Claude Jeancolas

Claude Jeancolas
Born	1949
Died	10 February 2016
Occupation	Journalist, writer, art historian
Nationality	French

Claude Jeancolas (1949 – 10 February 2016) was a French writer, art historian, and journalist. He is best known for his work on Arthur Rimbaud.

Life

His childhood and adolescence was spent in Nancy, in the east of France. At the age of 16, he left for Paris with his Baccalaureate diploma in his pocket. There, he continued his studies in a preparatory class for the "grandes écoles". He entered the École Supérieure de Commerce of Paris (ESCP). He has a degree from the Business School of the University of Texas where he wrote his thesis on management of the American press. He was also a visiting scholar in various American universities including UCLA, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University, the School of Journalism in Columbia Missouri, and Columbia University in New York. He died on 17 February 2016.

Journalism career

He began his career as the head of the financial analysis department of the weekly magazine Entreprise; he then created two management journals: Enseignement et gestion and the Revue Française de Gestion. After that, he took over the head of the avant-garde monthly Mode international. Several years later, he edited the magazines Collections, Décoration, and Mariages. He moved to Votre Beauté, a magazine that François Mitterrand edited at the beginning of his career. He later joined the Hachette Group, which is now the Lagardère Group, as international editor of Elle (four editions created worldwide) and Elle Décoration (14 editions created worldwide). He also created Cousteau Junior and Max. Until 2012, he was the director of Marie Claire maison and Marie Claire travel magazines in Milan.

Art historian career

His interest in art developed in 1969 after meeting with the sculptor Edmond Moirignot, with whom he became a friend and later his guardian and executor of will. He published an important monograph on the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux in 1987. Following this publication, he engaged in intensive studies on the history of sculpture and French drawing. Later, he published two books on the Nabis and the Fauves, which are post-impressionist movements that contributed to the development of modernist art at the turn of the century.

Rimbaud

After quoting Arthur Rimbaud to his professor Izambard in an editorial in Max—the magazine that he directed at the time—he received so much mail that he decided to go into more depth on the subject. He continued to do so, publishing his findings on a regular basis. According to him, the poet was too intelligent (the best in his class) to be incoherent. His poems always have a meaning, are coherent, and have a mission. Rimbaud is determined and willful. He completely gave himself over to poetry because he was certain that it can be life changing. Une Saison en enfer, which was a quest for salvation, was also a written essay of a new bible for modern times. Poetry is thus a means and not an end; a tool at the service of a very spiritual and humanist ideal. He has also attempted to redeem the poet's well-criticised mother, Vitalie Rimbaud, in a biography that attempted to demonstrate the intense love that attached this mother to her preferred child and, conversely, the necessity of this mother for Rimbaud to become the man that we know.

Bibliography

Main publications:

1985

• Moirignot. Éditions du St Gothard. Paris

1987

• Carpeaux peintre et sculpteur. Edita. Lausanne

1991

• La Sculpture italienne du XX^e siècle. Éditions Van Wilder. Paris
• Les Voyages de Rimbaud. Balland. Paris
• Le Dictionnaire Rimbaud. Balland. Paris

1993

• La Sculpture française. Fabbri. Milan

1995

• Le Dessin en France de la renaissance au XX^e siècle. Rizzoli. Milan.

1996

• L'œuvre intégrale manuscrite de Rimbaud. Textuel. Paris

1997

• Le Don du père. Flammarion. Paris
• Les Lettres manuscrites de Rimbaud. Textuel. Paris

1998

• Lettres et poèmes de Rimbaud. L'auberge verte. Paris
• Une saison en enfer de Rimbaud. Hachette. Paris
• Passion Rimbaud. Textuel. Paris

1999

• Poésies de Rimbaud. Éditions mille et une nuits. Paris
• Rimbaud, la biographie. Flammarion. Paris
• Venise et ses peintres. Une histoire intime. Éditions Van Wilder. Paris
• L'Afrique de Rimbaud. Textuel. Paris

2000

• Rimbaud, l'œuvre. Textuel. Paris

2002

• La Peinture des Nabis. Éditions fvw. Paris

2004

• Vitalie Rimbaud, pour l'amour d'un fils. biographie. Flammarion
• Rimbaud après Rimbaud, anthologie. Textuel. Paris

2005

• Rimbaud, l'œuvre, la vie. Éditions France Loisirs

2006

• Les Fauves, couleurs et lumières. Éditions FVW. Paris
• Moirignot, la vie, l'œuvre, le catalogue raisonné. Éditions FVW. Paris

2007

• Le regard bleu d'Arthur Rimbaud. Éditions FVW. Paris

2008 in collaboration

• Fierté de fer with Joël Alessandra et Idriss Youssouf Elmi. Éditions Paquet. Genève
• L'aube du monde with Thibaut et Pascal Villecroix, Amina Saïd Chiré - FVW. Paris

2008

• Le Retour à Tadjoura – l'Afrique secrète de Jean-François Deniau – FVW. Paris

Many of those were translated in German, Korean, Japanese and English.