1900-1916 - A Breton Family in Paris

Bibliographie written by Renée Mabin, in Yves Tanguy, ed.Palantines, 2001.

Yves Tanguy was born January 5, 1900 in Paris, in the Navy Ministry where his father Felix, a retired navy officer had taken residence and became chief warrant officer after 25 years at sea (1).
A native of Brest, Felix Tanguy had married a sweet and secret girl of Locronan who already gave him three children. In 1903, he was assigned to the Hydrographic Service of the Navy and his son Yves spent his childhood residing at 13 rue de l’Universite.
Later, Yves will be perceived by his friends and fellow artists as a Breton infused with a Celtic imagination, "Guide of the times of the mistletoe Druids", according the the Abridged Dictionnary of Surrealism. In fact he was very attached to Locronan and the beaches of Douarnenez where he joyfully spent his holidays.
Following the death of his father in 1908, his mother was forced to ask for and obtained the licence of a tobacco shop and he was entrusted for four years to relatives living in Plestin les Grèves, on the Côtes d'Armor.
But as a teenager he eventually returned to Paris. He entered Secondary School at Lycée Montaigne in 1912 and further pursued his studies at Lycée St Louis. Greatly affected and discouraged by World War I and the disappearance of his beloved brother Henri, he took to alcohol and the bohemian life, secret and rebellious.
When in 1916 his mother retired at the Prieuré, an ancient house in Locronan, Yves remained in Paris on Coëtlogon street in the Sixth Arrondissement, under the supervision of his sister Emilie, a teacher.