The 137-lot auction held on October 21 celebrated the many talents of the poet, author, film director, artist and ceramicist. Topping the bill at prices of €50,000 (£42,370) apiece were two very different paintings.
Jean Cocteau’s Cubist-style portrait of Pablo Picasso which sold for €50,000 (£42,370) as the joint top price at Bonhams’ Paris.
One was a work by Cocteau himself: a 10½ x 8in (27.5 x 21cm) pencil on paper Cubist-style portrait of Picasso that was signed, dated and extensively annotated including a dedication à Massine souvenir de son ami jean Cocteau and the inscription Monsieur Picasso fume avec le Vesuve and Napoli 1917.
The other was a portrait of Cocteau by Andy Warhol (pictured, top), a unique screen print collage on coloured papers from 1983 measuring 3ft 2½in x 2ft 9½in (98 x 85cm).
The work had the stamps of the Andy Warhol estate and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and was inititialled VF and numbered 115.089 on the reverse.
Two faces of a ram
Cocteau’s limited edition ceramic vase, Bélier aux deux faces – €38,000 (£32,205) at Bonhams’ Paris.
The sale also included a selection of the ceramics that Cocteau turned to producing in later years. The most expensive of these was the Bélier aux deux Faces vase previewed in ATG No 2012 and pictured here, which realised a double mid-estimate €38,000 (£32,205).
