A Little-known Essay on Manet by StĂŠphane MallarmĂŠ Author(s): Jean C. Harris Reviewed work(s): Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Dec., 1964), pp. 559-563 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3048220 . Accessed: 04/01/2012 00:51 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Art Bulletin.
http://www.jstor.org
NOTES
559
order,one coveringtheyears1845-1859, Mallarm6had only praise for the painter'smature chronological the otherthe years 1859-1868.1"'1 Of the artistsin the style, viewing it as the logical culminationof his Cafe Guerboiscircle, we learn that Bracquemond artisticaims. Up to the presenttime, however, the registeredon August 8, I849, with no recommenda- studyof Mallarm6'sviewson Manet'sarthasbeenbased tion; Degas on April 9, 1853, as a pupilof Barrias; exclusivelyon the evidencecontainedin one article,"Le Fantin-Latouron March 8, 1849, with no recom- jury de peinturepour 1874 et M. Manet,"whichapmendation;Maneton November26, 1858, as a pupil peared in La Renaissance littiraire et artistique on April of Couture;and Renoirin October,1861, as a pupil 12, 1874.2 Although this essaypresentsthe essentialfeaof Gleyre.102Of the more importantcontemporary tures of Mallarm6's defense of Manet's work, it does artists,Daubignyregisteredon January23, 1856, as so in a rudimentary fashion as compared with the a landscapepainter;Dor6 on June 6, 1849 and March argument developed in a second, but little-known, I I, 1859, as a draftsman;Fromentinin July, 186o, piece written by the poet two years later. This second as a painter; Guys on May 23, 1856, as a corre- article, entitled "The Impressionists and Edouard spondentfor the IllustratedLondonNews; Rodin on Manet," and publishedin a British periodical,the Art August 12, 1856, as a pupilof Dagand; and Tissoton Monthly Review,3 contains a very detailed appreciation October 16, 1858, as a pupilof Lamotheand Flan- of Manet's mature painting and deserves closer attendrin.103Of contemporary writersconcernedwith the tion than it has yet received. visualarts, Burty registeredon May 16, 1854, as a At the outset, it must be admitted that the 1876 flowerpainterandpupilof Chabal-Dussurgey; Champ- article presents nothing startlingly different from the fleuryon October 17, 1849 and in December,1859, earlier piece as far as its point of view is concerned. as a manof letters;andJules de Goncourton January The two pieces differ in emphasisrather than in attiI I, 1859, as a man of letters.'04Surprisingly, however, tude. However, the 1874 article is primarilya diatribe the most importantnames in this context, those of against the narrow-mindednessof the Salon Jury's criBaudelaire,Flaubert,and Zola, do not figure in the teria of selection4and contains relatively little analysis Cabinetdes Estampesregisters. of the artist's work. By contrast, the second article, al-
though it, too, was written after two of Manet's works had been refused for exhibitionby the jury,5 places its emphasisupon a detailedexaminationof the characteristic features of Manet's painting of the 1870's, the A LITTLE-KNOWN ESSAY ON MANET changes which had taken place in his art, and its posiBY STEPHANEMALLARMI tion in the development of modern French painting. The neglect of this article by the major scholars of JEAN C. HARRIS both Mallarm6 and Manet is probablydue to its having one Mallarm6 the few of was St6phane literary been publishedin English, which was not Mallarm6's and who understood thoroughly publicly de- native language, and to its having appeared in an obfigures fended the artisticproductionof Edouard Manet during scure and short-lived British periodical. At the very beginningof the 1876 essay,Mallarm6 the I870's. Unlike Emile Zola, who brilliantly defended Manet's paintingsof the I 86o's but denounced makesit clearthat he has writtena sort of pendantto those of the following decade as hasty and unfinished,' Baudelaire'sclassicessayon modernart, "Le peintre COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Io i. Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Registre des cartes de travail, December, I845-May, I859, and May, I859-April, 1868; the two volumes are numbered consecutively. Hereafter cited as Cartes de travail. Io2. Bracquemond: Cartes de travail, No. 15765 address, I6 rue de Monsieur. Degas: ibid., No. 1895; address not given 5 this information was recorded by Lemoisne, op.cit., I, p. 227 n. 13. Fantin-Latour: Cartes de travail, No. 1501; address, x rue du Dragon. Manet: ibid., No. 2361; address, 52 rue de la Victoire. Renoir: ibid., No. 3608; address, 23 rue d'Argenteuil. 