art and literature. Apollinaire would go on to be a major promoter of Picasso's art praising him in articles by describing him as, "heir of all the great artists of the past. Having suddenly awaken to life, he is heading in a direction that no one has taken before". Recognizing him as a figurehead for modernism, he stated, "he is a new man and the world is as he represents it. He has enumerated its elements, its details, with a brutality that knows, on occasion, how to be gracious". Apollinaire's celebration of Picasso was not one-sided. Picasso made several sketches and drawings of the poet during the years of their friendship. He even attempted to create a memorial tribute to Apollinaire after his death, but according to journalist Jonathan Jones, his "design for an abstract Monument to Apollinaire was rejected as too odd to stand in Paris's Père Lachaise cemetery". This work is arguably his most impressive portrait of Apollinaire because it was created in a fitting example of the Cubist movement; a style he and Georges Braque founded having been first introduced by Apollinaire himself.

Pencil and Chinese ink wash on paper - Private Collection

Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire (1914)

Artist: Giorgio de Chirico

A double portrait of sorts, this painting features a stone bust of poet Apollinaire depicted in the foreground wearing sunglasses. Positioned in the front of a dark brown interior, on the right there is a column on which hangs molds of a fish and a shell. In the background set against a green sky, Apollinaire can once more be seen in profile silhouette with a white circle partially visible on his head. A sense of foreboding is present in this work with the dark figures and open spaces that are both characteristic of Giorgio de Chirico's style and a forerunner of Surrealism (despite the artist never aligning himself with the movement). In this portrait, de Chirico pays homage to Apollinaire who helped to promote the key art movements of the twentieth century. He has been preserved here in marble which is symbolic of forefathers of other fields that have been recorded in the same material - a tribute dating back to the days of Ancient Greece. According to critic Jonathan Jones, "he looks right at us, however: his blindness is that of the seer, the poet [...] This painting belongs to a series on the theme of the poet as type [...] the poet sees or engenders visions of impossible conjunctions: the moulds of a fish and a shell on unresolved Renaissance architecture, and the silhouette of a man [Apollinaire] on whose head a white circle has been drawn [...] So in this painting the spirit of Apollinaire, embodied by the bust, has a deathly vision of Apollinaire, the flesh-and-blood man". Apollinaire's respect for di Chirico is evident in his writings; saying of this work that it was a "harmonious and mysterious compositions in the midst of silence and meditation". The painting is all the more powerful in that it foreshadows Apollinaire's own death. As Jones explains, "in 1914, de Chirico painted Apollinaire in silhouette with what looks like a target down on his cranium. Apollinaire enlisted in the French army in the first world war and in 1917 was severely wounded - in the head.[...] De Chirico's Premonitory Portrait is a menacing masterpiece of the 20 th century, a dream of death that happened to come true".

Bather (1915)

Artist: Alexander Archipenko

A hybrid of painting and sculpture, in this work Alexander Archipenko depicts a bather stepping into a bright blue body of water. Cubist in style, the golden-yellow colored figure is rendered via basic geometric shapes. According to the object label for this work from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the work was created while Archipenko spent time in the Mediterranean during the duration of the First World War as he was unfit to serve: "lacking the proper facilities for making large-scale sculpture, the artist turned to what he called 'sculpto-painting,' a collage medium in low relief. While this female bather was undoubtedly inspired by real-life swimmers that Archipenko would have seen on the beach during his time in Nice, the presence of a delicately shaded classical column imbues the composition with a timeless quality". Archipenko excited Apollinaire mostly because of his willingness to challenge the idea of what sculpture could be. Of the artist he wrote, Archipenko, "seeks above all the purity of forms. He wants to find the most abstract, most symbolic, newest forms, and wants to be able to shape them as he pleases". Here he took the traditional notion of the bather, a longtime subject in art history and revised it. Writing in praise of the work, Apollinaire stated, "Archipenko's daring constructions timidly but firmly proclaim the singularity of this new art [...] that unites internal plastic structure with the supreme charm of a sensuously beautiful surface. The archings, the complementary forms, the differentiation of planes, the hollows and the reliefs, never abruptly contrasted, are transformed into living stone that the passionate touch of the chisel has endowed with sculptural expression. Let us look at [...] this Bather who, ever-changing, appears ever-new".

Oil paint, graphite, paper, and metal on panel - Collection of Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Biography of Guillaume Apollinaire

Childhood and education.

