The Brush and the Pen
Odilon Redon and Literature
Translated by Mary Whittall
424 pages
|
94 halftones
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6 x 9
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© 2011
French symbolist artist Odilon Redon (1840–1916) seemed to thrive at the intersection of literature and art. Known as “the painter-writer,” he drew on the works of Poe, Baudelaire, Flaubert, and Mallarmé for his subject matter. And yet he concluded that visual art has nothing to do with literature. Examining this apparent contradiction, The Brush and the Pen transforms the way we understand Redon’s career and brings to life the interaction between writers and artists in fin-de-siècle Paris.
Dario Gamboni tracks Redon’s evolution from collaboration with the writers of symbolism and decadence to a defense of the autonomy of the visual arts. He argues that Redon’s conversion was the symptom of a mounting crisis in the relationship between artists and writers, provoked at the turn of the century by the growing power of art criticism that foreshadowed the modernist separation of the arts into intractable fields. In addition to being a distinguished study of this provocative artist, The Brush and the Pen offers a critical reappraisal of the interaction of art, writing, criticism, and government institutions in late nineteenth-century France.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Artist and His Myth
The Quest for Origins and Their Effacement
Indecision and Artistic Vocation
Art versus Determinism
Chapter 2: The Painter as Poet-Philosopher
The Review of the 1868 Salon
The Later Writings
The Ethical Basis of Drawing
Recourse to Literary Sources
Chapter 3: Entering the Artistic Field
A Late Start, Individualism, and Marginal Status
Lithography as an Expedient
Astray on the Boulevard? The Exhibitions of 1881 and 1882
Chapter 4: The Writers’ Role
Introductions
Redon and the Decadents: Homologies and Affinities
Criticism and Its Interests
J.-K. Huysmans, Priority, and Primacy
Writers as Artists’ Agents
Criticism as Transubstantiation
Portraits of the Bourgeois as an Artist
Chapter 5: The Edgar Poe of the Graphic Arts
A Literary Public—a Literary Art?
The Question of Illustration
Translating Poe
Literary References, Titles, Captions, and Albums
“On the Frontiers of All the Arts”
J.-K.Huysmans and Poetic Criticism
Chapter 6: An Album and Its Transposition
J.-K. Huysmans, “The New Album by Odilon Redon”
The Homage to Goya Campaign and the Crystallization of Symbolism
The Technique and Principles of Transposition
Chapter 7: Face of Mystery: Iconology and Communication
Pre-iconographical Analysis
From Dürer to Pascal: Sources, Comparisons, and the Semantic Field
Face of Mystery as Self-Portrait: An Image of the Artist and of Art
Face of Mystery as a Mirror
Ambiguity, Exegesis, and a Community of Equals oo
Chapter 8: The Expanse and the Limits of the Restricted Field
Internationalism and Marginality
Proselytism and Exclusiveness
The Limitations of Literary Friendships
Estrangement from Huysmans and the Move to the Right Bank
Chapter 9: Redon’s Change of Direction
The Turning Point Explained
The End of Artistic Isolation
Illustration as Interpretation
La tentation: Avatars of Literary Associations
The “Renaissance of Lithography”
“Consecration” and Ambiguities of Symbolism
The Primacy of Admirers and the Limits of Recognition
Chapter 10: Redon in the Arena of Criticism
Avowals, Denials, and Polemics
The Brush Takes Up the Pen: The Late Writings
New Views of Art, Literature, and Criticism
Chapter 11: Friends and Foes: The Pen and the Brush
A Posthumous Triumph
Family Quarrels
A Fin-de-Siècle Crisis in Artist-Writer Relations
The Rise of Formalism and the Complicity of Adversaries
Conclusion
Notes
Index
Preface to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Artist and His Myth
The Quest for Origins and Their Effacement
Indecision and Artistic Vocation
Art versus Determinism
Chapter 2: The Painter as Poet-Philosopher
The Review of the 1868 Salon
The Later Writings
The Ethical Basis of Drawing
Recourse to Literary Sources
Chapter 3: Entering the Artistic Field
A Late Start, Individualism, and Marginal Status
Lithography as an Expedient
Astray on the Boulevard? The Exhibitions of 1881 and 1882
Chapter 4: The Writers’ Role
Introductions
Redon and the Decadents: Homologies and Affinities
Criticism and Its Interests
J.-K. Huysmans, Priority, and Primacy
Writers as Artists’ Agents
Criticism as Transubstantiation
Portraits of the Bourgeois as an Artist
Chapter 5: The Edgar Poe of the Graphic Arts
A Literary Public—a Literary Art?
The Question of Illustration
Translating Poe
Literary References, Titles, Captions, and Albums
“On the Frontiers of All the Arts”
J.-K.Huysmans and Poetic Criticism
Chapter 6: An Album and Its Transposition
J.-K. Huysmans, “The New Album by Odilon Redon”
The Homage to Goya Campaign and the Crystallization of Symbolism
The Technique and Principles of Transposition
Chapter 7: Face of Mystery: Iconology and Communication
Pre-iconographical Analysis
From Dürer to Pascal: Sources, Comparisons, and the Semantic Field
Face of Mystery as Self-Portrait: An Image of the Artist and of Art
Face of Mystery as a Mirror
Ambiguity, Exegesis, and a Community of Equals oo
Chapter 8: The Expanse and the Limits of the Restricted Field
Internationalism and Marginality
Proselytism and Exclusiveness
The Limitations of Literary Friendships
Estrangement from Huysmans and the Move to the Right Bank
Chapter 9: Redon’s Change of Direction
The Turning Point Explained
The End of Artistic Isolation
Illustration as Interpretation
La tentation: Avatars of Literary Associations
The “Renaissance of Lithography”
“Consecration” and Ambiguities of Symbolism
The Primacy of Admirers and the Limits of Recognition
Chapter 10: Redon in the Arena of Criticism
Avowals, Denials, and Polemics
The Brush Takes Up the Pen: The Late Writings
New Views of Art, Literature, and Criticism
Chapter 11: Friends and Foes: The Pen and the Brush
A Posthumous Triumph
Family Quarrels
A Fin-de-Siècle Crisis in Artist-Writer Relations
The Rise of Formalism and the Complicity of Adversaries
Conclusion
Notes
Index
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