103. Daubigny: ibid., No. 2050; address, 13 Quai d'Anjou. Dor6: ibid., Nos. 1535 and 2650; addresses, 8 rue Neuve St. Paul au Marais, and 75 rue St. Dominique St. Germain, respectively. Fromentin: ibid., No. 3300; address, 22 rue de Boursault. Guys: ibid., No. 20o97; address, 26 rue d'Aumale. Rodin: ibid., No. 2117; address, 12 rue des Foss6s St. Jacques. Tissot: ibid., No. 2266; address, 60 rue St. Louis. I04. Burty: ibid., No. I967; no address. Champfleury: ibid., Nos. 1598 and 3035; address, 3 rue d'Arcole. Goncourt: ibid., No. 2464; address, 43 rue St. Georges. i. In 1866, Zola wrote a famous article praising Manet's current work (see George Heard Hamilton, Manet and His Critics, New Haven, 1954, pp. 84-87). This article was ex-
panded and published in the Revue du XIXe sidcle on January i, 1867 (ibid., pp. 88-1o4). However, in 1879, Zola wrote a piece for a Russian periodical which was reprinted in Paris, accusing the Impressionists, and Manet in particular, of a lack of finish and hasty productions (ibid., pp. 217-221; also, Ima N. Ebin, "Manet and Zola," Gazette des BeauxArts, ser. 6, No. 27, June, 1945, p. 370). 2. This article is reprinted in full in Stephane Mallarme, Oeuvres complhtes, Paris, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, 1945, pp. 695-700, and in large part in English translation in Hamilton, op.cit., pp. 182-183. To my 3. Art Monthly Review, I, No. 9, pp. 17-121. knowledge, this article has never been reprinted. It is referred to in the Pl6iade edition of Mallarme's work cited above in note 2, pp. 1616-1617, but is not reproduced. 4. Two of the four works submitted by Manet to the Salon of I874 were rejected: the Swallows and the Ball at the Opera. The two works which were accepted, The Railroad and the watercolor of Punchinello, are basically more "conservative" works in that the central images are clearly distinguishable and placed in a prominent position in the foreground of the painting (see Hamilton, op.cit., pp. 175-176). 5. The works rejected by the Jury in 1876 were Le linge
and The Artist.
560
THE
ART
BULLETIN
portantstepin the artist'sdevelopmentof an individual style.Here, Mallarm6'sattitudeis quitedifferentfrom that of a criticlike Zola, who althoughhe recognized the linksbetweenManet'sworksand thoseof the past, emphasizedprimarilythe revolutionarycharacterof his techniqueand understatedthe borrowingsfrom olderworks.12Mallarme,on the otherhand,feels that theseearlyborrowingswere absolutelyessentialin Manet's development.This does not mean that Manet is in any sensea "copyist,"butratherthat he is one who, inspiredby his experiencesof the "wonderfulatmosof Velizquez pherewhichenshroudsthe compositions" and "the brillianttones which glow from the canvases"of the Flemishmasters,has learnedfrom them how to give his "paintingsbaseduponthemlivingreality insteadof renderingthem the baselessfabricof abstractedand obscuredreams."13 Mallarm6thusstresses thatlearningfrom the techniquesof pastmastersprovidesthe youngartistwith a vocabularyand a manner of handlingadaptableto his own artisticends. The artist'sdependenceuponthe pastis viewedas performing a positivefunctionin his education,Mallarm6says, by providinghim with "friendlycouncilin remedying the evilsof his countryand his time.""' And yet, Mallarm6recognizes,"freshthingsare not foundall at once; freshness,indeed,frequentlyconsists -and thisis especiallythe casein thesecriticaldaysin a co-ordinationof widely-scattered elements.""At first, accordingto the poet, Manet followeda course similarto thatpursuedby the writersof the period;he soughtfor new and strangesubjectswhich, although new and strange,were stilldrawnfromhis experience, hencewere true. To illustrateManet'searlypreoccupationwith novel imagery,Mallarm6describesthe infamousOlympia:"thatwan, wastedcourtesan,showing to the publicfor the firsttime, the non-traditional, unconventional nude. The bouquet,yet enclosedin its paperenvelope,the gloomycat, (apparentlysuggested by one of the prosepoemsof the authorof the 'Fleurs du Mal,') and all surroundingaccessories, were truthbut not and immoral. . ful, ... Captivating repulsiveat the same time, eccentric,and new, such types as he gave us wereneededin ourambientlife."16 Mallarm6then goes on to indicatethat thisconcern of Manetin the 186o'swith shocking,althoughtruthful, imagesrepresentsnot the fulfillmentof his artistic aims, but only a necessarytransitionalperiodin the of his full potentialities. He feels that Mathe eclectic nature of Manet's art of the I86o's, his development
