Paris – Portrait de Picasso-cubiste by Jean Cocteau was one of the top lots at Bonhams new dedicated sale, Jean Cocteau: l'Orphée moderne, on 21 October at Bonhams Rue de la Paix, Paris. The work achieved an impressive €62,812 – more than 5 times its pre-sale estimate of €10,00-15,000.

The 137-lot sale made a total of €645,694 with 74% sold by lot and 86% sold by value.

Artist, filmmaker, poet, Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), was a man of many talents. Best known for his influential novel Les Enfants terribles (1929), and his films La Belle et la Bête (1946) and Orphée (1950) – as well as his signature drawing and interior designs –Cocteau had a distinctive avant-garde style and playful eye.

Head of Sale, Lucia Tro Santafe, commented: "We are delighted with the results of this sale which showcased the full breadth of Cocteau's expansive oeuvre and lasting legacy. Cocteau was always experimenting and creating new forms of art, and it is wonderful that this new dedicated concept sale at Bonhams recently expanded Paris saleroom was such a success. I'm pleased to say that Bonhams has established itself as the market leader for Jean Cocteau, especially for his ceramics."

Other highlights of the sale included:

• Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), Bélier deux faces. Sold for €47,812 - A new world record price for a Cocteau ceramic sold at auction.

• Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), Deux Visages de profil, face à face. Sold for €22,812.

• Pierre Le Tan (1950-2019), Portrait de Jean Cocteau. Sold for €19,687.

• Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), L'Adolescent. Sold for €19,062.

• Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), Grand Masque. Sold for €17,812.

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)

Jean Cocteau was born in 1889, into a wealthy family living near Paris. At the age of 10, his father committed suicide, and throughout his teenage years Cocteau struggled at school and sought solace in the arts, where he turned to creating fantasy worlds through theatre and poetry. In 1907, he moved with his mother to Paris. Here, he began frequenting cafes and bistros of Montparnasse, where he mingled with trailblazers of Modernism, such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Guillaume Apollinaire. Many became life-long friends and collaborators; when Cocteau created the ballet Parade in 1917, for instance, Picasso designed the set and costumes while Apollinaire wrote the programme notes.

Cocteau's first taste of success came when he was just 19, with the publication of a volume of poems, La Lampe d'Aladin (1908). A second volume, Le Prince Frivole (1910), became his nickname ("The Frivolous Prince") within Bohemian circles, having developed a reputation as a dilettante. He wrote five novels, most notably Le Livre Blanc (1928) and Les Enfants Terribles (1929), which both courted controversy: the former for its autobiographical portrayal of homosexuality, the latter for its turbulent relationship between a real-life brother and sister. Cocteau's enduring love of theatre is evident in the sheer volume of plays, ballets, and operas he wrote, whilst his achieved his most acclaim as a filmmaker – with La Belle et la Bête (1946) and Orphée (1950) both regarded as classics of French cinema.

After an intense period of directing films, Cocteau spent much of the 1950s focused on visual arts. He found that painting provided relief from depression, and in 1957, he embarked on a new creative collaboration with two ceramicists. At the age of 68, he happily became the "apprentice" to Marie Madeline Jolly and Philippe Madeline, working in their studio in Villefranche-sur-Mer until his death in 1963.

Jean Cocteau died the day after his close friend, Edith Piaf, in 1963. The prophetic epitaph on his gravestone reads "I stay with you", and indeed, his influence is still very much present.

22 October 2021