{{Short description|French painter (1921–1970)}} {{distinguish|Jean Boulet (disambiguation){{!}}Jean Boulet}} {{Cleanup rewrite|date=July 2024}} '''Jean Boullet''' (December 12, 1921-November 2, 1970) is a French painter, draftsman, illustrator, film critic and writer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Birth record |url=http://consultation.archives.hauts-de-seine.net/mdr/index.php/docnumViewer/calculHierarchieDocNum/814509/367506:396213:412162:412163:814509/768/1366}}</ref>

== Biography == Jean Boullet was the son of a cat fur trader on the Avenue d'Italie, Henri Boullet, who committed suicide by hanging. In his catholic childhood, he spent his summers in Isdes, in a house he would keep. He began to paint in 1942, mainly portraits. He made a name for himself as a draftsman and illustrator in Saint-Germain-des-Prés immediately after the war. He illustrated both a book by Daniel-Rops, the Catholic writer (This face that looks at us), and the sulphurous work - banned by censorship - by Boris Vian, I will go to spit on your graves, texts of Edgar Poe, Raymond Asso, poems by Villon, Verlaine. In 1948, he was the author of the sets for the play J'irai cracher sur vos graves which Boris Vian took from his homonymous novel and which he signed with his real name. <ref>{{Citation |last=Canet |first=Raphaël |title=Le post-développement et la transition |date=2019-08-28 |work=Enjeux et défis du développement international |pages=179–184 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp7d48d.29 |access-date=2024-07-15 |publisher=Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa|doi=10.2307/j.ctvp7d48d.29 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Jean Boullet is also a film critic who venerates the fantastic and horror films that can be seen at the Midi-Minuit cinema on the Grands Boulevards. To show the even rarer films that he loves, he set up a private film club in his house on rue Bobillot: the Société des Amis de Bram Stoker. He will also be with Michel Caen, Alain Le Bris and Jean-Claude Romer, the co-founder of the film review Midi Minuit Fantastique (1962-1971). This magazine was published by Éric Losfeld. Midi Minuit Fantastique was dedicated to fantasy, horror and science fiction films. Jean Boullet retired from writing in 1966.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jean Boullet, illustrateur {{!}} Galerie Au Bonheur du Jour - Paris |url=https://www.aubonheurdujour.net/peintres-illustrateurs/jean_boullet/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=Au Bonheur du Jour |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

Some of her traits seem to show aspects of libertarianism, Jean Boullet is also has an interest many other themes cuach sexology, illusionism, magic, demonology and popular mythology. In December 1965, he opened a bookshop, Le Kiosque, at 79, rue du Château, specializing in these themes and in collectible comics. Later crippled with debts, he closed shop at the beginning of 1969, and in August, he moved to Ouargla, Algeria to run a bookstore there.<ref>{{Cite web |title=queerplaces - Jean Boullet |url=http://www.elisarolle.com/queerplaces/fghij/Jean%20Boullet.html |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=www.elisarolle.com}}</ref>

On several occasions, he travelled to the Maghreb, notably to Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania, but also to Senegal and Sudan, from where he brought back many drawings.

During the summer of 1970, he left Ouargla for the south and undertook a trip while keeping his bookstore. During one of the stages of this trip, at the end of December, he was discovered in Tébessa, south of Constantine, according to the Algerian police report, hanging from a tree. In the book, Jean Boullet: Le Précurseur” by Denis Chollet, published in 1999, it is not known whether it was murder, suicide or a sexual thing that had gotten out of control. <ref>{{Cite web |title=The Male Universe of Subversive Genius Jean Boullet - Gay News ® |url=https://www.gay-news.com/article/3941/The-Male-Universe-of-Subversive-Genius-Jean-Boullet/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=www.gay-news.com |language=en}}</ref> According to the writer Roger Peyrefitte, Jean Boullet was stabbed to death.

Guy Loudmer, Hervé Poulain, and Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr dispersed his workshop in Paris on April 23, 1971.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boullet |first=Jean |title=Jean Boullet |date=1992 |publisher=Janssen |isbn=978-3-925443-18-3 |series=Der Mann in der Kunst |location=Berlin}}</ref>

== Homoeroticism == Openly homosexual, proclaiming himself "painter of male beauty", he multiplied the drawings or paintings of a homoerotic aesthetic somewhat inspired by that of Jean Cocteau.<ref>{{Cite web |last=John |first=Author |date=2014-07-08 |title=The art of Jean Boullet, 1921–1970 |url=https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2014/07/08/the-art-of-jean-boullet-1921-1970/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website={ feuilleton } |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Jean Boullet, during his life, met the Tout-Paris whose names were then: Édith Piaf, Michel Déon, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Jean Cocteau, Juliette Gréco, Jacques Chazot, Piéral (from 1942), Sacha Guitry, Marcel Carné, Roland Lesaffre, Kenneth Anger, Félix Labisse, Lise Deharme, Michel Laclos, Elliott Stein, Jacques Courtois.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Male Universe of Subversive Genius Jean Boullet - Gay News ® |url=https://www.gay-news.com/article/3941/The-Male-Universe-of-Subversive-Genius-Jean-Boullet/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=www.gay-news.com |language=en}}</ref>

He was also a friend of Max Jacob. A portrait in Indian ink made by him in 1943 representing the Breton poet wearing the yellow star is now preserved and presented at the Museum of Fine Arts in Quimper.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A la (re)découverte du fantasque Jean Boullet – Galeries & Musées |url=https://officiel-galeries-musees.fr/a-la-redecouverte-du-fantasque-jean-boullet/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boullet, Jean}} Category:1921 births Category:1970 deaths Category:20th-century French painters Category:French draughtsmen Category:20th-century French illustrators Category:French film critics Category:20th-century French writers Category:20th-century French male writers Category:French male painters Category:Painters from Paris Category:Writers from Paris Category:French LGBTQ painters Category:20th-century French male artists