de la vie moderne."' He presentsa specificcharacterization of one particularartist's work as the perfect embodiment of the modern spirit, just as Baudelaire did in the case of Constantin Guys. Also like Baudelaire, Mallarm6 uses his essay on the work of one individual artist as a vehicle for propounding the thesis that dynamic new movements in art perform a salutary function in society as a whole by reeducating the public's aesthetic sensibility.Although this thesis is implied in the 1874 article, it is not analyzed in as much detail as it is in the later piece. In addition, the 1876 essay is much more precise in its analysisof the specialcharacter of Manet's painting and its relationshipto the Impressionistmovement than is the earlier article. After a brief mention of the pioneer of the modern movements, Realism, and its supersessionof Romanticism, Mallarm6 launches into the discussionof Manet's art and its development. He begins by stating that there is a distinctionbetween Manet's painting and what is termed "mere Realism."' He then presentsa succinct and picturesqueaccount of Manet's procedure and attitude, reporting as if he were quoting directly the words of the artist: "Each time he begins a picture, says he, he plunges headlong into it, and feels like a man who knows that his surest plan to learn to swim safely is, dangerous as it may seem, to throw himself into the water. One of his habitual aphorismsthen is that no one should paint a landscape and a figure by the same process, with the same knowledge, or in the same fashion; nor what is more, even two landscapesor two figures." The artist's aim, continues Mallarm6, is to create each work anew, retaining as few memories of former methods as possible.8 This account conforms exactly with other contemporary descriptionsof Manet's procedure which emphasize his disdain for tradition, coupled with a desire to capture images in an appropriatelyspontaneousand unpremeditatedform, avoiding recourse to studio conventions.9 However, Mallarm' does not rest at this point in his account. He goes on to stress that "such a result as this cannot be attained all at once. To reach it the master must pass through many phases ere this self-isolation can be acquired, and this new evolution of art be learnt."'1 The recognition, that Manet's art is not static, that it has a development which deserves study, leads Mallarm' to his next point, which is that "first manner," as Mallarm6 calls it,11 is the first im-
net's recent work surpassesthat of the previous decade
See the English translation of Zola's expanded essay 6. In the first paragraphof the article (p. i I7), Mallarm6 x2. of January I, 1867 in Hamilton, op.cit., pp. 88-o04, esperefers to Baudelaireas "our last great poet." 8. Loc.cit. 7. Loc.cit. 9. The most complete account is that contained in Zola's article of January I, 1867, cited in note i. However, the accounts in A. Proust, Edouard Manet, souvenirs, Paris, 191x3, and in Th6odore Duret, Les peintres franpais en 1867, especially the section reproduced in translation in Hamilton, Manet and His Critics, pp. io8-x x x, are very similar to Zola's report. i o. Mallarmb, "The Impressionists and Edouard Manet," p. xx8. ii . Loc.cit.
cially p. 9 : "He spoke a stern but elegant language which shocked the public to a degree. I do not contend that this language was entirely new, and that it did not contain some Spanish expressions which I should have to translate for myself. But from certain bold and veracious metaphors it was easy to see that an artist had been born unto us. He spoke a language which he had made his own, and which henceforth belonged only to him." "The Impressionists and Edouard Manet," p. 1x3. Mallarme, xx8. i6. Loc.cit. 14. Loc.cit. 15. Loc.cit.
fW: #Oki
IitIfI Miff"I1(113IJ
-Akr
" lot ok
( Ii. Michaeli, Perseus Room, Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome
12.
4t.1
(x
Michaeli, Adoration of the Shepherds. Parma,
7
sipr7
"Ptr
Awe'
tzpm*~ a-
c~lsT
dlib~~h
-~- -
A? 11 ;iaIF
~-~~? ~ FUAM~w
J
4
13. Michaeli, Battle of Tolbiac, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome (photo: Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale)
i.