Much of the early years of Apollinaire Guillaume's life are steeped in mystery. Born Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzki; his Polish mother Angelica, daughter of a Vatican official, did not acknowledge his birth in public records until he was a little over a month old. He was never told who his father was (although he was generally believed to be an Italian officer) and it became the source of much speculation as his reputation grew. This was fueled in large part by Apollinaire's later claim that he was in fact descended from nobility.

A free-spirit, Apollinaire's mother moved him and his younger brother, Alberto, to Monte Carlo in 1887 where she was supported by the men with whom she cohabitated. Despite her lack of motherly instincts, she saw to it that Apollinaire received a privileged education at the Collège Saint-Charles. An unpopular student, he threw himself into his studies and began writing which would be the starting point for his career as a poet. His future role as an art critic was not nurtured in school, however, and his knowledge in this field would be largely self-taught. Of the limited time he did spend in an art class he later stated, "when I recall the drawing class at school, I remember the awful lithographs they used to give us as models - works without artistry by unknown drawing teachers whose solemnity and lack of daring were equaled only by their unskillfulness. Their timid scribbles were enough to impart a distaste for art even to those students who would later come to adore it".

Early Training

Longing for adventure, an eighteen-year-old Apollinaire obtained a job with a wealthy German family as a French tutor for their daughter. The teaching post provided him with the opportunity to travel throughout Europe for the next four years. It was during this period that he engaged in an intense affair with the family's English governess, Annie Playden, who would later refuse his marriage proposal and move to America to escape his attentions. Apollinaire's heartbreak was such he was inspired to write "Chanson du mal-aimé" ("Song of the Poorly Loved"), widely considered his most important early poem, and a piece that brought playful and bizarre imagery to traditional verse.

Once his tutor position had ended, Apollinaire moved to Paris where he held a series of jobs including working as a bank clerk for six years which he did to support himself as he pursued his writing. After his first few poems were published in local magazines, he decided to change his name to the more dramatic and mysterious Guillaume Apollinaire. At this time he also became a frequent presence in Parisian bars and cafes where he would recite his own poetry to the patrons.

Mature Period

Apollinaire's first foray into art criticism and journalism came through the magazine, Le Festin d'Esope which he helped create in 1903. While the publication ran for only nine issues, it was here that he included his first art criticism, a paragraph that dismissed the more classical French art of the period in favor of the emergent Fauvist style. His engagement with this movement began in part with a chance meeting with Fauve artists, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck . The three immediately formed a bond in their shared interest in embracing modernity (in both art and literature), and according to author Francis Steegmuller, Apollinaire found, "objective confirmation of his ideas coming from artists whose vision was new and alive". The first of what would be a career-long review of artworks and exhibitions, this early writing is testament to his impassioned interest in the world of modern art. He stated, "today, there are only modern painters who, having liberated their art, are now forging a new art in order to achieve works that are materially as new as the aesthetic according to which they were conceived".

Apollinaire became a fixture in the Parisian art world following a meeting with Pablo Picasso that took place in a bar in 1905 and which had been arranged through a secretary named Jean Mollet. Kindred spirits from the start, Picasso introduced Apollinaire to poet Max Jacob who later reflected on their meeting: "the three of us went out, and we began that life of three-cornered friendship which lasted almost until the war, never leaving one another whether for work, meals, or fun". Apollinaire's relationship with Picasso, opened up the art world to him and almost immediately he began writing about the artist. The author Leroy Breunig credits Apollinaire's writing on Picasso in May 1905 in La Plume as being, "the first serious piece to appear on the Spanish painter".

Perhaps Apollinaire's most important contribution to the art world at this time came when he introduced Georges Braque to Picasso in the latter's studio in 1907. The two began working together immediately and would soon after develop Cubism . Apollinaire thoroughly embraced this new movement as everything modernism should be: "Cubism is the art of depicting new wholes with formal elements borrowed not only from the reality of vision, but from that of conception", he said. Apollinaire would go on to publish many articles and provided public lectures on the subject.

It was around this time that Apollinaire began a relationship with artist Marie Laurencin . Picasso introduced the two at an art gallery in 1907, telling Apollinaire, "I have a fiancée for you." Of their instant attraction, Apollinaire stated, "she's like a little sun - a feminine version of myself". Bonded by their love of art and shared family backgrounds of strong mothers and illegitimate births, the two were together for six years during which time Apollinaire wrote in high praise of her art and described how, "purity is her natural sphere; she breathes in it freely". While the relationship did not last, their love was forever memorialized through Henri Rousseau's painting The Muse Inspiring the Poet (1909) which featured a portrait of the couple.

