JACOB, Max (1876-1944)

JACOB, Max (1876-1944)

Autograph letter signed « Max Jacob » to Pierre Lagarde
[Paris], 11 March [19]36, 1 p. in-4°
Drawing by Serge: 12.9 x 17.3 cm
Typographic annotations, slight stains

Max Jacob expresses some gentle reservations about a portrait of him by Serge

The original of the aforementioned drawing is included

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« Cher Pierre,
Dis à Serge que mon étoile n’est pas si brillante, mon nez plus court et mon menton sans croc. Mais toi, cher Pierre… ce n’est plus de la chronique, c’est du poème –
Merci, embrassons-nous
Max Jacob

Viens à la conférence au même lieu le 18 à 9h et apporte la carte que tu recevras bientôt
Tu as bien de la veine d’avoir tant de talent. Je crève de mon inaptitude depuis 40 ans. Je vais partir en Bretagne.»

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A central figure of the Montmartre and Montparnasse avant-garde, Max Jacob converted to Catholicism in 1915. In 1936, he left Paris to settle in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, in the Loiret region, where he led a monastic life. His poetic works and meditations—some of which were included by Pierre Lagarde in his remarkable book Max Jacob – Mystic and Martyr—align with the Quietist movement. From then on, he embraced his life as a sinner as the necessary path to redemption.

His Jewish origins led to his arrest by the Gestapo six months before the liberation of Paris—a fate he accepted as martyrdom. He was interned by the French gendarmerie at the Drancy camp, where he died five days later, just hours before his scheduled deportation to Auschwitz.