Edouard Manet, Le fleur exotique, etching and aquatint, second state. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
2.
Edou "Th
NOTES because his preoccupation with eccentric images has been replacedby a more healthy concern with contemporary social normality. In works such as Le linge, one of the paintings rejected by the Salon Jury in 1876, Mallarm6 feels, Manet's aim at last has been fully realized. Mallarm6 defines this aim as "not to make a momentary escapade or sensation [which he obviously feels the earlier paintings such as Olympia did], but by steadily endeavoring to impress upon his work a naturaland general law, to seek out a type rather than a personality,and to flood it with light and air.""' Here we arrive at the heart of Mallarme's argument, the elucidationof the underlying theme of Manet's mature art, and that of the younger painters,the concern with open air. Just as Baudelaire emphasized, in "Le peintre de la vie moderne," that picturesque beauties were discoverable in modern dress,"8 so Mallarm6 stresses that contemporaryfigures painted out-of-doors can reveal artistictruth in a way that is peculiarlymeaningful for the modern era. He describesManet's painting Le linge as an illustrationof what he means in the following terms: "Everywhere the luminous and transparentatmospherestruggleswith the figures, the dresses, and the foliage, and seems to take to itself some of their substanceand solidity; whilst their contours, consumed by the hidden sun and wasted by space, tremble, melt, and evaporate into the surrounding atmosphere,which plunders reality from the figures, yet seems to do so in order to preserve their truthful aspect."19 At this and other points in his essay, Mallarm6 implies that the concern on the part of modern painters with outdoor light representsa democraticvision never before explored in the visual arts, and that this democratic vision is the equivalent of the movement toward political democracy in France "that will honor the whole close of the nineteenth century."20 The experience of rendering objects as they appear in outdoor light forces the truthful artist to dispense with the traditionalarrangement of forms in an hierarchicalorder, while the paintings which result induce the spectator to pay attention to the insubstantialas well as to the substantialelements in nature. This assertionof a wider scope in visual experience than had hitherto been presented is, for Mallarm6, the aim of the modern artist in its greatest fulfillment. The modern artist has taken upon himself the mission of opening the eyes of the public to a "just and pure" visual experience not found previously in the history of art.21 Mallarm6 recognizes that the means by which Manet achieves the effects of open air depend upon artifices, or acquired devices. He continues his discussionwith a detailed analysis of these devices: 17. Mallarmb, "The Impressionists and Edouard Manet," p. 119. 18. The idea is first expressed by Baudelaire in his review of the Salon of 1845 (see The Mirror of Art, Critical Studies by Baudelaire, Jonathan Mayne, ed., Doubleday Anchor Books, p. 37: "The painter, the true painter for whom we are looking, will be he who can snatch its epic quality from the life of today and can make us see and understand, with brush or with pencil, how great and poetic we are in our
561
"As no artisthas on his palettea transparentand neutral color answering to open air, the desired effect can only be obtainedby lightnessor heavinessof touch, or by the regulationof tone. Now Manet and his school use simple color, fresh, or lightly laid on, and their results appear to have been attained at the first stroke, that the everpresent light blendswith and vivifiesall things. As to the details of the picture, nothing should be absolutelyfixed in order that we may feel that the bright gleam which lights the picture, or the diaphanousshadow which veils it, are only seen in passing, and just when the spectator beholds the representedsubject, which being composed of a harmony of reflected and ever-changing lights, cannot be supposedalways to look the same, but palpitates with movement, light, and life.""2 At this point, Mallarm6 asks the question, "But will not this atmosphere-which an artifice of the painter extends over the whole of the object painted-vanish, when the completely finished work is as a repainted picture?"23 No, he says, for "from the first conception of the work, the space intended to contain the atmosphere has been indicated, so that when this is filled by the represented air, it is as unchangeable as the other parts of the picture."2' This does not mean, for Mallarm6, that the modern artist falls back upon traditionalconventions of compositionto maintain pictorial integrity, for "as a rule the grouping of modern persons does not suggest it," but that the artist has discovered a new "manner of cutting down pictures,"so that the frame has "all the charm of a merely fanciful boundary,such as that which is embracedat one glance of a scene framed in by the hands. . . ." The frame
serves the purpose of indicating that "this is the picture and the function of the frame is to isolate it ...,125 but it has no directive effect on the dispositionof the objects within its boundaries.Rather, the construction of the solids and their dispositionare determined by the artist's observationof the complex interaction between those solids and the surroundingair. Mallarm6 closes his essay with a simulated manifesto of the new movement in art, including among its adherents not only Manet, but also Monet, Berthe Morisot, Renoir, Whistler, and Degas, all of whom he feels are linked by a common concern with the open air. In the wording of this passage, Mallarm6 seems to betray a closer personalattachment to the ideals of the new art than he does anywhere else in the article. The passageis worth quoting in full, for it serves admirably to summarize the major points which Mallarm6 has made throughout the article: "That which I preserve through the power of Imcravats and our patent-leather boots."). 19. Mallarmb, "The Impressionists and Edouard Manet," p. 119. zo. Loc.cit. 21. Loc.cit. 22. Mallarme, "The Impressionists and Edouard Manet," p. 119. 23. Loc.cit. 24. Ibid., p. 120. 25.
