The Artist

Jean Moulin Main Page

ROMANIN
Moulin the Artist

Romanin the Bohemian

a self-portrait, 1928

Bar à Montparnasse, 1929

A Montparnasse IV: Bar à Montparnasse

an illustration in Armor, poems of Tristan Corbiere, 1935

a caricature of Georges Mandel, who later became Moulin's superior as the minister of interior

La Rapsode foraine

I must note that this image is very poorly scanned, but I couldn't find any other.

From his childhood, Moulin displayed an aptitude and disposition for painting, especially in drawing sketches and cartoons. It seems likely that he would have become an artist if he were not pressured by his father. In fact, when he was briefly out of work for four months in 1934, Moulin flirted with bohemian life of an artist renting a studio and working under the pseudonym of Romanin. According to the curator Jacques Lugand, his sketches of this period resembled the work of Jules Pascin. [2]

Moulin also worked on a commission to illustrate an edition of the verse of the 19th century poet, Tristan Corbière. In October 1935, Moulin had an exhibition of his etchings and was favorably reviewed. But as Moulin continued his work in the prefecture, it was the last time his work was exhibited before his death.
He also collected pictures with a discriming eye as well as painting them - Dufy, Rouault, Chirico, Marie Laurencin, Utrillo - long before they became household words. [6]

Max Jacob

Moulin was encouraged in this artistic endeavor by an influential poet and artist named MAX JACOB, with whom he formed a friendship when he became under-prefet at Châteaulin.
Jacob was an important founder of modernism, the circle that included Apollinaire, Picasso, Modigliani, and the early Surrealists. It was Jacob who introduced Moulin to Montparnasse.
It is likely that Moulin chose Max as his code name in the resistance in his honor. (Jacob was arrested by the Nazis in February 1944 and died of pneumonia the following month in a concentration camp at Drancy, near Paris.)
Jacob composed a short poem for Moulin when they visited an old watermill at Pont-Aven near Quimper:

Je suis ce soir, la chose est claire,
L'heureux meunier du Finistère.
J'ai le moulin de Pont-Aven
Et le Moulin de Châteaulin.

(Tonight I am, the fact is clear,
The luckiest miller in Finistère.
I hold the mill of Pont-Aven
And I hold the Moulin of Châteaulin.)

Romanin in Resistance

Moulin's artistic life came to play a role in his Resistance works. As a former prefect with a known leftist reputation, Moulin was careful to cultivate a cover identity for himself as an art dealer. Besides it would provide a good excuse to travel. He opened in February 1943 an art gallery, Galérie Romanin, featuring works by Utrillo, Marie Laurencin, and Matisse. The opening was attended by prominent members of Vichy government as well as German authorities; the portrait of Marshal Pétain was prominently displayed. The story goes that the Marshal's portrait fell off the wall during the ceremony, but that is not part of France's official history. [8]

Moulin's Last Drawing

Moulin's last act of resistance may very well have been in form of an art. This is not an established fact, but various accounts suggest this. When Moulin was arrested at Caluire on June 21, 1943 by KLAUS BARBIE the notorious Gestapo chief of Lyon called 'Butcher of Lyon', he claimed to be Jacques Martel, a decorator and artist. Barbie later said, "[Moulin] persisted with his claim to be an artist and he even did a drawing of me and a sketch of the secretary." Barbie's deputy HARRY STENGRITT also recalled that "he did a drawing of Barbie on a sheet of paper." According to Barbie, he kept this sketch but his wife burned the incriminating evidence after the war. [8]

However, other accounts differ from Barbie's, who always insisted that he did not torture Moulin.
Reportedly Moulin was beaten all over for several days on end to the extent that he could no longer speak. GOTTLIEB FUCHS, a Swiss interpreter for Gestapo, described in his memoir that Barbie handed Moulin a pencil and paper so he could draw a diagram of the Resistance networks. Instead, after sketching for a few minutes, what Moulin handed Barbie was not the scheme he wanted, but a grotesque caricature of the Gestapo chief. This, combined with Moulin's persistent silence, infuriated Barbie. Supposedly he reacted with even more vicious beatings that Moulin was no longer in position to be interrogated when he was taken to the Gestapo headquarter in Paris. [6]

Montparnasse in 1930s

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