Apollinaire's support for Cubism earned him the reputation of being the champion of the most important artists of the day; he became in many ways a modern-day version of Giorgio Vasari who had done so much to promote the work the Italian Renaissance artists. Apollinaire also began reviewing all the major art exhibitions and salons of Paris including serving as a contributing author for the newspaper L'Intransigeant for four years from 1910. In addition to Picasso and Braque, he helped promote the work of artists such as Alexander Archipenko , Robert Delaunay , Wassily Kandinsky , Aristide Maillol , Henri Matisse , and Jean Metzinger . According to author Roger Shattuck, "at some stages he produced a short article every day. He discussed everything, from amateur kitsch out of Brittany to the annual official Salon to the most provocative gallery shows". A symbiotic relationship developed between Apollinaire and these artists and Steegmuller suggested that, "if what the painters found in Apollinaire was a friend and a poet doubling as a promoter, what he found in them was what Braque has said - a group of sympathetic personalities: artists of his own age, with talent or genius, who gave him stimulus and the courage to recognize in himself the only living poet he knew with a vision as fresh as theirs". This mutual appreciation is nowhere more evident than in the portraits Picasso and others made of Apollinaire and the articles he wrote in support of their work.

Fully absorbed in the bohemian lifestyle of Paris, stories abound of Apollinaire's exploits including supplementing his income by writing erotica under a false name so as not to damage his reputation. Picasso's one time lover Fernande Olivier described him as, "a mixture of distinction and a certain vulgarity, the latter coming out in his loud, childish laugh. [...] What struck you above all was his evident good nature. He was calm and gentle, serious, affectionate, inspiring confidence the moment he spoke - and he spoke a great deal". According to Steegmuller, Apollinaire also "experimented with opium-smoking, [and even] pretended for more than a year to be a woman poet named Louise Lalanne" in order to review the work of other female poets more freely.

While Apollinaire's reputation steadily grew through the early years of the twentieth century, a single event in 1911 rocked his reputation bringing him both notoriety but also anxiety and depression. On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece the Mona Lisa (1503) was stolen from the Louvre museum. Apollinaire wrote an article about the theft for the L'Intransigeant newspaper in which he described the ineptitude of the museum's security: "the situation is one of carelessness, negligence, indifference". Ironically, not long after, his former secretary Gery Pieret approached Apollinaire showing him two statues he had stolen from the Louvre. Concerned, Apollinaire returned the statues to the museum on Pieret's behalf. Although not connected to the da Vinci theft at all, his connection to Pieret led him to be arrested by police on September 9 th under suspicion of harboring a criminal and his potential knowledge about an international art theft gang of which they believed Pieret to be a member.

Friends rallied to show their support for Apollinaire and according to Steegmuller, "petitions protesting his arrest, signed by many artists and writers, were delivered to the police and the investigating magistrate". Of this time, Apollinaire later wrote, "I learned that the Press was defending me, that writers who are the honour of France had spoken in my favour, and I felt less alone". He was eventually released when no evidence could be found linking him to the theft (the Mona Lisa was later recovered in 1913 in Florence having been stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian housepainter who believed the painting should be returned to its rightful home).

Of the impact of this event, author Roger Shattuck wrote, "six days in prison both traumatized him and brought a useful celebrity". Anyone who did not know who Apollinaire was before the theft certainly did after. He underwent a period of depression after the incident with his greatest fear, according to Steegmuller, being that he might be, "expelled from France as an undesirable foreigner" (it proved an unfounded anxiety when Apollinaire achieved his life's dream of being made a French citizen on March 9 th , 1916).

Taking part in the creation of a new magazine, Soirées de Paris in 1912 helped to buoy Apollinaire's spirits after the da Vinci incident. Important articles about art were included in the publication including writings about Robert Delaunay and his new style of art, Orphism , which Apollinaire felt was the future of modern art. He was also impressed by a new Italian art movement, Futurism , after meeting artists Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini and he wrote a highly complementary introduction about the motivations behind the new style for a Futurist magazine. While Apollinaire admired their ambition, he was possibly hesitant about any movement not born in France and also wrote more critically of the movement and what he felt was its lack of originality, stating, "Futurism, in my opinion, is an Italian imitation of the two schools of French painting that have succeeded each other over the past few years: fauvism and cubism".

