Henri-Pierre Roché

Henri-Pierre Roché (28 May 1879 – 9 April 1959) was a French author who was involved with the artistic avant-garde in Paris and the Dada movement.

Late in life, Roché published two novels: his first was Jules et Jim (1953), a semi-autobiographical work published when he was 74. His second novel, Les deux anglaises et le continent (Two English Girls, 1956), also was inspired by his life. Both were adapted as films by the director François Truffaut, in 1962 and 1971 respectively. The popularity of the film Jules and Jim brought renewed attention to Roché's novels and life. Roché was born in Paris, France. In 1898, he was an art student at the Académie Julian.Roché became a journalist as well as an art collector and dealer. At the turn of the 20th century, he became close friends with young European artists in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, including Manuel Ortiz de Zárate and Marie Vassilieff; and from Montmartre, Max Jacob and Pablo Picasso. He was at home in the world of artists, collectors and gallerists. In November 1905, he introduced the Americans Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo to Picasso.

Leo Stein described Roché as "a tall man with an inquiring eye under an inquisitive forehead, wanted to know something more about everything. He was a born liaison officer, who knew everybody and wanted everybody to know everybody else." Gertrude, in chapter 3 of her The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, described Roché in much the same terms. She particularly appreciated his having read her Three Lives and early recognition of her value as a writer.Roché was also a friend of Francis Picabia, Constantin Brâncuși and Marcel Duchamp. Following his discharge from the French army, Roché and Duchamp traveled to New York City in 1916. There, they worked with Beatrice Wood to create The Blind Man and Rongwrong, two magazines that were among the early manifestations in the United States of the Dada art movement.

Roché became the chief advisor to the American art collector John Quinn in 1917 and made many acquisitions for him from 1917 to 1924.

Known for his womanizing, Roché married twice, first to Germaine Bonnard (1927–1948; separated 1933), then to Denise Renard (1948–1959). He had no children with Bonnard. His only child, a son with Renard, Jean-Claude Roche, was born in 1931.