Loc.cit.
562
THE
ART
BULLETIN
pressionismis not the material portion which already exists, superior to any mere representationof it, but the delight of having recreated nature touch by touch. I leave the massiveand tangible solidity to its fitter exponent, sculpture. I content myself with reflecting on the clear and durable mirror of painting, that which perpetually lives yet dies every moment, which only exists by the will of Idea, yet constitutesin my domain the only authentic and certain merit of nature-the Aspect. It is through her that when rudely thrown at the close of an epoch of dreams in front of reality, I have taken from it only that which properlybelongs to my art, an original and exact perception which distinguishes for itself the things it perceives with the steadfast gaze of a vision restored to its simplest perfection."2' One could conclude here quite simply with the observation that Mallarme's second article on Manet is an important document, unjustly neglected, for an understandingof the complex nature of the artist'smature work and its reputation.But the keen insight exhibited by Mallarm6 in his essay raises several questionswhich cannot easily be ignored. It is not possiblehere to give answers to all such questions,but a few points may be tentatively presented. A question which may occur first to the reader is: how reliableare Mallarme's account and interpretation of Manet's method and aims? There is no doubt that Mallarm6 was well acquainted with Manet and his work by 1876.27 The men had collaborated on two projects by this time. The first was an edition of Mallarme's translation of "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe with six illustrationsby Manet.28 The other was an edition of Mallarm6's poem, "L'apres-midi d'un faune," also accompaniedby Manet's illustrations.29In addition, the two were contemplating other collaborative projects.30 These encounters certainly provided Mallarm6 with ample opportunityto become informed about Manet's aims and working habits. Also, as we have seen, Mallarme's account of Manet's methods in no way contradictsother contemporaryreports.Therefore, as far as the descriptionof Manet's technique is concerned, Mallarme's article would seem to contain authentic statements. The really problematicfeature of Mallarme's piece 26. Mallarm6, "The Impressionists and Edouard Manet," p. I21.
Paris, 1941, I, p. 27. Henri Mondor (Vie de Mallarmr, 344 n. 2) feels that the two must have met in 187328. The edition of 240 numbered copies was published by Richard Lesclide in Paris in 1875 (see M. Guerin, L'oeuvre gravi de Manet, Paris, 1944, No. 85). 29. The first editikn, published by Derenne in Paris in 1876, consisted of 195 examples numbered and signed by the author and by Manet, who contributed four small wood-engravings to the publication. A second edition appeared after Manet's death, with the wood-engravings reproduced photographically (see ibid., No. 93). 30. At the time of the publication of "Le corbeau," some of the posters announcing its appearance were issued with a mention of another collaboration by the two men, an illustrated edition of Mallarme's translation of Poe's poem, "La
is its interpretationof Manet's aims, and this is the aspect of Manet's art which is most difficult to describe with accuracy. Manet himself never wrote anything about his views on art. All that we know is deduced from the reportsof others and from the paintingsthemselves. However, as we noted above, Mallarme's description of Manet's aesthetic is not at variance with that given by other witnessesof the period.Where Mallarm6's analysisdiffers from that of his contemporaries is in the precision of its terminology, for, unlike other writers, he discussesManet's works in terms which are applicabledirectly to painting, not in terms transferred from the realm of literature. At the same time, the clarity and precisionof his language suggest that he understood not only the implicationsof the visual effects of Manet's paintings, but also their aesthetic premises. Such understanding would seem possible for a poet, a practitionerin another medium, only if he could identify the painter's aims with his own. From what is known of Mallarm6's theory of poetry at this point in his career, we may suggest with much justification that he could have carried on an amicable discussionabout aestheticswith Manet. Mallarm6 felt that the aim of poetry was "peindre non la chose, mais l'effet qu'elle produit."31The object was