1913 proved an important year for Apollinaire's critical reputation. He published what would be his only full-length book, Les Peintres Cubistes , and an anthology of poems, Alcools . According to Steegmuller, the former was "widely referred to as 'the first book on Cubism' [although in reality another book had been published a year earlier]" while Alcools , which would come to be regarded as his masterpiece, featured reflections on his experiences, expressed in unrhyming lines and without punctuation, of life in the cafes and bars of Paris.

Later Period

The last years of Apollinaire's life were consumed with war. He enlisted in the French army's 38 th Artillery Regiment in 1914. According to Steegmuller, "being a foreigner, he was not obliged to enlist. He could have sat out the war in a neutral country, or like Picasso, in France itself; or he could have gone to New York and seen something of his friends Marcel Duchamp , Francis Picabia , and Albert Gleizes "; all artists he had helped promote through his writings. Instead he chose to defend the country he loved. Ever the wordsmith, of his enlistment he joked, "I so love art that I have joined the artillery".

Apollinaire corresponded with two women during his enlistment (these letters were later published in two famous volumes: Lettres à Lou (1947) and Tendre comme le souvenir (1952)). He had fallen in love with Louise de Coligny-Châtillon ("Lou") following a short affair just before the war. The couple maintained daily correspondence and his letters reveal his attempts to win her back. Apollinaire's letters get more terse, however, during 1915 when his affections had transferred to Madeleine Pagès, a professor of letters at the lycée de jeunes filles in Oran, whom he had met on a train journey while returning from leave. His letters to Pagès move from the courteous to the daring and the couple declared their love for each other in the summer of 1915. Apollinaire and Pagès spent a period of 15 days leave together in December 1915 but following a life-threatening shrapnel injury, Apollinaire retreated into convalescence and refused to receive her visits (his last letter to Pagès is dated November 1916).

On March 17, 1916, Apollinaire was seriously injured after shrapnel splinters became embedded in his temple. Rushed to surgery, the fragments were removed but he suffered additional trauma and later in May had to undergo a second surgery to remove pressure on his brain.

While recovering from his injury, Apollinaire worked with an increased energy. He had, with his 1903 play Les Mamelles de Tirésias ( The Breasts of Tirésias ), used the term " surrealist " for the first time. The play's first production came in 1917 when it carried the subtitle Drame surréaliste with the notes to the play advising that the term "surrealism" described a brand new style of drama. A year later Apollinaire invented the calligram, an entirely new type of poem which consisted of words arranged in such a way as to create an image that enhanced the meaning of the poem itself. He also continued to write art criticism including a piece about the newly developing art of cinematography. The term "surrealism" also began to circulate, appearing in the program notes for the ballet Parade created by Sergei Diaghilev , Erik Satie, Picasso and Jean Cocteau . It would soon be adopted by a new artistic movement being developed at that time, Steegmuller noted, "Apollinaire had unquestionably invented the term surrealist [and] the surrealists have always esteemed him, and have tended to claim him as one of their immediate ancestors".

On May 2, 1918 Apollinaire married the nurse Jacqueline Kolb, a woman he had met prior to the war. While he could have retired due to his injury, he was not released by the army and instead was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and given a post in the department of the Ministry of Colonies. It was here that he would have most likely served through to the end of the war but in early November he fell victim of the great flu epidemic of 1918. He succumbed to the illness on November 9 at the young age of thirty-eight. According to Steegmuller, a friend, Louise Faure-Favier, later related the story told to her by his wife that on his deathbed Apollinaire was said to have, "begged the doctor to cure him [and cried] 'Save me, doctor! I want to live! I still have so many things to say!".

A blow to the worlds of art and literature, Apollinaire's death touched many. Perhaps it was Picasso who felt the loss of his beloved friend most profoundly. Steegmuller explains how, "Picasso is said to have received the news of Apollinaire's death while shaving [and] Struck by his own mournful expression, he replaced razor by pencil, and [...] apparently the last self-portrait Picasso ever drew, has been called [...] a 'farewell to youth', and, even more sentimentally, a 'memorial to his friend Apollinaire'".

The Legacy of Guillaume Apollinaire

In addition to his contributions to the field of poetry; Apollinaire left a lasting legacy in the art world. Profound in its impact, he helped to shape the direction of early twentieth century modern art. While some have criticized his lack of formal art education, the power of his words speak for themselves. Through his writings he helped secure the legends of numerous modern artists including Alexander Archipenko , Georges Braque , Paul Cézanne , Giorgio de Chirico , Robert Delaunay , André Derain , Marie Laurencin , Fernand Léger , Jean Metzinger , Pablo Picasso , Henri Rousseau , Maurice de Vlaminck , and Wassily Kandinsky ; and he was instrumental in promoting the key movements of Cubism , Fauvism , Futurism , Orphism , and Surrealism . His impact has been preserved in numerous portraits by some of the very artists he celebrated. Perhaps the most impressive of these is the memorial sculpture Picasso created of his friend in 1959; which is located in the park of the St. Germain des Pres church in Paris.

