Claude Cahun: artist

Born: Nantes, France, 1894

Died: Jersey, 1854

Buried at: St. Brelade’s Church, where they walked their beloved cats

“Shuffle the cards. Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.” – Claude Cahun

Jersey is home to the world’s best collection of work by Claude Cahun, a surrealist artist, photographer and writer of growing relevance today.

Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes in 1894, Cahun died on Jersey in 1954 and is buried at St. Brelade’s Church, next to the house she had shared with her partner Marcel Moore (Suzanne Malherbe).

During their lifetime, the couple became village eccentrics, walking their cat (called Kid) on a lead, wearing trousers, and making art in and around their house. Initially, they found life in Jersey to be a “holiday without end”, says the Jersey Archive. However, as a result of their two-woman Nazi resistance campaign, the couple were arrested and imprisoned in St. Helier in 1944. They remained there, narrowly avoiding the death sentence, until Jersey was liberated in 1945.

Moore died in 1972 and is buried at St. Brelade’s Church alongside Cahun.

You can visit the church and their graves on the south west side of the island, overlooking St. Brelade’s Bay.

Their work is not on permanent display in Jersey, but you can find out more and get permission to view the archive here