Portrait of the Artist as a Landscape
Portrait of the Artist as a Landscape An Inquiry into Self-Reflexion Self-Reflexion
Inaugural lecture Delivered upon the installation as Professor of Art History (Modern and Contemporary Art) at the University of Amsterdam on Saturday 14 December 2002 By
Dario Gamboni
Vossiuspers UvA is an imprint of Amsterdam University Press. This edition is established under the auspices of the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Cover design: Colorscan, Voorhout Lay-out: JAPES, Amsterdam Cover illustration: Carmen Freudenthal, Amsterdam
ISBN 90 5629 257 9 © Vossiuspers UvA, Amsterdam, 2002 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be repr re prod oduc uced ed,, st stor ored ed in or in intr trod oduc uced ed in into to a re retr trie ieva vall sy syste stem, m, or tr tran ansm smititte ted, d, in an anyy fo form rm or by an anyy me mean anss (e (ele lecc tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of this book.
Mijnheer de Rector Magnificus, leden van het College van Bestuur van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, monsieur le Consul général de Suisse, zeer gewaardeerde collega's en studenten, ladies and gentlemen, chers amis,
I. Images and Projection It is a pl plea easu surre to spe peak ak in th thee Lu Luth ther erse se Ker erk,a k,a ha halllloowed an andd be beaaut utififul ul pl plac acee, but it is not an easy task. task. For one thing, thing, I shall not refer refer to reveal revealed ed truth, but propose propose personal and tentative interpretations. In addition, my comments will be devoted to images. In the Netherlands as in my native country, Switzerland, images were expelled from churches a long time ago, in a dramatic turn that has had long lasting cons co nseq eque uenc nces es.. It co come mess th ther eref efor oree as no su surpr rpris isee th thaat it is di diffffic icul ultt to re rein intr trod oduc ucee im im-ages within these walls. However How ever,, this is a Lutheran church, and Luther’s Luther’s position in this matter was tolerant. Accordin Accordingg to him, images were were neither neither good nor nor bad in themselv themselves, es, but depended on the use to which they were put, on the words employed to interpret them.Thereis,onthepredellaofthemainaltaroftheparishchurchofWittenberg, an im imag agee of Lut Luther her pr preac eachin hing, g,pa paint inted ed in 153 15399-47 47 by Han Hanss Cra Crana nach’ ch’ss st studi udioo. Lut Luthe herr is pointing with his hand to Christ on the cross cross,, a figure that does not represent a crucifix but a mental image appearing to his audience as a result of the sermon. Erhard Schön, a pupil of Dürer, visualized Luther’s point of view on images in a pamphlet of c. 1530 (ill. 1). It shows on the left iconoclasts removing altarpieces andd st an staatu tues es from a ch chur urch ch to st stor oree th them em away or bur urnn th them em.. In a te text xt acc ccom ompa pannyi ying ng the engraving, the images complain that they are being destroyed by by the very same men whom had turned them into idols in the first place, and who continue to sacrisacri5
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Ill. 1: Erhard Schön, Complaint of the Poor Persecuted Idols and Liturgical Images... , c. 1530, woodcut, 12.9 x 35 cm. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg fice to more powerful powerful idols such as money, money, food, and lechery. lechery. We see indeed, in the upper right corner, corner, a rich man surrounded by by a bag full full of coins, two women, women, and a waititer wa er ca carry rryin ingg wi wine ne.. Th Thee ob obje ject ct pr prot otrud rudin ingg fr from om hi hiss ey eyee al allu lude dess to th thee Bi Bibblilica call pa parrable: he he sees a mote in his neighbour’s neighbour’s eye but not the beam in his own. In other words, wor ds, he claims to detect a vice that is really his own, own, just as the iconoclasts iconoclasts attribute their own idolatry to the images. To free images from the accusation of fostering foster ing idolatry, idolatry, a greater control had to be exerted upon them as well as upon the imagination. When in 1628 an anonymous print advertised the images of Roman Catholic priests miraculously discoveredinthecoreofanappletreenearHaarlem,PieterSaenredamrepliedbydemonstrating that these were were only chance images, due to a mistake in interpretation.1 He made ma de th this is po poin intt by gi givi ving ng a mo morre ac accu cura rate te ren ende deri ring ng of th thee ex exaact sh shap apes es of th thee ho hole less in th thee woo ood, d, ta taki king ng ad advvan anta tage ge of th thee mo movve to towa ward rd a gr grea eate terr ob obje ject ctiv ivitityy in th thee de depi picction of the exterior world typical of Dutch post-Reformation art. The time of anthropo thr opomorp morphic hic int interpr erpreta etatitions ons of na natur ture, e,suc suchh as Joos de Mom Momper per’’s pa paint intin ings gs of the fourseasons,wasover.In1678,SamuelvanHoogstraetenrejectedinhis Introduction thee de depi pict ctio ionn of cl clou oudd im imag ages es in fa favvou ourr of ex exac actt ob obse serva rvati tion on an andd to the Art Ar t of Painting Painting th rend re nderi ering ng:: ‘O ‘One ne mu must st al also so be ze zeal alou ouss in ob obse servi rving ng pr prop oper erlly th thee el eleg egan antt gra grace ce of th thee clouds, and how their their scudding and form are in a certain proportion; for the artist’s artist’s eye must must also recognize things in their causes, and must be free of the stupid delusions of of the common common people; people; as this verse puts puts it: It also also happens, happens, when the clouds
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PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A LANDSCAPE
gather or disperse, that the foolish take fright at images that they see in the sky as signs of what is to happen. Undoubtedly Undoubtedly,, much that is wonderful wonderful may be perceived in the wel welkin, kin, whether whether the sky is stormy or whether the clouds tear apart, but to make an animal animal or ship from them is a stupid delusion delusion of the rabble, rabble, who, ignoran ignorantt of our art, are deceived deceived by by illusions; illusions; a painter has has an eye eye better better adapted adapted for this; he knowss both colour and outline, know outline, as well as the light, light, and judges with more more accurate vision.’2 The idea that works of art are transparent transparent windows opening on the worl worldd has come since under heavy criticism. The idea that they are screens onto which we project figures and meanings, on the other hand, has become ever more widespre sp read ad.. It wa wass ex expr pres esse sedd fo forr in inst stan ance ce in Ma Marc rcel el Du Ducha champ mp’’s di dict ctum um th thaat ‘i ‘itt is th thee on on-3 lookers who make the pictures’. The German art historian Werner Hofmann has thus argued that it is Luther who laid the foundation for the modern aestheti aesthetics cs of the beholder.4 But are works of art really passive screens of projection? Or do they trigger a dialogue with the onlooker, the outcome of which depends on both?
