Unraveling Fantasy: The Homoerotic Neoclassicism of Jean Cocteau

or, The Gay Surrealist Who Never Was.

Jean Cocteau in his studio

“Poets don’t draw. They unravel their handwriting
and then tie it up again, but differently.”

– Jean Cocteau, Dessins (1924) trans. Pierre Chanel[1]

i. early life + work