In addition to a rich body of publications about art and artists, the author Leroy Breunig suggests that in some ways "his reputation in Paris as the champion of modern art was in fact based more on deeds than on published works" and that in addition to introducing Braque and Picasso, it was "he who had helped organize the cubist Room 41 at the Salon des Indépendents of 1911; established liaison between the Montmartre and the Puteaux cubists; lectured at the important Section d'Or exhibit in 1912; [...] baptized orphism and became its champion at a Delaunay show in Berlin; launched and directed the Soirées de Paris, one of the principal organs of the avant-garde before the war; issued a manifesto for futurism; and coined the term surrealism".

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Guillaume Apollinaire

• Apollinaire: Poet Among the Painters Our Pick By Francis Steegmuller
• Alcools: Poems By Guillaume Apollinaire
• Apollinaire on Art: Essays and Reviews, 1902-1918 Our Pick By Guillaume Apollinaire, edited by Leroy C. Breunig
• Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War (1913-1916) By Guillaume Apollinaire
• Les pientres cubists esthétiques: Méditations By Guillaume Apollinaire
• Guillaume Apollinaire Our Pick The Art Studio Inc.
• Premonitory Portrait of Apollinaire, Giorgio de Chirico (1914) Our Pick By Jonathan Jones / The Guardian / The Guardian
• Apollinaire recite le pont Mirabeau In this rare audio recording, Guillaume Apollinaire can be heard reciting his 1912 poem, "Le Pont Mirabeau."
• The poet who painted with his words Our Pick This TED Ed cartoon video provides an interesting short biography on the life and work of Guillaume Apollinaire
• Marc Lavoine - Le Pont Mirabeau (Guillaume Apollinaire) This video features contemporary French singer Marc Lavoine performing a musical adaptation of Guillaume Apollinaire's 1912 poem, Le Pont Mirabeau

Related Artists

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Content compiled and written by Jessica DiPalma

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Antony Todd

LA TOUR EIFFEL Guillaume Apollinaire

En poésie, Guillaume Apollinaire a fait de la Tour Eiffel un calligramme nationaliste. C’est un idéogramme à travers lequel Apollinaire décrit la situation politique de son époque germanophone. Le langage exprime un sentiment « engagé » ; la littérature est liée à l’histoire. La tour Eiffel fait la ‘grimace’, la ‘mauvais langue’ (boccaccia/linguaccia) aux allemands. Apollinaire avec cette lyrique affirme qu’un poète doit faire face, doit être engagé dans l’histoire.

Analisi e commento:

Guillaume Apollinaire est un poète avant-gardiste, pendant les anneès 1913-1914 il écrit des vers qui seront recueillis sous le titre de Calligrammes, sous-titrés "poèmes de la paix et de la guerre". Le recueil lie exemplairement poésie et peinture. Guillaume Apollinaire évoque la Tour Eiffel dans plusieurs de ses poèmes, comme par exemple dans Alcools, mais dans ce calligramme il revele tous son esprit polemique contre les Allemands. Dans l'affirmation: "Salut monde dont je suis la langue éloquente que sa bouche O Paris tire et tirera toujours aux allemands", Guillaume Apollinaire présente la Tour Eiffel comme un symbole de la force de la France devant les allemands.

Apollinaire propose avec Calligrammes un aménagement original du poème dans la spatialité. Les calligrammes d'Apollinaire sont aussi appelés "idéogrammes lyriques" parce que dans eux prédomine le lyrisme visuel. Le poet constitue une création poétique visuelle qui unit l'ecriture à la forme d'un object/dessin symbolique. Ami des peintres cubistes (Picasso, Braque), Apollinaire essaie de créer une écriture nouvelle en jouant avec l'espace de la page. Il prône un renouvellement formel et utilise des vers libre.

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Apollinaire’s Calligrammes (1918)

Calligrammes; poèmes de la paix et da la guerre, 1913-1916, by Guillaume Apollinaire; 1918; Paris.