II. Hidden and Potential Images This is a question I want to discuss by using an example that originates chronologically from the middle of the nieuwste tijd , the period extending from the late eighteenth century to the present to the study of which my chair is devoted. devoted. It is a midavec ec vache (‘Seascape dle-sized dle-siz ed oil painting (ill. 2) known under tw twoo titles, Marine av 5 with Cow’) and Au-dessus du gouffre (‘Above the Abyss’). It was painted by Paul Gaug Ga ugui uinn in Bri Brita tann nnyy, ne near ar Le Pou ould ldu, u,in in th thee la late te su summ mmer er or ea earl rlyy au autu tumn mn of 18 1888 88.. The first impression made by this picture is puzzling. puzzling. It is only progressively and tentatively that one identifies the elements of representation. The outcome of this process suggests that one stands at the edge of a cliff, looking down toward the sea. Immediatelybelow,thereisacowonthegrass;totheleftabigoutcroppingofrock; at the top a ship; at the right another rock, with foaming water water between between the two. two. To the right and in the lower lower right corner stand two orange areas, which may be interpreted as haystacks. This identification or ‘recognition’ is difficult and the result is not quite satisfactory satisfactory,, as if things were still ‘moving’ ‘moving’ or hesitating hesitating. This must correspond to an intention on the part of the artist. It results from the unusual point of view,, the manipulation view manipulation of perspective, perspective, and the treatment treatment of colour and light. Going 7
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Ill. 2: Paul Gauguin, Seascape with Cow or or Above the Abyss, 1888, oil on canvas, 72.5 x 61 cm. Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris from the bottom of the canvas to its top, it is as if one was shifting from an almost vertical gaze to an almost horizontal one. There is no atmospheric perspective perspective and the various areas are treated independently indepe ndently,, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. A possible explanation for this treatment of the landscape is stylistic. Gauguin gives us here his version of Cloisonnism, Cloisonnism, a style in which areas of bright colour are enclosedinthemannerofstainedglassorcloisonnéenamels.Hedownplaystherole of ou outl tlin ines es bu butt em emph phas asiz izes es th thee flflaatn tnes esss of th thee su surf rfac acee. Se Seen en in th this is wa wayy, Abov Abovee the Abyss is an early example of the ‘decorative’ understandi understanding ng of painting and a step toward toward abstraction. But is this painting really a flat proto-abstraction? When we look at at it, don’t we we also sense the sea, sea, the abyss, abyss, the rocks, and maybe maybe even even more? I believe believe that that by ‘abstracting’ stracti ng’ his depiction of natura naturall forms, for ms, Gauguin Gauguin did not reject their representarepresentational capacity but rather opened it up to other possibilities. If we we look at the paint8
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A LANDSCAPE
ing in this way, then it starts to ‘move’ and to change again. In the cliff area on the left,wenoticedarkerbrushstrokesthatsuggestaneyeandamuzzle,sothattherock beco be come mess an an anim imal al he head ad.. It ha hass a bo bovi vine ne as aspe pect ct an andd ec echo hoes es th thee co cow’ w’ss he head ad at th thee bo botttom.Thejaggedoutlineoftheotherrockcanbeinterpretedasahumanprofilewith an open mouth, the upper lip emphasized by reddish brushstrokes. brushstrokes. The dark face and the nose have a monstrous and menacing quality, quality, like that of a giant or an ogre. Theorangestacksofhay(orbuckwheat)couldbeseenasitswhiskersandbeard. This zoomorphic and anthropomorphic anthropomorphic reading is not limited to details of the picture.Instead,itcontributestothedynamicsofthecomposition.Thereisabinary oppo op posi siti tion on be betw twee eenn th thee an anim imal al an andd pe peac acef eful ul ex expr pres essi sion on of th thee ro rock ck on th thee le left ft,, lo look ok-ingdownwardlikethecowtowhichitpoints,andthehumanandaggressiveexpression of th thee roc ockk on the ri rigght,wh t,whiich is tu turn rneed upward like the ship that comes ou outt of its forehead. forehead. But what about the centre centre of this strange strange drama, the area situated situated betweenthetworocks?Ifweseeitasafigureratherthanasground,anevenmoredramatic metamorphosis takes place and we can detect in it another human profile turned to the right. Maybethisisgoingfurtherthanyouarereadytofollowme,andyouarethinking that a work of art art can indeed inde ed be a screen of projection. I have have remained myself very very cautious about this observation obser vation until I came upon a photograph of Gauguin taken in Pont-Aven in August 1888, not long before he painted our picture, and which he gave ga ve to his fa famil milyy, to fri friend endss an andd co colle lleag agues ues..6 Th Thee si simi mila lari rity ty in th thee ou outl tlin inee of th thee fac acee is so strong that it leaves in my opinion no doubt that the hidden head was at least partly intended by the artist. In addition, it shows that this is not any head: we are dealing with a self-portrait in the guise of a landscape. This may seem exceedingly strange, but it is not totally unprecedented. The headsintherocksonbothsidescanberelatedtothelongtraditionofanthropomorphic landscapes, such as those by Joos de Momper.7 The head in the water, on the otherhand,isanegativeformshapedbythesurroundingfigures.Onecanfindantecedents for this in Romantic art, for instance in a lithograph published in England aroun ar oundd 183 18300 an andd ent entititled led The Spirit of Byron in the Isles of Greece .8 Th Thee po poet et’’s he head ad an andd neck can be recognized in a portion of the sea and the sky, sky, delineated by the outline of rocks and by branches and leaves. leaves. His effigy seems to appear to a figure seated on the left, who may be mourning Byron’s recent death, and its emerging from the landscape makes it become one with nature and the political cause Byron had embraced. Closer to Gauguin’s time and again in the field of popular images, we find 9
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Ill. 3: Look for their Wives! Anonymous image-devinette from La Question, no. 4 (1878). Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey) striking analogies in what was called in French images-devinettes, in German Vexierbilder and and in Dutch zoekplaatjes. In these inexpensive and widely circulated prints, the spectator was invited invited to discover discover concealed figures mentioned by a caption. Rocks, branches and negative space provided the favourite devices for this concea con cealme lment. nt.A A dra drawin wingg pub publis lished hed in 187 18788 in the Pa Paris risia iann jou journal rnalLa Question (ill.3) shows sho ws the heads of two men facin facingg each other while its caption suggests: suggests: cherchez leurs femmes! Th Thee tw twoo fe fema male le pr prof ofililes es,, on onee of th them em up upsi side de-d -doown wn,, ca cann be fo foun undd in th thee blank space between the male ones, creating an oscillation similar to that between the painter’s profile and the anthropomorphic rock in Gauguin’s painting. An undated image-devinette, published by the Imagerie Pellerin at Epinal, comes closer 9 Abovee the Abyss. Itshowstwoyoungboyshidinginahollowfrom iconographicall iconographi callyy to Abov twoo og tw ogrres es,, on onee of wh whom om ca cann be di dissco covver ered ed in th thee sk skyy, th thee ot othe herr in th thee roc ock; k;th theey ar aree inverted left to right and one becomes a ground when the other becomes a figure, again like the self-portrait and the ‘ogre’ in our picture. 10
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A LANDSCAPE
However Howev er,, this is imagery, imagery, meant for play and especially especially for children, appare apparently ntly ver eryy far fr from om th thee se seri riou ouss ar artt of an am ambi biti tiou ouss pa pain inte terr lilikke Ga Gaug ugui uinn – or ma mayybe no nott so distant? I want to argue that far from being an isolated accident in Gauguin’s production, this head in a landscape is part of a continuing tendency that can be explained by the artist’s interest in the mental and imaginative dimension of visual perception. This tendency is present in Gauguin’s Gauguin’s art from the start. In his early pictures of his sleeping daughter and son (La petite rêve, 1881, Copenhagen, Ordrupgaard Sammlungen; L’enfant endor Josefow efowitz itz collectio collection), n), the inner inner wor world ld of the endormi mi, 1884, Jos children’ss dreams is evoked by the patterns children’ patter ns of the t he wallpaper. wallpaper. The Vision of the Sermon (Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland), painted in the summer of 1888 in Pont-A Po nt-Aven, ven, is a manifes manifesto to of this mov movee from outer to inner perception. Gauguin Gauguin wrote to Vincent van Gogh that for him ‘in this picture the landscape and the wrestling[ofJacobwiththeangel]existonlyintheimaginationoftheprayingpeopleasa result of the sermon’.10 There is a striking str iking parallel between this repre representat sentational ional structure and the image of Luther pointing to Christ Chr ist that I mentioned at the beginning. Observing a formal analogy between the silhouette of the two wrestlers and that of the cow on the left of the tree, Marc