Untitled 

This untitled drawing was created by Jean Cocteau, the French artist, filmmaker and writer, sometime in the 20th century. The image, rendered in a seemingly spontaneous line, represents a stylized face emerging from a dark background. Cocteau's fluid lines and symbolic imagery owe a great deal to the surrealist movement, and he was moving in the same circles as Satie, Picasso and Diaghilev. But there is something more personal here. The labyrinthine qualities of the work evoke the complex psychological states explored in his films and literary works, products of a time that sought to represent inner experience. The face may also be a self-portrait of the artist; he was very interested in the subject of persona. By understanding Cocteau's place in the artistic and intellectual culture of the 20th century, using sources such as biographies, critical essays, and historical studies, we can appreciate the depth and complexity beneath the surface. We start to understand how art reflects and shapes the times in which it is made.