A book of poetry by French writer Guillaume Apollinaire, noted for its use of "caligrams" in which typeface and arrangement of words on the page add to the meaning of the compositions. In this way, the collection can be seen as a contribution to the tradition of concrete or visual poetry. Considered as the forefather of Surrealism, Apollinaire described his work as follows:

The Calligrammes are an idealisation of free verse poetry and typographical precision in an era when typography is reaching a brilliant end to its career, at the dawn of the new means of reproduction that are the cinema and the phonograph. (Guillaume Apollinaire, in a letter to André Billy)

Subtitled "Poems of Peace and War 1913-1916", many of the poems deal with Apollinaire's wartime experience as both an artilleryman and infantry officer. He was badly hurt in 1916 with a shrapnel wound to his temple and it was during his recovery that he coined the word "sur-realism" in the programme notes for Jean Cocteau's and Erik Satie's ballet Parade . Although he made an eventual recovery the injury weakened him and Apollinaire became one of the many victims of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Published the year of his death, Calligrammes remains one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.

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Oct 27, 2015

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At last you’re tired of this elderly world

Shepherdess O Eiffel Tower this morning the bridges are bleating

You’re fed up living with antiquity

Even the automobiles are antiques Religion alone remains entirely new religion Remains as simple as an airport hangar

In all Europe only you O Christianism are not old The most modern European Pope Pius X it’s you The windows watch and shame has sealed The confessionals against you this morning Flyers catalogs hoardings sing aloud Here’s poetry this morning and for prose you’re reading the tabloids Disposable paperbacks filled with crimes and police Biographies of great men a thousand various titles

I saw a pretty street this morning I forgot the name New and cleanly it was the sun’s clarion Executives laborers exquisite stenographers Criss-cross Monday through Saturday four times daily Three times every morning sirens groan At the lunch hour a rabid bell barks The lettering on the walls and billboards the doorplates and posters twitters parakeet-style I love the swank of that street Situated in Paris between the rue Aumont-Thieville and the avenue des Ternes

Here’s the young street and you’re still a baby Dressed by your mother in blue and white only You’re very pious and with your oldest friend Rene Dalize Nothing is more fun than Masses and Litanies

It’s nine o’clock the gaslight is low you leave your bed You pray all night in the school chapel Meanwhile an eternal adorable amethyst depth Christ’s flamboyant halo spins forever Behold the beautiful lily of worship Behold the red-haired torch inextinguishable Behold the pale son and scarlet of the dolorous Mother Behold the tree forever tufted with prayer Behold the double gallows honor and eternity Behold the six-pointed star Behold the God who dies on Friday and rises on Sunday Behold the Christ who flies higher than aviators He holds the world's record for altitude

Christ pupil of the eye Twentieth pupil of the centuries knows its stuff And bird-changed this century like Jesus climbs the sky Devils in the abyss look up to watch They say this century mimics Simon Magus in Judea It takes a thief to catch a thief they cry Angels flutter around the pretty trapeze act Icarus Enoch Elijah Apollonius of Tyana Hover as close to the airplane as they can Sometimes they give way to other men hauling the Eucharist Priests eternally climbing the elevating Host The plane descends at last its wings unfolded bursts into a million swallows Full speed come the crows the owls and falcons From Africa ibis storks flamingoes The Roc-bird famous with writers and poets Glides Adam’s skull the original head in its talons The horizon screams an eagle pouncing And from America there comes a hummingbird From China sinuous peehees Who have only one wing and who fly in couples And here’s a dove immaculate spirit Escorted by lyre-bird and shimmery peacock

Phoenix the pyre the self-resurrected Obscures everything ardently briefly with ash The sirens abandon their perilous channels Each one singing more beautifully arrives Everyone eagle Phoenix Chinese peehees Eager to befriend a machine that flies

You are walking in Paris alone inside a crowd Herds of buses bellow and come too close Love-anguish clutches your throat You must never again be loved In the Dark Ages you would have entered a monastery You are ashamed to overhear yourself praying You laugh at yourself and the laughter crackles like hellfire The sparks gild the ground and background of your life Your life is a painting in a dark museum And sometimes you examine it closely

You are walking in Paris the women are bloodsoaked It was and I have no wish to remember it was the end of beauty

In Chartres from her entourage of flames Our Lady beamed at me The blood of your Sacred Heart drenched me in Montmartre I’m sick of hearing blissful promises The love I feel is a venereal disease And the image possessing you in your pain your insomnia Vanishes and it is always near you

And now you are on the Riviera Under lemon trees that never stop blooming You are boating with friends One is from Nice one is from Menton two from La Turbie We are staring terrified at giant squid At fish the symbols of Jesus swimming through seaweed