Roskill has ingeniously suggested that for Gauguin, the parishioners could have have mistaken the animal animal for the characte c haracters rs of the story they had just heard.11 Gauguin was indeed convinced of the artistic interest of misperception misper ception and ambigu bi guitityy. Th Thee la land ndsc scap apee of Bri Brita tann nnyy an andd es espe peci cial allly th thee ro rocks cks of th thee co coas astt mu must st ha havve in in-terested him, among other reasons, because of the accidental images that could be perceived in them. In his 1889 picture The Flag Flageolet-Pla eolet-Player yer on the Cliff , one notices strange rock rock shapes in the upper part of the centre, with a sort of outcropping that that seems to lean on the edge of the cliff.12 If one compares them with a motif on which Gauguin worked in the summer of 1888, that of the upper body of a Breton woman woman sleepinginthehay,onecansupposethatthepaintereitherrecognizedsimilarshapes in th thee cl clififff or tr traans nsffor orme medd a sc scen enee wi with th a hu huma mann fifigu gurre in into to a po port rtio ionn of la land ndssca cape pe..13 However, he refrained from making this allusion explicit. In this regard, his approach differs markedly from that of the commercial artists who designed the images-devinettes , who had to define what figures they concealed in their images and to help their users find them with verbal clues. clues. In Gauguin’s Gauguin’s case, the final painting is true to the process of its elaboration and the spectator adopts a similar position to that of the artist concentrating on an ambiguous aspect aspect of nature or on the emer11
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gence of shapes on his canvas. The forms that the onlooker selects and recognizes remain what I propose to call ‘potential images’: they depend on one’s one’s subjectivity and make one realize that seeing means interpreting. If we now agree that Gauguin may have intentionally included intimations of Abovee the Abyss,itisintriguingtonotethatnooneseemsevertohavenoticed headsin Abov them. Yet a look at works created shortly afterwards by artists closely associated withGauguinshowsthattheywereawareofhisexampleandtookadvantageofit.In his Landscape of Le Pouldu of c. 1890 (Quimper, Musée des Beaux-Arts), Charles Filiger manipulated the perspective and emphasized flatness so as to make us mistake the sea for the sky; a wood on the left resembles clouds and an oversized tree has distinct physiognomic qualities.14 Georges Lacombe’ Lacombe’ss Vorhor,Grey Wave (il (ill. l. 4) of of 1893-94 is clearly indebted to Gauguin’s painting. The narrow stretch of sea betweenn the rocks gives an ornamental twee or namental interpretation interpretation of foam and has a strong tendenc de ncyy to tu turn rn in into to a po posi siti tivve fig igur uree. It do does es no nott see eem m to fo form rm a do doub uble le im imag agee, but th thee rocks clearly harbour many faces. faces. Degas himself was thrilled when he saw the new Breton paintings by Gauguin that Theo van van Gogh showed showed in Paris. Paris. Around 1890, he began making pastel landscapes several of which include anthropomorphic elements.In Steep Coast ( Jan and Marie-Anne Krug Krugier-Poniato ier-Poniatowski wski Collection), the figure of a nude woman with her hair being combed has been turned on the side and transformed into a hilly coast.15 Degas later explained that rather than ‘copying what one sees’, the artist should resort to ‘a transformation in which imagination and memory work together’ and free themselves ‘from the tyranny of nature’. n ature’.16 In August August 1888, Gauguin had had written to Emile Schuffenecker: Schuffenecker: ‘A piece of advice: advice: do not paint too much after after nature. nature. Art is an abstraction extract it from nature by dreaming dreaming in front of her and think rather of the creation that will result from it, it is the only way way of rising toward God by ma makin kingg lilike ke ou ourr Div Divin inee Ma Mast ster er,, cr crea eatin ting’ g’..17 Th Thee de deba bate te ab abou outt th thee re resp spec ecti tivve me merrits of observation, imitation, memory and imagination reached a critical climax in the two months of creative confrontation that Gauguin spent in Arles Arle s with Vincent 18 vanGoghimediatelyafterhisstayinBritanny. Potentialimagesalsoplayedapartin (Mistral) l) (A thiss di thi disc scus ussi sion. on.In In Arlésiennes (Mistra (Art rt Ins Instit titut utee of Ch Chic icag ago) o),, pa paint inted ed in mid mid-No -No-vember,, Gauguin hinted at a face in the ostentatious bush painted vember pain ted in the th e lower left corner.19 Th Thee wor orkk wa wass a re resp spon onse se to Vin ince cent nt’’s pi pict ctur ures es of th thee ‘G ‘Gar arde denn of th thee Poe oet’ t’,, ashecalledthepublicgardenvisiblefromtheirwindows. Gauguin’sfaceinthebush may have have been meant to t o reveal the element of projection present presen t in van Gogh’s Gogh’s fas12
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A LANDSCAPE
Ill. 4: Georges Lacombe, Vorhor, Grey Wave, 1893-94, egg tempera on canvas, 81 x 61 cm. Musée Municipal, Brest cination with the same spherical untrimmed bush.20 Seen in this context, another cination painting takes takes an extraord extraordinary inary resonance, resonance, the Portrait of Gauguin whose attribution to van Gogh has been recently confirmed by technical analysis (ill. 7).21 Douglas Druickk and Peter Druic Peter Zegers date it from the first days of December 1889 and suppose that it must have have been painted from a ‘covert ‘covert examination’ exam ination’ of Gauguin at work and from his photographic portrait por trait taken in Britanny. Britanny. But this painted profile shows an Above the Abyss than the photograph even greater resemblance to the self-portrait of Above does, especia especially lly in the uplifted uplifted direction, direction, the accentuate accentuatedd arch of the the nose, nose, and the prot pr otube ubera ranc ncee of th thee ber beret. et.Th Thee ex exac actt re rela latio tionsh nship ip bet betw ween the tw twoo pi pictu cture ress re rema mains ins to be clarified, but Vincent’s rather awkward painting is clearly one of those in which he tried to follow Gauguin’s advice to free himself from the ‘tyranny of nature’ and to work primarily from memory and imagination. This move away away from Realism and Impressionism Imp ressionism toward Symbolism took to ok place in the late 1880s and early 1890s on an international level. In 1894, for example,
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Johan Thorn Prikker combined in his large drawing Moine épique (Utrecht,Centraal Museum) inspiration from a poem by Emile Verhaeren and the observation of a quarry near Visé in Belgium.22 One notices a kneeling monk in the lower right corner of this work, work, but another, another, gigantic figure of monk holding a cross emerges from therockastheeyeexploresitsmeandersoflines.Inthesameyear,theSwedishplaywright August August Strindberg experimented with painting in Austria. Austria. He then came to Paris, met Gauguin and published an essay essay in which he advocated advocated the use of chance in art, comparing the experience of misperceiving an ambiguous object in the woods woo ds with the enjoy enjoyment ment of modernist paintings. paintings. He further described the creation of his own picture Wonderland (Stockholm, (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum) as a process in whichshapesappeareddespitehisintentionsratherthanbecauseofthem,leadingto different interpretations according to the various beholders and their changing moods.23 This interest in the mental, subjective and temporal character of vision was not restricted to artists. In fact, it can be connected to contemporary research on perFaculty and its Developception and psychic life. In his 1883 Inquiries into the Human Faculty ment, the British physiologist physiologist and psychologist Francis Galton Galton observed that mental images are subject to continuous transformations based on formal and semantic analo an alogie giess. Th Thre reee years la later ter,, th thee Germ German an ph phys ysic icis istt an andd phi philos losop opher her Erns Ernstt Ma Mach ch us used ed an orn ornam amen enta tall pa patt ttern ern to de demo mons nstr trat atee th thee re revvers ersib ibililitityy of fifigu gure re an andd gr grou ound nd inCon24 tributions to the Analysis of Sensations (ill. 5). Aestheti Aestheticians cians and psychologist psychologistss mentioned the images-devinettes as evidence of the mental, active and projective dimension of perception. perception. In 1899, the American Joseph Joseph Jastro Jastrow w reproduced reproduced in an article entitled ‘The Mind’s Mind’s Eye’ a cartoon car toon that can be read alternativ alternatively ely as a rabbi rabbitt or a 25 duck. But the most influential psychological psychological application of visual ambiguity was published in 1921, posthumously, by the Swiss physician and psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in his Psychodiagnostics, which used the interpretation of accidental den tal sh shap apes es to an anal alys ysee th thee int interpr erprete eterr.26 Arti Artists sts wer eree of often ten awa ware re of su such ch re resea search rch,, but it does not mean that their pursuits were an application of scientific models. I rather think that they contributed with their own means to the exploration and understanding of sensory and psychic life.
