André Frénaud

After secondary school in Dijon, he continued his studies in Philosophy and Law in Paris. In 1930, he was a lecturer in French at the University of Lwów (in Poland at the time), and traveled in Russia, Spain and Italy. In 1937, he joined a public service, which he did not leave until 1967. Mobilized in 1939, he was taken prisoner and spent two years in captivity in Brandenburg, before being released and sent back to France on false papers. Having started writing in 1938, his poems appeared, under the pseudonym "Benjamin Phelisse", in the clandestine publications of the Resistance directed by Paul Éluard, notably L'Honneur des poètes, and he was an active contributor to Jean Lescure's magazine Messages. His collections have subsequently been published regularly by Gallimard, along with interviews with Bernard Pingaud on his poetry and poetic creation in general. He was one of the signatories of the Manifesto of 121 on the right of insubordination during the Algerian war, published on September 6, 1960. As a civil servant, he was punished by the state with several months' suspension. In 1973, he was awarded the Grand prix de poésie de l'Académie française, in 1985 the Grand Prix National de Poésie and, in 1989, the Grand prix de poésie de la SGDL (Société des gens de lettres). Frénaud forged lasting friendships with painters Raoul Ubac and Jean Bazaine, whose exhibitions he accompanied with his prefaces. His poems are also illustrated by many other artists. He has collaborated fruitfully with publisher, poet and artist Pierre-André Benoit (PAB) in Alès. After marrying Christiane Bailly in the 1950s, André Frénaud married Monique Mathieu, on June 8, 1971. In recent years, Mathieu had developed an important and personal body of work, supported by leading bibliophiles. The couple acquired and restored an old house in Bussy-le-Grand, Côte-d'Or, and set up a workshop where Monique Mathieu bound many of her husband's works, as well as those of their literary and painter friends. He died on June 21, 1993, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.

In 1999, Monique Mathieu donated ninety-five works (twenty paintings, fifty-eight drawings and collaged papers, fourteen engravings and three sculptures) to the town of Autun (Saône-et-Loire). After two temporary exhibitions of the donation in 2000 and 2004 at the Musée Rolin, the 90 m2 permanent exhibition room was inaugurated in October 2008, in the newly converted attic of the Hôtel Lacomme. Notably displayed are L'Homme à la pochette (1945) by Dubuffet, Hommage à Jean Fouquet (1952) by Estève, Corps étendu (1949) and Nature morte jaune (1950) by Ubac, L'Oiseleur by Jacques Villon (1931), the sculpture Oiseau et oiseaux (1950) by André Beaudin, and portraits of André Frénaud by Ubac (1948) and André Beaudin (1954).