Figaro. An Article by Jacques Blanche about a work dedicated to
Gaston Calmette.
We may recall that on several occasions a work by our eminent
friend and collaborator Marcel Proust, entitled: Du Côté de chez
Swann, has been spoken of in these pages. The author has chosen to
dedicate it: "To Gaston Calmette as a testimony of affectionate and
profound gratitude." We are also especially touched to find in L'Echo
de Paris a long article devoted to Du Côté de chez Swann
by Jacques Blanche, the illustrious artist, calling the work of Marcel
Proust a masterpiece and adding more value still to the homage paid to the
Director whom we mourn and whom we admire with all our hearts.
***
Débats, An Article by Jacques-E. Blanche.
M. Jacques-E. Blanche is not simply the great painter we know. He is
also a critic of rare perception. The article that he devotes to M. Marcel
Proust and his book Du Côté de chez Swann in L'Echo de
Paris is a small masterpiece in its own right. "Marcel Proust", as
M. Blanche states with great sensitivity, "takes pleasure in a sort of
cinematic representation in which he himself poses for all the characters,
throws at will the mantle of one over the shoulders of another. What M.
Proust sees, what he feels is done with complete originality. Meredith,
Dickens, illustrious names from other countries have been mentioned in
respect to him. But here we have somebody who comes from France, who could
not come from anywhere else. This book suggests almost the fourth
dimension of the cubists. Written from the terrible clairvoyance of
nocturnal insomnia, it is almost too luminous for the eyes that see only
partially in broad daylight, just as a blast of air dissipates the
soporific vapours of contemporary output." Such is the opinion of the
ingenious critic. And we ask ourselves if there is anyone else today who
is able, like him, to probe in this way the mysteries of all artistic
creation. Because M. Jacques Blanche does not only excel in this when it
comes to painting, when it comes to Whistler or Manet. His insight is no
lesser when he speaks about literature and music. We have just seen how he
has understood Du Côté de chez Swann and we remind ourselves
what he wrote more recently still about The Rite of Spring.
Two promotional articles sent to Louis Brun for newspaper
publication but which were never printed. They are included in letters
from April 1914 bound into Louis Brun's copy of Du Côté de chez
Swann. Livres et manuscrits, Sotheby's, 30 Oct 2017.