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Ill. 5: Drawing exemplifying the reversibility of ground and figure in Ernst Mach, Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen (Jena, 1886)
III. Above the Abyss So far, far, I have have discussed Gauguin’ Gaugui n’ss picture as a reflection on the act of seeing and of o f painting.. But it is also painting also a self-portrait, self-portrait, and as such, it can find place place in a series of of representations of man and especially of the artist confronting the sea, such as Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea of 1808-10 (Berlin, Schloß Charlottenburg) and Courbet’s The Seaside at Palavas of 1854 (Montpellier, Musée Fabre) (ill. 6). These paintings tend to contrast man and nature in terms of the subjective and the objective,, the finite and the infinite. tive infinite. In Courbet’s Courbet’s self-portrait,the self-portrait, the sea has found its equal in the artist’s self-confidence. Gauguin had probably seen this picture when he visited the Musée Fabre in 1884 and he seems to have engaged in a relation of creative emulation with Courbet. His Bonjour M. Gauguin (Prague Narodni Galerie) responded in 1889 to another painting in the Musée Fabre, The Meeting or Bonjour M. Courbet (1854). It replaced the statement of proud independence of the older ,
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Ill. 6: Gustave Courbet, The Seaside at Palavas, 1854, oil on canvas, 27 x 46 cm. Musée Fabre, Montpellier painte pain terr, sh shoown gr gree eete tedd on eq equa uall te terms rms by hi hiss pa patr tron on Bru Bruyyas as,, by an ex expr pres essi sion on of th thee alienation aliena tion of the artist, ar tist, separated separated by a wood wooden en fence from an anonymous peasant wom oman an.. Bu Butt Ga Gaug ugui uinn al also so sh shar ared ed Co Cour urbe bet’ t’ss se sens nsee of a mi miss ssio ionn to ac acco comp mplilish sh an andd hi hiss abililitityy to ma ab mani nipu pula late te hi hiss pu publ blic ic pe perso rsona na.. On Onee ca cann ob obse serv rvee it in th thei eirr co comm mmon on pr pred ediilection for the the pure profile, profile, the profil de médaille . Courbet was was proud of his ‘Assyr‘Assyrian’ ia n’ be bear arde dedd pr prof ofililee an andd ca caric ricaatu turis rists ts of ofte tenn to took ok ad advvan anta tage ge of itit.. Ga Gaug ugui uinn wa wass pr prou oudd of his ‘Inca’ profile, highlightened for instance in his 1894-95 self-portrait Oviri, ‘thee sa ‘th sava vage’ ge’(p (priv rivat atee co colle llect ction ion). ).It It po point inted ed to hi hiss des desce cent nt fr from om a Peruv eruvia iann nob noblem leman an by way way of his grandmother, grandmother, the famous feminist Flora Tristan, Tristan, and thus related him to a non-W non -Western, estern, ‘primitive’ ‘pr imitive’ origin. At the beginning of 1889, Gauguin dramatiz dramatized ed this origin in his Self-Portrait Jug (Copenhagen, Kunstindustriemuseet), recalling Pre-Columbian artefacts from Peru. The red glaze flowing down the jug emphasizes its resemblance to a severed head, a theme to which Gauguin would return in the 1892 painting Arii matamoe
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Ill. 7: Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin (Man in a Red Beret) , 1888, oil on jute, 37 x 33 cm. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) (Royal End) (private
collection). In a letter to Daniel de Monfreid, Gauguin explained that he had found the severed head of this painting in a wooden plank and added:‘Whenmarbleorwooddrawaheadforyou,itisquitetemptingtostealit’. 27 Did the heads in Above the Abyss also originate in chance c hance images? Since there is no sket sk etch ch or st stud udyy pr pres eserv erved ed fo forr th this is pa pain inti ting ng an andd no do docu cume ment ntar aryy re refe fere renc ncee to ititss ge gennesis, we are left with hypotheses. Given the advice that Gauguin gave to Schuf Sch uffe fene neck cker er at th thee ti time me he pa pain inte tedd th this is pi pict ctur uree, we ca cann as assu sume me th thaat he di didd so fr from om memory and imagination rather than sur le motif . Gauguin may have have observed obser ved accidental shapes of heads in Porsac’h, but he will probably have selected and transformed them to be included in this composition. The anthropomorphic anthropomorphic interpretainterpretation of rocks has a long history, history, documented for instance instance in place-names, place-names, and it was very much alive alive at the end of the nineteenth century. century. In 1899, the popular scientific scientific
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Ill. 8: Rock Outcrop Representing a Human Profile, wood engraving (after a photograph) in La Nature, 1899 journal La Nature thus devoted devoted an illustrated article arti cle to a rock observed on the coast of Normandy (ill. 8), which was supposed supposed to resemble resemble the profile of the king of the Belgians Leopold II.28 A similar observation may have served as a basis for the two rocks in Above the Abyss, but it is strange that Gauguin, who was fond of repea repeating ting motifs,did motifs, did not reuse it elsewhere elsewhere.. Such an origin is even less probable probable in the case case of theheadinthesea,becauseothervisualdatawouldhaveinterferedwiththeperception ti on of a ne nega gati tivve ou outl tlin inee, wh which ich re requ quir ires es th thee flflaatn tnes esss of th thee pi pict ctur uree to be beco come me ob obvi vi-ous. There remains the possibility that some of the heads appeared accidentally on the canvas canvas itself, itself, during the painting process process.. But I regard it as little little convincing, convincing, because of the strong self-reflexive dimension of this work. The closest antecedent antecedent for this self-po self-portrait rtrait in the sea is to be found in poetry rathe ra therr th than an in pai painti nting ng.. In L'Homme et la Mer ,apoemof1852includedin , apoemof1852includedin Les Fleurs du Mal , Baudelaire defined the sea as an image of humankind: ‘Free man, you will always cher cherish ish the sea! / The sea is your your mirror; you contemplate your soul / in the
18
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A LANDSCAPE
infinite rolling rolling of its waves waves,, / And your spirit is no less bitter an abyss. abyss.// // […] Both of you are obscure obscure and reserved: reserved: Man, no one has ever ever sounded the bottom of your your abyss; aby ss; / O sea, no one knows your intimate treasures, treasures, so jealous are you both of 29 keeping your secrets!’ Baudelaire was an important source for Gauguin and a crucial link between Romanticism and the Symbolist generation. In his review of the Salon of 1859, he had opposed two artistic camps and formulated formulated with great clarity what would be at stake in Gauguin’s criticism of imitation: ‘the artist from one realist […], and whom we camp,, who calls himself camp himself realist we shall call positivist to better characterise his error, error, declare declares: s: “I wish to depict things things as they they are, are, or as they would would be without me existing.” The universe without man. The artist from the other camp, the imaginative imaginative one, one, procla proclaims: ims: “I wish to illuminate illuminate things with my my own mind and 30 project its reflec reflection tion onto other minds.”’ minds.”’ Gauguin' Gauguin'ss painting demonstrates demonstrates precisely that ‘the universe universe without man’ is a fiction and that the obser observer ver is present at at the heart of o f what he or she observes. The reason given by Baudelaire for man’s man’s resemblance sembla nce with the sea, their common love love of secret, can even even help account for the fact that the painter’s self-portrait is hidden. I have mentioned at the beginning that Gauguin’s painting is known under two avec ec vach vachee appears in a list of pictures that he had left at the Galerie titles. Marine av Boussod et Valadon, Au-dessus du gouffre gouffre in the catalogue of the auction he organized in February 1891 before his departure for Tahiti. It seems to me obvious that the first one is only a mnemonic description, while Au-dessus du gouffre is a real title. It can imply a reference to Baudelaire’s poem, which uses the word gouffre to define boththeseaandthehumanmind.Seeninthislight,Gauguin’sabyssbecomesametaphor of man’s interiority and ‘above the abyss’ defines the artist’s position of selfse lf-in inqui quiry ry and se selflf-re reflflexi exivi vity ty.. Wi With th or wit withou houtt a re refe fere rence nce to Ba Baude udela lair ire, e,itit is a title that lends itself to an amplification of this kind and attests Gauguin’ Gauguin’ss full awareness of what he was doing in this ‘metapicture’.31 Au-dessus du gouffre is also relevant. It refers to the viewer’s The literal sense of Au-dessus position at the edge of the t he cliff and evokes the physical and psychic sense of danger, danger, thevertigothatsuchapositionimplies.Wefindsomethingsimilarinapaintingofc. 1818 by Caspar David Friedrich, The White Cliffs of Rügen (Winterthur, Reinhart Stiftung).Ayoungmanstandslookingatthesea,whileaseatedwomanpointstothe rocksandanoldermanisshowncrouchingattheedgeofthecliff.Thephysicalrisks of falling and of drowning are very very present on the coast of Brittany Br ittany.. Not far from Le Pouldu is the Baie des Trépassés, the Bay of the Trespassed, famous for its ship19
DARIO GAMBONI
wrecksandforthecorpsesthattheseabringsbacktotheshore.Gauguinreferredto the danger of drowning in two 1889 prints both entitled en titled The Dramas of the Sea.One ofthemshowsthreeBretonwomenattheedgeofacliff,prayingforsailorsatseaor fortheirsouls.Theotheronemakesasortofcutthroughthesea,inwhichasailoris shown sho wn struggling against against wa waves ves that look like hands. It has been rela related ted to Edgar Allan All an Poe’ oe’ss sh short ort st story ory A Descent into the Maelström,butIbelieveithasamoreimpor ,butIbelieveithasamoreimpor-tant connexion conne xion with Victor Hugo’s Hugo’s novel Les Travailleurs de la mer (1866). (1866). The first exhibitionofHugo’sgraphicworkshadtakenplaceatthebeginningof1888inParis and a reproduction of his drawings for Les Trav had been published in ravailleurs ailleurs de la mer had 1882. The illuminated illuminated title page connects the sea, the self and death in a singular way: wa y: rather than a profile profile concealed in the deep, deep, it shows the writer’s writer’s name sliding 32 down toward the abyss abyss.. In order to interpret fully Gauguin’ Gauguin’s secret self-p self-portrait, ortrait, we must now take a new look at the painting’s composition. The hidden profile appears at the focal poin po intt of tw twoo ax axes es.. Th Thee ho horiz rizon onta tall ax axis is op oppo pose sess th thee pl plac acid id an anim imal al he head ad to th thee me mena naccingg hu in huma mann or mo mons nstr trou ouss on onee, th thee vert ertic ical al ax axis is op oppo pose sess th thee co cow w to th thee sh ship ip.. We ha havve seen that the animal head looks down toward the cow and the earth, while the ‘ogre’s’ ‘ogre’ s’ head looks up toward toward the ship and the sea. Gauguin’ Gauguin’ss head rests against the animal and is threatened by the monster. But it escapes from the ogre’s attempt to swallo sw allow w it because, thanks to the perceptive logic of the figure figure/ground /ground reversal, reversal, one stops to see the monster as soon as one sees the artist’s head. Along the vertical axis,theheadistornbetweenthecowandtheship,oritconnectsthem,oritmoves from the cow to the ship. ship. The two figures establish thus the poles of a tension and I think that they stand for something beyond themselves. The cow belongs to the earth that it feeds from, to the mainland, it can stand for roots and stability. It can alsostandforthelandscapepainterworkingoutofdoors,whoplantshiseaselinthe grass, absorbs the spectacle spectacle around around him and gives it back on the canvas. canvas. Such an associationislessfar-fetchedthanitseems:inthepassageofhisSalonof1859devoted to landscape, landscape, Baudelaire Baudelaire complained that painters had stopped to include ruins in their the ir co compo mposi sititions ons an andd wr wrot otee jok jokin ingl gly: y:‘No ‘Noss pa pays ysagi agiste stess so sont nt des ani anima maux ux bea beauc ucoup oup tropherbivores’(ourlandscapepaintersareanimalswhofeedtoomuchongrass). 33 The ship sailing toward the open sea clearly stands for departure, adventure and freed fr eedom. om.FFor Ga Gaug uguin uin,, it mu must st ha havve ha hadd au autob tobiog iograp raphi hica call con connot notat ation ionss si since nce he ha hadd trained as a naval officer in his youth, had sailed to Martinique in 1887 and would leave for Tahiti Tahiti in 1891. On the level of the art theoretical opposition between imi20
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A LANDSCAPE
tation and imagination, the ship can easily stand for the latter. Whereas the cow is situated below the elongated neck of the artist’s effigy, the ship is placed above its forehead, forehea d, seat of the the intellect.In intellect. In addition, addition, the prow prow of the ship is bordered bordered with the the foam of which the head is mostly made, a fact that connects the head with imagination. Foam Foam is immaterial and resembles clouds, an analogy that Gauguin deliberately emphasized in La plage du Pouldu (Buenos Aires, privat privatee collection), collection), painted in in the autumn of 1889. Abovee the Abyss, the fo In Abov foam am is es espec pecia iallllyy con concen centra trate tedd in th thee he head’ ad’ss pr protu otuber beranc ance, e, which looks a bit like a horn. This, again, can refer to the imagination, which in Baud Ba udel elai aire re’’s co conc ncep epti tion on an andd fo forr th thee Sy Symb mbol olis ists ts wa wass me mean antt to tr tran ansc scen endd th thee lilimi mits ts of the individual individual and connect the microcosm with the macrocosm. macrocosm. But one also finds Père Paillard (‘Libidinous two horns on the head of Père (‘Libidino us Father’) (W (Washington, ashington, National Gallery of Art), a wooden statue that was part of Gauguin’s last house on the Marquesass Islands, Marquesa Islands, the Maison du Jouir . This motif may may thus also possess a sexual dimension, which which could easily be reconciled with that of the transcen transcendent dent imagination ti on.. We ha havve se seen en th thaat by di dissco covver erin ingg – or pr proj ojec ecti ting ng – an im imag agee of th thee ob obse serv rver er in Abovee the Abyss questions the epistemological relationship bethe observed world, Abov tween subject and object. In addition, the border separating this image of the sub ject (the painter’ painter’ss profile) from the outside world (the sea) is shown to be porous and transitory: in a picture that makes no attempt at dealing with instantaneity instantaneity,, it is the only part that suggests suggests a fleeting moment. moment. Framed by the rocks rocks and open to the sea, se a,th thee im imaage of th thee su subj bjec ectt is lo lost st at th thee mo mome ment nt wh when en it is fou ound nd.. Co Comp mpaared wi with th Gauguin’s other self-portraits, this one is exceptional in being not only secret but also self-effacing. self-effacing. It is a self-portrait in potentia, waitin waitingg for a sympathetic sympathetic gaze to be actualised, actuali sed, and a self-portrait self-portrait in absentia, defined negativel negativelyy by the surrounding elements. More than the fear to be drowned, it may actually express a desire to lose one’s boundaries and to dissolve oneself. This desire corresponds to what Sigmund Freud would call the ‘oceanic feeling’ feelin g’ 34 andd to hi an hiss in inte terpr rpret etaati tion on of wa wate terr as a me meta taph phor or of th thee un unco cons nsci ciou ouss. A si simi mila larr wi wish sh was be ex expr pres esse sedd by Od Odililon on Re Redo donn in 18 1898 98,, in an au auto tobi biog ogra raph phic icaal te text xt in wh whic ichh he wished he had been born on the ocean, ‘in a place without a homeland, on an abyss’.35 Red Redon’ on’ss art ha hadd hel helped ped Ga Gaugu uguin in form formula ulate te his un unders dersta tandi nding ng of the arti artist stic ic value of misperception misperception,, and in his last years, years, Gauguin made made several several allusions allusions to the olde ol derr art artis ist’ t’ss wor ork. k.In In hi hiss 19 1901 01 Sunflowers on a Chair (St Peters etersbur burg, g,Sta State te Hermit Hermitage age Museum), he combined combined a reference reference to van van Gogh, by way way of the sunflow sunflowers, ers, and to 21