You are in the garden at an inn outside of Prague You are completely happy a rose is on the table And instead of getting on with your short-story You watch the rosebug sleeping in the rose's heart

Appalled you see yourself reproduced in the agates of Saint Vitus You were sad near to death to see yourself there You looked as bewildered as Lazarus In the Jewish ghetto the clock runs backwards And you go backwards also through a slow life Climbing the Hradchen listening at nightfall To Bohemian songs in the singing taverns

You in Marseilles among the watermelons

You in Coblenz at the Hotel Gigantic

You in Rome beneath a Japanese tree

You in Amsterdam with a girl you find pretty who is ugly She’s engaged to marry a student from Leyden Where you can rent rooms in Latin Cubicula locanda I remember spending three days there and three in Gouda

You are in Paris hauled before the magistrate You are under arrest you are a criminal now

You went on sorrowful and giddy travels Ignorant still of dishonesty and old age Love afflicted you at twenty and again at thirty I’ve lived like a fool and I've wasted my time You dare not look at your hands I want to weep all the time On you on the one I love on everything that frightened you

And now you are crying at the sight of refugees Who believe in God who pray whose women nurse babies The hall of the train station is filled with the refugee-smell Like the Magi refugees believe in their star They expect to find silver mines in the Argentine And to return like kings to their abandoned countries One family carries a red eiderdown you carry your heart Eiderdown and dreams are equally fantastic

Some of the refugees stay on in Paris settling Into slums on the rue des Rosiers or the rue des Ecouffes I have seen them often at dusk they breathe at their doorways They budge from home as reluctantly as chessmen They are chiefly Jewish the women wear wigs And haunt backrooms of little shops in little chairs

You’re standing at the metal counter of some dive Drinking wretched coffee where the wretched live

You are in a cavernous restaurant at night

These women are not evil they are used-up regretful Each has tormented someone even the ugliest

She is the daughter of a police sergeant from Jersey

Her hands I’d never noticed are hard and cracked

My pity aches along the seams of her belly

I humble my mouth to her grotesque laughter

You’re alone when morning comes The milkmen jingle bottles in the street

Night beautiful courtesan the night withdraws Fraudulent Ferdine or careful Leah

And you drink an alcohol as caustic as your life Your life you drink as alcohol

You walk to Auteuil you want to go on foot to sleep At home among your South Sea and Guinean fetishes Christs of another shape another faith Subordinate Christs of uncertain hopes

Goodbye Goodbye

Sun cut throated

From Alcools by Guillaume Apollinaire, translated by Donald Revell. Copyright © 1995 by Donald Revell. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved.

More by this poet

Les cloches.

Translated by Andrea Cohen

Mon beau tzigane mon amant Écoute les cloches qui sonnent Nous nous aimions éperdument Croyant n’être vus de personne Mais nous étions bien mal cachés Toutes les cloches à la ronde Nous ont vus du haut des clochers Et le disent à tout le monde Demain Cyprien et Henri Marie Ursule et Catherine La boulangère et son mari Et puis Gertrude ma cousine Souriront quand je passerai

Mirabeau Bridge

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Guillaume Apollinaire La Tour Eiffel

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Moscow Metro 2019

Will it be easy to find my way in the Moscow Metro? It is a question many visitors ask themselves before hitting the streets of the Russian capital. As metro is the main means of transport in Moscow – fast, reliable and safe – having some skills in using it will help make your visit more successful and smooth. On top of this, it is the most beautiful metro in the world !

. There are over 220 stations and 15 lines in the Moscow Metro. It is open from 6 am to 1 am. Trains come very frequently: during the rush hour you won't wait for more than 90 seconds! Distances between stations are quite long – 1,5 to 2 or even 3 kilometers. Metro runs inside the city borders only. To get to the airport you will need to take an onground train - Aeroexpress.

RATES AND TICKETS

Paper ticket A fee is fixed and does not depend on how far you go. There are tickets for a number of trips: 1, 2 or 60 trips; or for a number of days: 1, 3 days or a month. Your trips are recorded on a paper ticket. Ifyou buy a ticket for several trips you can share it with your traveling partner passing it from one to the other at the turnstile.

On every station there is cashier and machines (you can switch it to English). Cards and cash are accepted. 1 trip - 55 RUB 2 trips - 110 RUB

Tickets for 60 trips and day passes are available only at the cashier's.

60 rides - 1900 RUB

1 day - 230 RUB 3 days - 438 RUB 30 days - 2170 RUB.

