Jean Cocteau’s London mural

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) – poet, writer, playwright, filmmaker and artist – painted this mural in the Notre Dame de France church in London in 1960. The church was bombed in the Second World War and rebuilt in mid-1950s. It’s next to the Prince Charles cinema, just off Leicester Square. It took Cocteau about a week to paint, during which time he’d often talk to the figures he was painting. You can make out, on the bottom left, a Judas-like figure turning his back to Christ. It’s a self-portrait of Cocteau.