Jean Cocteau & Raymond Moretti, “Faces and Fishes” Handsigned Framed Lithograph

Jean Cocteau was a French painter, poet, designer, printmaker, playwright and filmmaker. He is one of the most important figures of French Surrealism, although he always denied being in any way connected to the movement.

Cocteau was born to a socially prominent Parisian family. His father, George Cocteau, was an amateur painter who committed suicide when Jean was only a child. Jean became famous in Bohemian circles as "The Frivolous Prince." In 1912, he collaborated with the Ballets Russes. After World War I, Cocteau met the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and the artist Pablo Picasso. In 1917, thanks to Sergei Diaghilev, a Russian impresario, Cocteau wrote a scenario for the ballet Parade — the set of this important ballet was realized by Pablo Picasso and the music was composed by Erik Satie. In the late 1920s, Cocteau wrote the libretto for Igor Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex. In 1918, he met the French poet Raymond Radiguet. They worked and went on many journeys together, and Cocteau promoted his friend's works in his artistic group.

Cocteau is well-known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929) and the films The Blood of a Poet, Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus. During World War II, he created sets for the Théâtre de la Mode. In 1955, he was elected to the Académie Française and the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. He was commander of the Legion of Honour, a member of the Academié Mallarmé, the Academy of Arts (Berlin) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Find Jean Cocteau art today on 1stDibs.

Raymond Moretti was a French abstract painter. Born in Nice, France, on July 23, 1931, he made a living creating lithographs for posters, magazine covers and stamps. Deeply involved with jazz music, he had many famous musicians sit for him, including Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk. In the 1960s, he illustrated covers for a series of 12 highly sought-after jazz LPs called Moretti Verve. Notably, he created the French Judicial Police logo, which combines the head of a man with the head of a tiger. Moretti died on June 3, 2005, in Paris, France.