Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) categorized the many forms his artwork took- film, theater, drawing- as poetry, musing that “Poets don't draw, they unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently." The self taught French artist regularly drew his friends and acquaintances. Informed by his interests in psychoanalysis, Catholicism, and Cubism, the artist’s distinct style established him as one of the major figures of Dada and Surrealism.