DARIO GAMBONI
Redon, by way way of a flower flower endowed with an eye, eye, which recalls for instance Redon’s 1883 lithograph Il y eut peut-être une vision première essayée dans la fleur (‘There Was Perhaps a First Vision Attempted in the Flower’). Flower’). In Gauguin’s Gauguin’s painting, the flower flower doesnotlookupwardbutstaresattheviewer:thepicturereturnsourgaze.Inasort of in indi dire rect ct re resp spon onse se an andd as an ho homa mage ge af afte terr Ga Gaug ugui uin’ n’ss de deat athh in 19 1903 03,, Re Redo donn pa pain inte tedd a po portr rtrai aitt of hi him, m, Le profil noir (P (Pari aris, s, Mus Musée ée d’O d’Orsa rsay) y),, in wh which ich th thee ‘pri ‘primi mitiv tive’ e’ pr proofile of the deceased floats in an indeterminate world of floral fantasy. Redon is the artist who first brough broughtt me to the Netherlands, Netherlands, some twenty twenty years ago, following the tracks of the positive reception he had obtained in this country. Since thanks are part of an inaugura inaugurall lecture, let me first express my my gratitude to May Crommelin and to her late husband, Samuel Crommelin, of whom I wish he could have been here today. today. Together ogether,, they offered me the most generous and disinterested hospitality when I came to study the collection and the archives they had inherited from André Bonger Bonger.. The archives are now housed in the Rijksprentenkabinet and the works will soon be all in the Van Gogh Museum, where they will complement Vincent’s Vincent’s work in the most interesting fashion. This is one of the reasons why I came to teach in Amsterdam. Ik dank het College van van Bestuur voor mijn mijn benoeming, en de benoemingscommissie, benoemingscommissie, onder leiding van de voorzitter van de afdeling Kunst- en cultuurwetenschappen, Bram Kempers, alsmede de Decaan van de Faculteit Faculteit der Geesteswetenschap Ge esteswetenschappen, pen,Karel Karel van der Toorn Toorn,, voor het in mij gestelde vertrouwen. Ik wil ook mijn voorganger, Evert van Uitert, voor zijn hartelijke ontvangst bedanken.
In relation to the topic that I have have chosen c hosen for this lecture, and and to which I shall now briefly return, I also want to thank Andreas Blühm, who by bringing van Gogh’ss portrait Gogh’ por trait of Gauguin to my attention encouraged me to trust tr ust my eyes and delve more deeply into Above the Abyss. It seems to me that by discussing discussing this picture picture at length today, today, I have have not stopped dealing deal ing with the theoretical issues I raised r aised at the start st art.. In fr fron ontt of su such ch a pi pict ctur uree, th thee po posi siti tion on of th thee art hi hist stori orian an is no nott es esse sent ntia iallllyy di diffferentfromthatofthebeholder,andfromthatoftheartistinfrontofnatureaccording to Ga Gaug uguin uin.. Of co course urse,, the hi histo storia riann ma make kess cl clai aims ms to th thee in inters tersubj ubjec ectiv tivee va valid lidity ity of his or her observations, which must be tested, enriched and refined, as I have tried tri ed to do do,, by ta taki king ng in into to ac acco coun untt th thee art artis ist’ t’ss st stat atem emen ents ts,, th thee re rece cept ptio ionn of th thee wor ork, k, comparisons with other works and other aspects of the cultural and historical context. But he or she must also acknowledge the inevitable and fruitful subjectivity of perception, perceptio n, recognize recognize that interpreting begins with seeing itself. This means that 22
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A LANDSCAPE
one must take risks and, to use our painting’s painting’s metaphor, metaphor, be ready to take take to the sea. Abyss shows that we do give to the picComing back to my initial question, Above the Abyss pi cture,butthatthepicturegivestoustoo.Itinitiatesadialogue,suggestspathsanddirections that we must take take up and develop further. Baudelaire’ Baudelaire’ss criticism of positivism is m ha hass no nott lo lost st ititss ed edge ge:: th ther eree is no su such ch th thin ingg as ‘l ‘l'u 'uni nivvers sa sans ns l'l'ho homm mme’ e’,, es espe peci cial allly when it comes to the study of art and of culture. A historical thread has been running through this lecture that I cannot develop fully. But I want to suggest that the relevance of fin-de-siècle artistic experiments like Above the Abyss has increased increased in the last decades. decades. Bey Beyond ond the cultural arena, arena, one can compare them with recent research in the cognitive sciences. Stephen Kosslyn and Olivier Koenig, for instance, consider that the identification of an object is made by confronting the visual stimuli with information contained in associative or seman se mantic tic mem memory ory,, and th thus us am amoun ounts ts to an in interp terpre reta tatio tion. n.36 Thi Thiss pr proce ocess ss ta take kess mor moree time ti me an andd ca cann be beco come me co cons nsci ciou ouss if th thee ob obje ject ct is pa partl rtlyy hi hidd dden en,, un unfa fami mililiar ar or am ambi bigu gu-ous, leading to a fluctuation between competing identifications – which is exactly what a painting like Above the Abyss does does.. In the visu visual al arts, such experime experiments, nts, which had been marginaliz marginalized ed by the opposition between abstraction and representation representation during the first fir st half of the twentieth twentieth century, century, hav havee multiplied again since the 1960s. It is fo forr in inst stan ance ce re revvea ealiling ng th thaat in a wor orkk lilike ke Jas aspe perr Joh ohns ns’’s 19 1986 86 Spring (priv (private ate collection),, which includes the allusiv lection) allusivee self-po self-portrait rtrait of a shado shadow w silhouett silhouette, e, we we find double images playing on the figure/ground reversibility reversibility and ev even en recog recognize nize the late la te nin ninete eteent enthh cen centur turyy duc duck/r k/rab abbi bit. t. In hi hiss 199 19933 seri series es of ph photo otogra graphs phsEquivalents, a younger artist like the Brazilian-born Vik Muniz does not consider that making from clouds clouds ‘an ‘an animal animal or a ship’ – or, or, in his case case,, a snail, snail, a kitten, kitten, a rower rower,, a teapot, teapot, or Dürer’s Dürer’s praying praying hands – is ‘a stupid delusion of the rabble’. rabble’. On the contrary, contrary, he defines it as a ‘meta-il ‘meta-illusion’ lusion’ that that ‘exchanges the experience of the object for the experience of vision itself itself ’.37 One could easily multiply the examples, including in the ‘new media’ of video and digital images, images, but I would would like to conclude with two two works by by Markus Raetz, Raetz, a fellow-countryman who lived from 1969 to 1973 in Amsterdam. The following yea earr, he ma made de in a sk sket etchb chboo ookk a dr draawi wing ng (i (illll.. 9) th thaat ev evok okes es Re Redo donn an andd vi visu sual alis ises es th thee dynamics of perception and projection. It is also a ‘meta-image’, as its title makes You See Is What You Are. And in 198 clear: What You 985,Ra 5,Raeetz hin intted at hi hiss stay in the Ne Neth th-erlands by spelling in the Dutch way the title of his object Zeemansblik (‘Sailor’s Look’), with a Z and a K. If we we look at it from from the front, front, it is as if we we were were watching 23
DARIO GAMBONI
Ill. 9: Markus Raetz, Was Du siehst, bist Du selbst (‘What you see, is what you are’), leaf from a notebook (dated 28 October 1974), pencil on paper, 11.7 x 15,8 cm. Collection of the artist the sea and the sky through binoculars, and the image appears straightforward enough. But it changes with with the light and with with our position, position, because itit is made of a simplepieceofsheet-zincslightlyfolded:itisnottheuniversewithoutman,butthe projection of a reflection onto other eyes and minds. I thank you for your attention.
