Pierre Bréant
Pierre Bréant is a journalist by profession. He began his career in Quebec at Radio-Canada. In France, he contributed to numerous newspapers and publications (Arts, Diapason, Harmonie, La Vie Française) and worked for the AFP news agency. As a music critic, he produced several programs for Radio France and Radio Suisse Romande. At France Culture, he co-authored a series on the Grand Guignol with Gérard Gromer. He also wrote an opera libretto for the composer Tolia Nikiprowetzky, La Veuve du héros (The Hero's Widow), and a novel about the life of a painter during the Roaring Twenties, Couleurs de femme (Colors of a Woman), published by AKR.
From the land of icons to the heady Rome of Cardinal Farnese, from Titian's workshop in Venice to the scorched earth of Castile, the young Cretan's life was a series of wrenching separations, fleeting loves, false starts, and intense passions. He envisioned himself at the Escorial, the construction site of the time, but it was Toledo that claimed him. And Domenikos Theotokopoulos truly became El Greco, culminating in The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. From his rocky perch, this living legend watched the century unfold, rubbing shoulders with the most enigmatic of kings, Philip II, and maintaining privileged, even spiritual, relationships with the two leading figures of the moment: Mother Teresa (Teresa of Ávila) and John of the Cross. He was fascinated by them, yet never relinquished his freedom to live—a remarkable feat in the land of the Inquisition!—or his creative freedom. In the name of this same freedom, the bodies he paints stretch upwards, like flames. The flames of love that govern his life. His life: nothing less than a grand adventure! Publication date: November 1, 2023 Order now
