Music Mysteries

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Guillaume Apollinaire, poet extraordinaire and completely at your service.” 

With these words, Guillaume Apollinaire makes his first appearance in Finding Sylvie. The character of Monsieur Apollinaire is based on the real-life poet who was one of the most influential arts figures in pre-WWI Paris.  

Guillaume Apollinaire is best known for his passionate support of Cubism in his poetry and as an art critic. In Cubist writing, multiple perspectives of a subject are conveyed through fragmented word structures. In Cubist paintings, the artist presents simultaneous points of view by combining geometric shapes on the canvas. Apollinaire introduced the painters Picasso and Braque, sparking the ground-breaking movement in the early twentieth-century art.  

Apollinaire and Picasso (who is also a character in Finding Sylvie) had a long friendship. However, a rift occurred in 1911 when the duo was suspected of stealing the Mona Lisa.

Yes, the Mona Lisa.

Under interrogation, Picasso pled his innocence and went on to deny knowing Apollinaire. Apollinaire spent a week in Paris’s most notorious prison before being completely cleared in the investigation.

Their friendship eventually recovered, but the end of an era was near. Apollinaire volunteered to fight for France in WWI and suffered a serious injury. He never fully recovered, and he died in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 at age 38.  

In Finding Sylvie, Apollinaire introduces himself to Sylvie at Gertrude Stein’s salon. (There’ll be more about Gertrude and her art collection in a future blog.) On another occasion, Apollinaire bids farewell to Sylvie by quoting the opening of his poem, “L’Adieu.” Here’s the full text, in French and English.  

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L’Adieu
J’ai cueilli ce brin de bruyère
L’automne est morte souviens-t’en
Nous ne nous verrons plus sur terre
Odeur du temps Brin de bruyère
Et souviens-toi que je t’attends

The Farewell
I’ve gathered this sprig of heather
Autumn is dead you will remember
On earth we’ll see no more of each other
Fragrance of time sprig of heather
Remember I wait for you forever