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Notes Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (Ch 1. See See Sv Svet etla lana na Al Alpe pers rs,, The Art of Describing:Dutch (Chica icago go and London, 1983), pp. 80-82. 2. ‘Men moet ook zijn vlijt aenleggen aenleggen in den geestigen geestigen zwier der wolken wolken wel waer te nemen, me n, en ho hoee ha haer eree dri drift ft en ge geda daen ente te in ee eenn ze zeke kere re ev even enre rede denh nhey eytt be best staa aat; t; wa want nt he hett oo ooge ge des konstenaers moet de dingen ook zelfs uit haere oorzaken kennen, en van de zotte waen des gemeenen volx volx vrij zijn; daer dit vers vers van spreekt: spreekt: ’t Gebeurt ook, als de wolken zich verdikken verdikken of preijen, preijen, dat d'onnoozelen verschrikken / van Beelden, Beelden, die zij aen denn He de Heme mell zi zien en,, / al alss ty tyke kene nen,van n,van ’t ge geen en,, no noch ch za zall ge gesc schi hien en.. / Vee eell won onde ders rs is ge gewi wiss in ’t zwerk zwerk te speuren / ’t Zij al het stormt, stor mt, of al de wolken scheuren / Maer dat men dier of Schip daer uit bootseert / Is domme waen van ’t graeuw, dat ongeleert / In onze konst, door waenzicht wordt wordt bedroogen; / Een schilder heeft hier toe vrij beter oogen; / Hij kent en kleur en omtrek, nevens ’t’t licht / En E n oordeelt met nauwkeuriger gezicht.’ gezicht.’ Inleyding tot de hoog hoogee schoole der schilderkonst , quote quotedd after after Ank C. C. Esmeije Esmeijerr, ‘Cloud ‘Cloudscape scapess in Theory and Practice’, Simiolus, IX/3 (1977), pp. 123-48 (p. 127). 3. Jea Jeann Schuster Schuster,, ‘Marc ‘Marcel el Duchamp Duchamp,, vite’, Le Surréalisme, même, no. 2 (Spring 1957), pp. Duchamp mp du signe. Ecrits, ed. Mich 143-145, 143-14 5, quoted after Marcel Marcel Duchamp, Ducha Michel el Sanou Sanouill illet et and Elmer Peterson (Paris, 1975), p. 247. 4. Werner Hofma Hofmann, nn, ‘Die Gebu Geburt rt der Moderne aus dem Geist der Religion Religion’, ’, in Luther und die Folgen für die Kunst , exh exhibit ibition ion ca catal talogu ogue: e: Ham Hambur burger ger Kuns unstha thalle lle (Mu (Munich nich,, 198 1983), 3),pp pp.. 23-71, especially 46, 50. 5. The recent recent catalog catalogue ue raisonné raisonné of the the first part of Gauguin’ Gauguin’ss painted painted œuvre propo proposes ses a new ne w tit title le wh which ich in incl clud udes es th thee na name me of th thee ex exac actt lo loca catition on de depi pict cted ed by th thee pic pictu ture re,, Vache sur la falaise à Porsac'h (Daniel Wildenstein, Gauguin. Premier itinéraire itinéraire d’un sauvage. sauvage. Catalo Catalogue gue de l’œ l’œuvr uvree pei peint nt (18 (187373-188 1888) 8),2vols.,ParisandMilano,2001,vol.II,no.310,pp.487-88. 6. Re Repr prod oduc uced ed fo forr ins insta tanc ncee in Wi Wild lden enst stein ein,, 20 2001 01,, p. 61 613, 3,an andd (in an ova vall vers ersion ion de dedi dica cate tedd to a co collllea eagu gue) e) in Gauguin, exh exhibit ibition ion ca catal talogu ogue: e: Pa Paris, ris, Gal Galerie eriess na natio tional nales es du Gra Grandnd-Pa Pa-lais (1989), p. 71. 7. See Anna Bentkowska, 'Anthropomorphic Landscapes Landscapes in 16th- and 17th-century WesWestern Art. A question of attribution and interpretation', Biuletyn Historii Sztuki , 59/1-2 (1997), pp. 69-91. 8. Repr Reproduced oduced in Gambon Gamboni,i, 2002, ill. 22. 9. Re Repr prod oduc uced ed in Les devinettes d’Epinal (Epinal, (Epinal, no date), unpaginated. 10.. ‘P 10 ‘Pou ourr mo moii da dans ns ce ta tabl blea eauu le pa pays ysag agee et la lu lutt ttee n' n'ex exis iste tent nt qu quee da dans ns l'l'im imagi agina natition on de dess ge gens ns Paul ul Gauguin (Paen prière par par suite du sermon’. sermon’. Victo Victorr Merlhès, Merlhès, ed., Correspondance de Pa ris, 1984), no. 165, p. p. 232.
