Claude Jeancolas

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

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

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. There, he continued his studies in a preparatory class for the "grandes écoles". He entered the École Supérieure de Commerce of Paris (ESCP). He had 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 as head of the avant-garde monthly Mode international. He later 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 the 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 later published a monograph on the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux in 1987. Following the publication, he studied the history of sculpture and French drawing. Later, he published two books on the Nabis and the Fauves.

Rimbaud

After quoting Arthur Rimbaud to his professor Izambard in an editorial for Max, he received an overwhelming amount of mail which prompted him to explore the subject further. He continued studying Rimbaud's work, regularly publishing on the subject. In his view, Rimbaud was too intelligent (the top of his class) to be incoherent. He suggested that Rimbaud's poems always carried meaning, were coherent, and served a purpose. He also wrote about Une Saison en enfer. He also attempted to redeem the poet's highly criticized mother, Vitalie Rimbaud, in a biography that attempted to demonstrate the intense love that attached her to her child and her importance to Rimbaud.

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.