importantonly in terms of an experience of it. At the same time, Mallarm6 believed fully in the necessity for rigorous discipline of his medium. But this discipline was to be so thoroughly enmeshed in the fabric of the work that the reader would be unaware of the mechanics by which the poem was created. In other words, the successful poem should impart both a sense of completeness and a mood of spontaneity.32As we have seen, these are precisely the qualities which Mallarm6 understoodand admiredin Manet's mature paintings-sureness and spontaneity, combined to produce an experience of "the effect produced" by the interaction between solids and space, or what Mallarm6 calls the Aspect. It seems plausibleto conclude, then, that the similarity between Mallarme's personal poetic theory and Manet's art helped to make the poet exceptionally sensitiveto the painter'saims and able to interpretthem with justice. Finally, it is possiblethat Mallarme's sympatheticunderstandingof Manet's mature painting may have had cit6 en la mer." (see ibid., No. 85). Although this particular project was never carried out, Mallarme did publish an edition of additional translations of Poe's poems in 1877 (see Mondor, Vie de MallarmM, I, p. 392). The idea of collaborating on another project occurs in the correspondence between the two men quite often until Manet's death (see ibid., I, p. 389, a letter by Manet to Mallarme dated September, 1876; p. 418, two letters by Manet written during the summer of 1881). Finally, it is worth mentioning that Mallarme dedicated his 1888 edition of translations of Poe's poems to Manet: "A la memoire d'Edouard Manet, ces feuillets, que nous limes ensembles." (Ibid., p. 543.) 31. These words are contained in an important letter, written by Mallarm6 from London to his editor, Henri Cazalis, in Paris, dated October, 1864 (ibid., p. x45). 32. See the discussion of Mallarm6's method in E. Noulet, L'oeuvre poitique de Mallarmi, Paris, 1940, p. 171.
NOTES an indirect influence upon one aspect of the painter's work, namely, his graphic art. Up to the time of his first collaborationwith Mallarm6, Manet had executed his publishedprints"8primarilyin the etching medium, using technical devices and imagery which were drawn from the works of older practitionersin this form of print-making. An etching such as Le fleur exotique (Fig. I), made for publicationin Philippe Burty's Sonnets et eaux-fortes in 1869, is typical, in its Goyesque flavor,"8of the graphic work of Manet's "first manner." The woman's image is conveyed through simple, but richly textured, areas made up of fine parallel lines and aquatint. Manet's illustrationsfor "The Raven," on the other hand, are far more personal in their handling and contemporaryin their images. A typical scene is "The Entrance of the Raven" (Fig. 2), in which the two living figures in a simple setting are freely drawn with a minimum of tonal variety or surface embellishment. Furthermore, the print is executed in a lithographic medium which allowed the artist much Finally, greater boldnessof drawing than did etching."s5 unlike the earlierprint, the illustrationfor "The Raven" does not contain any overt visual references to exotic types or technical devices gleaned from older works of art, but employs a contemporaryfigure and setting, and a purely individualdraftsmanship.That such a decisive 33. Of the total of 76 prints which Manet executed from 186o through 1873, only 22 were actually issued in print editions with his authorizationduring his life-time. Of these 22 prints, 19 were executedin the etching medium. 34. Both the compositionand graphic treatmentof Le fleur exotique are reminiscentof plate No. 15, "Bellos consejos,"of the Caprichosseriesby Goya. There are many such derivations in Manet's etchings of the sixties. Inspired by the Caprichos also, are the two versions of 4u Prado (Gu6rin, L'oeuere grave de Manet, Nos. 45 and 46), which resembleclosely plate 27 of Goya's work, "Quien mas rendido." Manet also was inspired by the Spanish master's Tauromachiaseries, notably in his painting and etching of Mile. V en costume d'espada (ibid., No. 32), in which the backgroundimages are copied almost intact from those in plates 3 and 5 of Goya's series. In addition,Manet musthave been familiar with Goya'setched copies of paintings by Velizquez (Goya's etching after Los borrachosappearsin the upperright cornerof Manet'sportrait of Zola), for both Manet's etching after the so-called Velizquez portrait of Philip IV in the Louvre (ibid., No. 7) and the etched version of Les petits cavaliers (ibid., No. 8) are similar to Goya's prints. (For comparable works by Goya, see E. Lafuente Ferrari, Goya, His CompleteEtchings, 4quatints, and Lithographs, New York, 1962, p. 251, the copy of Velizquez' portrait of the Infante d. Fernando,and p. 243, the copy of Los borrachos.) Theodore Duret, in Histoire d'EdouardManet et de son oeuvre, Paris, 1926, p. 163, states that Manet delighted in making deliberate referencesto the works of past mastersin his own works. 