French writer born in Paris and who died in Sanary-sur-Mer (department of Var). After spending part of his childhood in Saint Petersburg, he came into contact pretty early in his youth with Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire and Pablo Picasso. For the latter, who exerted great influence over him, he contributed to making known his painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, seeing in it ‘a still glowing crater from which emerged the fire of contemporary art.’ He participated in the revolution of modern art as a critic. But he also shone in other domains; as a poet, he published several collections and became the secretary of the Paul Fort’s journal, Vers et Prose; as a novelist he in particular gave an account of life in Montmarte in La Négresse du Sacré-Cœur; as a journalist he was intensively active. But his reporting of the Spanish Civil War, quite favourable to the nationalists, as well as his contributions to the Petit Parisien during the Occupation, caused him problems on the Liberation.