The cheapest way to travel is buying Troyka card . It is a plastic card you can top up for any amount at the machine or at the ticket office. With it every trip costs 38 RUB in the metro and 21 RUB in a bus. You can get the card in any ticket office. Be prepared to leave a deposit of 50 RUB. You can get it back returning the card to the cashier.

SamsungPay, ApplePay and PayPass cards.

One turnstile at every station accept PayPass and payments with phones. It has a sticker with the logos and located next to the security's cabin.

GETTING ORIENTED

At the platfrom you will see one of these signs.

It indicates the line you are at now (line 6), shows the direction train run and the final stations. Numbers below there are of those lines you can change from this line.

In trains, stations are announced in Russian and English. In newer trains there are also visual indication of there you are on the line.

To change lines look for these signs. This one shows the way to line 2.

There are also signs on the platfrom. They will help you to havigate yourself. (To the lines 3 and 5 in this case). 

Moscow Metro Tour

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Moscow metro private tours.

• 2-hour tour $87:  10 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with hotel pick-up and drop-off
• 3-hour tour $137:  20 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with Russian lunch in beautifully-decorated Metro Diner + hotel pick-up and drop off. 
• Metro pass is included in the price of both tours.

Highlight of Metro Tour

• Visit 10 must-see stations of Moscow metro on 2-hr tour and 20 Metro stations on 3-hr tour, including grand Komsomolskaya station with its distinctive Baroque décor, aristocratic Mayakovskaya station with Soviet mosaics, legendary Revolution Square station with 72 bronze sculptures and more!
• Explore Museum of Moscow Metro and learn a ton of technical and historical facts;
• Listen to the secrets about the Metro-2, a secret line supposedly used by the government and KGB;
• Experience a selection of most striking features of Moscow Metro hidden from most tourists and even locals;
• Discover the underground treasure of Russian Soviet past – from mosaics to bronzes, paintings, marble arches, stained glass and even paleontological elements;
• Learn fun stories and myths about Coffee Ring, Zodiac signs of Moscow Metro and more;
• Admire Soviet-era architecture of pre- and post- World War II perious;
• Enjoy panoramic views of Sparrow Hills from Luzhniki Metro Bridge – MetroMost, the only station of Moscow Metro located over water and the highest station above ground level;
• If lucky, catch a unique «Aquarelle Train» – a wheeled picture gallery, brightly painted with images of peony, chrysanthemums, daisies, sunflowers and each car unit is unique;
• Become an expert at navigating the legendary Moscow Metro system;
• Have fun time with a very friendly local;
• + Atmospheric Metro lunch in Moscow’s the only Metro Diner (included in a 3-hr tour)

Hotel Pick-up

Metro stations:.

Komsomolskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Prospekt Mira

Belorusskaya

Mayakovskaya

Novokuznetskaya

Revolution Square

Sparrow Hills

+ for 3-hour tour

Victory Park

Slavic Boulevard

Vystavochnaya

Dostoevskaya

Elektrozavodskaya

Partizanskaya

Museum of Moscow Metro

• Drop-off  at your hotel, Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills or any place you wish
• + Russian lunch  in Metro Diner with artistic metro-style interior for 3-hour tour

Fun facts from our Moscow Metro Tours:

From the very first days of its existence, the Moscow Metro was the object of civil defense, used as a bomb shelter, and designed as a defense for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

At a depth of 50 to 120 meters lies the second, the coded system of Metro-2 of Moscow subway, which is equipped with everything you need, from food storage to the nuclear button.

According to some sources, the total length of Metro-2 reaches over 150 kilometers.

The Museum was opened on Sportivnaya metro station on November 6, 1967. It features the most interesting models of trains and stations.

Coffee Ring

The first scheme of Moscow Metro looked like a bunch of separate lines. Listen to a myth about Joseph Stalin and the main brown line of Moscow Metro.

Zodiac Metro

According to some astrologers, each of the 12 stops of the Moscow Ring Line corresponds to a particular sign of the zodiac and divides the city into astrological sector.

Astrologers believe that being in a particular zadiac sector of Moscow for a long time, you attract certain energy and events into your life.

Paleontological finds 

Red marble walls of some of the Metro stations hide in themselves petrified inhabitants of ancient seas. Try and find some!

• Every day each car in  Moscow metro passes  more than 600 km, which is the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
• Moscow subway system is the  5th in the intensity  of use (after the subways of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai).
• The interval in the movement of trains in rush hour is  90 seconds .

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
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