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Van an Gogh, Gauguin and the Impressionist Circle (Greenwich, CT, 1970), pp. 11. Mark Roskil Roskill,l, V 104-105. 12. Reproduced in Gamboni, 2002, ill. 66. 13. See Wil Wilden denste stein, in, 200 2001, 1, no no.. 320 320,, pp pp.. 529 529-31 -31 (La femme aux cochons en pleine chaleur ,Char,Charlottenlund, Ordrupgaard, and Femme vue de dos, Amsterdam, Van Van Gogh Museum). 14. Reproduced in Gamboni, 2002, ill. 71. 15.. Re 15 Repr prod oduc uced ed in Ga Gamb mbon oni,i,20 2002 02,, ilill. l.80 80.. Se Seee Ri Richa chard rd Th Thom omso son, n, Landscape Painting in France 1874-1914, exhibit exhibition ion catalogu catalogue: e: Edinbu Edinburgh, rgh, Natio National nal Gallery Gallery of Scotland Scotland (1994), p. 104. 16. George Georgess Jeanni Jeanniot, ot, ‘Souv ‘Souvenirs enirs sur sur Degas’ Degas’,, Revue universelle, 15 October and and 1 November November 1933, quote quotedd after after Richard Richard Ken Kendall, dall, Degas Landscapes (New Haven Haven and London, 1993), p. 212. 17.. ‘U 17 ‘Unn co cons nsei eil, l,ne ne pe peig igne nezz pa pass tr trop op d'a d'aprè prèss na natu ture re.. L'a L'art rt es estt un unee ab abst stra ract ctio ionn titire rezz-la la de la na na-ture en rêvant devant et pensez plus à la création qui résultera, c'est le seul moyen de mont mo nter er ve vers rs Die Dieuu en fa fais isan antt co comm mmee no notr tree Div Divin in Ma Maîtr îtree, cr crée éerr.’ Pa Paul ul Ga Gaug ugui uin, n, Lettres à sa femme et à ses amis, ed. Maurice Malingue (Paris, 1946), pp. 134-5. 18. See Eve Evert rt van Uitert, Uitert, Vincent van Gogh in Creative Competition: Four Essays from Simiolus (Amsterdam, 1983); Druick and Zegers, 2001. 19.. On 19 On th this is dis dispu pute tedd bu butt in my op opini inion on ce certai rtainn as aspe pect ct,, se seee la late tely lyDrui Druick ck an andd Ze Zege gers, rs,20 2001 01,, p. 391 n. 264. 20. See Wildenstein, Wildenstein, 2001, pp. 552-3. 21. See Ronald de Leeuw Leeuw,, Van Gogh at the Van Gogh Museum (Zw (Zwoll olle, e, 199 1995), 5), pp pp.. 118 118-9; -9; Martin Bailey, ‘V ‘Van an Gogh’s Portrait of Gauguin ’, Apollo (Jul (Julyy 1996), 1996), pp pp.. 5151-4; 4; Druick and and Zegers, 2001, pp. 236-8, 364, 369 n. 50, 389 n. 220. 22. Reproduced in Gamboni, 2002, ill. 101. 23. Repr Reproduced oduced in Gambon Gamboni,i, 2002, ill. 143; Au August gust Strindbe Strindberg, rg, ‘Du hasard dans la produ producction artistique’, Revue des Revues, 11, 15 November 1894, pp. 265-70, reprinted in A. Strindberg, Du hasard dans la production artistique (Caen, 1990). 24. Fra Franci nciss Gal Galton ton,, Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development (New York, ork,1883), 1883),espec especi-ially pp. 159-63; Ernst Mach, Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen (Jena, 1886), pp. 80-89. 25. Joseph Jastrow Jastrow,, ‘The ‘The Mind's Eye’, Popular Science Monthly , January 1899, reprinted in J. Jastrow Jastro w, Fact and Fable in Psychology (Boston (Boston and and New New York, York, 1901), pp pp.. 275-95 275-95.. The car car-toon had been published in 1892 in Fliegende Blätter and and was later used by Ludwig Wittgenstein and by Jasper Johns; see Mitchell, 1994, pp. 45-57. Psychodiagnostik.Methodik stik.Methodik und Ergebnisse eines wahrnehmungsdia wahrnehmungsdiagnotignoti26. Herma Hermann nn Rorsc Rorschach hach,, Psychodiagno schen Experiments (Deutenlassen von Zufallsformen (Bern, 1921). 27. ‘Quand les marbres marbres ou les bois vous vous dessinent une tête c’est c’est joliment tentant de voler’. P. Gauguin, Lettres de Gauguin à Daniel de Monfreid (Paris, (Paris, 1950), p. 57. 28. A. C., ‘Un rocher à figure humaine’, La Nature (1899), p. 400.
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29. ‘Homme libre libre,, toujou toujours rs tu chériras la mer! / La mer mer est ton ton miroir; miroir; tu contemple contempless ton âme / Dans le déroulement déroulement infini de sa lame, lame, / et ton esprit n’est pas un gouffre moins amer.. // […] Vous amer Vous êtes tous les deux ténébreux et et discrets: / Homme, nul n’a sondé le fond fo nd de te tess ab abîm îmes es;; / Ô me merr, nu null ne co conn nnaî aîtt te tess ric riche hess sses es in inti time mes, s,// Tan antt vou ouss êt êtes es ja jalo loux ux de garder vos secrets!’ Baudelaire, Œuvres complètes, ed. Claude Pichois, vol. vol. I (Paris, 1975), p. 19. 30. ‘Celu ‘Celui-ci, i-ci, qui s'appe s'appelle lle réaliste, mot à double entente et dont le sens n'est pas bien déterminé,et miné, et que nous appellerons, appellerons,pour pour mieux caractériser caractériser son erreur, erreur, un positiviste,dit:“Je veux représenter les choses telles qu'elles sont, ou bien qu'elles seraient, en supposant que je n'e n'exist xistee pas pas..” L'un L'univ ivers ers san sanss l'h l'homm omme. e.Et Et cel celuiui-là, là,l'im l'imagin aginat atif, if,dit: dit:“J “Jee ve veux ux ill illumi umi-ner les choses avec mon esprit et en projeter le reflet sur les autres esprits.” esprits.” Baudelaire, 1976, p. 627. L’instaur ’instauration ation du tableau. Métapeinture à 31. For this notion, see especially especially Victor I. Stoichita, L l’aube des Temps modernes (Paris, 1993) and Mitchell, 1994, pp. pp. 35-82. d'encre. Manuscrits et dessins de Victor Hugo, exh 32.. Re 32 Repr prod oduc uced ed fo forr in inst stan ance ce in Soleil d'encre.Manuscrits exhibit ibition ion ca ca-talogue: Paris, Musée du Petit Palais (1985), no. 318, p. 221. 33. Baudelaire, 1976, p. 667. Traumdeutung ng (1900), Studienausgabe (Frankfurt am Main, 34. See for examp example le S. Freu Freud, d, Die Traumdeutu 1989), vol. II, pp. 390-94, and Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse (1915-17), Studienausgabe, vol. I, pp. pp. 162-3, 169-70. I thank Klaus Herding for these references references.. 35. ‘un lieu lieu sans sans patrie patrie sur un un abîme’. abîme’. Odilon Redon Redon,, A soi-même.Journal soi-même. Journal (1867-1915). (1867-1915). Notes st sur la vie, l'art et les artistes (Paris, 1961; 1 edn 1922), p. 11. Wet et Mind: The New Cognitive Neuroscience (New 36. Stephen M. Kosslyn and Olivier Koenig, W st York, 1995; 1 995; 1 ed. 1992). Muniz: Seeing is Believing Believing, 37. ‘Vik Muniz and Charles Ashley Stainback: A Dialogue’, in Vik Muniz: exhibition catalogue: catalogue: New York, York, International Center of Photography (Santa Fe, Fe, 1998), pp. 12-44 (p. 16)
Abbreviated references Baudelaire, Charles, Œuvres complètes, ed. Claude Pichois, vol. II (Paris, 1976) Druick, Douglas W. and Zegers, Peter Kort, in collaboration with Britt Salvesen, Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the the South, exhibition catalogue: Art Institute of Chicago; Van Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (London, 2001) Potential otential Images: Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art Ar t (London, 2002) Gamboni, Dario, P Theory: Essays on Verbal Verbal and Visual Representation (Ch Mitchell,W.T.J., Picture Theory:Essays (Chica icago go and Lon London don,, 1994)
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