35. The techniqueis called "autographe"by French writers. The artist drew with a brush and special ink upon a prepared paper, which was then placed face down on the stone. The paper was disintegratedby water, leaving the drawing adhering to the stone. The advantageof this processwas that the artist could draw boldly and freely and that the drawing would appear in print facing in the same direction as that in which it was executed. 36. Mallarmb's personal taste in graphics seems to have been rather conservative.In 1876, in a letter to a Miss Sara
563
changecameaboutafterhismeetingwith Mallarm6and is firstseenin a jointprojectwith the poetsuggeststhat Mallarm6mighthave had somehand in effectingthe change. However,thereis no preciseevidenceto substantiate for the any claim for Mallarme'sdirectresponsibility changein Manet'sgraphicart."sAll that can be stated withassuranceis thatManet,in 1875, recognizedmore clearlythanhe hadupto thistimethatthe sketchymanner whichhe was then developingin his oils could be successfullyadaptedto his blackand white production. It can be only suggestedthat it was Mallarme'senof his maturestyle in couragementand understanding paintingwhich led Manet to adaptit for use in the graphicmedia,and thatManetwas so pleasedwith the resultsthathe neverreturnedto hisearlypreoccupation with the carefullyworkedetchingas a formof graphic expression.8" In any case, whateverwere the by-productsof the betweenthepoetandthepainterin the 1870's, friendship there can be little doubtthat Mallarme's1876 article on Manet'smaturepaintingremainsthe mostperceptive and brilliantlystatedpieceof criticismdevotedto the artist'swork duringthe nineteenthcentury. MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE Rice in Baltimore written in connection with a memorial volume of the works of Poe which was being prepared in America, Mallarm6 says: "Mon ami Manet et mon collaborateur Manet, qui, avec son crayon mieux que par une phrase ou deux, souhaite de r6pondre a votre bienveillante invitation, me demande quel dessin il peut faire pour l'ornementation; bois ou cuivre, il enverrait ce qu'on lui designera, soit gravure, soit eau-forte (ce dernier proc6d6 6tant, entre nous, l'un de ceux ofi il excelle) .. ." (Noulet, L'oeuvre poktique de Mallarm), p. 248). A more specific idea of Mallarme's taste in graphic work can be gleaned from an examination of a passage written to Cazalis in 1868, describing the kind of etching which he feels might accompany his contribution to Burty's Sonnets et eaux-fortes: "Par exemple, une fenetre nocturne ouverte, les deux volets attach6s, une chambre avec personne dedans, malgr6 Pair stable que presentent les volets attaches, et dans une nuit faite d'absence et d'interrogation, sans meubles, sinon l'6bauche plausible de vaines consoles, un cadre, belliqueux et agonisant, de miroir appendu au fond, avec sa reflexion stellaire et incompr6hensible, de la grande Ourse, qui relie au ciel ce logis abandonn6 du monde." (Ibid., pp. 267268.) These passages certainly lead one to realize that Mallarm6's taste was quite different from Manet's as far as pictorial treatment is concerned. 37. Typical of Manet's late graphic style is the etching entitled Le printemps (Guerin, L'oeuere grave de Manet, No. 66), which repeats a motif from one of his oils exhibited in the Salon of 1882. The etching depicts a young woman seen in profile against a flowery background. The face and the ribbon under the chin are the only shapes which are fully outlined. In the other portions of the print, particularly in the dress and in the background, there are only sketchy lines to indicate objects. The emphasis is upon the activity of the surface rather than upon the pattern of juxtaposed areas. Hence, the etching suggests transience and air rather than stable form, and is similar to the effect seen in the illustrations for "The Raven" rather than to that seen in an earlier etching such as Le fleur exotique.