HUYSMANS (Joris-Karl). "Courbet is a false great painter..." - Lot 81

Lot n° 81
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HUYSMANS (Joris-Karl). "Courbet is a false great painter..." - Lot 81
HUYSMANS (Joris-Karl). "Courbet is a false great painter...". Autograph letter signed to Jean-François Raffaëlli. S.l., [May 1882]. 4pp. in-12 in fine handwriting. "...I have been through, I beg you to believe, quite a string of nervous accidents, since I last saw you. My dear, you who are nervous, take good care of yourself and don't work too hard, because you see, it's terrible. Last month, I spent 8 days wondering how it would end, methodical accidents, at certain times, according to the clock. Trembling of the right hand at 4pm, convulsive coughing at 3am, stomach pains on rising etc. etc. etc. Mechanical suffering. Stuffed with assa-foetida, valerian and bromide and subjected, once again, to the spears of the showers, I am now calmer... You mention, my dear friend, my art book [L'Art moderne, to be published by Charpentier in 1883]. Ah! here's one that will have caused me a lot of trouble! Charpentier was very frightened by the virulence of the book and asked me to make deletions and changes. I saw all the other publishers, some of whom backed down, claiming that the opinions I expressed were monstrous, while others accepted this moxa, but then demanded that I give them my first novel. In short, I had to return to Charpentier, agree to make a castrato of my stallion, and we're going to appear this winter. As it is, I'll still be singularly covered in mud - never mind, I'll have pretty much said what I think of contemporary painting. I don't work much, as you can believe; since then, I've only been able to do the first 2 chapters of my novel on the Gros-Caillou; it's hopeless [a novel that remained unfinished] - and with that, everything is forbidden to me, coffee, work, everything, everything! I think your idea of only exhibiting at rare intervals, and then exhibiting a whole series, is an excellent one. There are really too many gallivanters banging on drums and deafening and disgusting people who love art; it becomes in painting as in literature, an odious fair, an abject exhibition of subjects scratching the public where it itches. All that's left for clean people to do is to take it easy on themselves. I went to see the Courbets [the exhibition held in Paris at the Beaux-Arts in May 1882] yesterday, on my way home. I'm nauseated by this painting. Apart from LesCasseurs de pierre, what vulgarity! It's painting from the time of the 1st Empire. The 2 nude women are Gérard and what a filthy mucky color; yes, it may make you jump, but this art, from a skilled practitioner but a low spirit, seems repulsive to me. I can't imagine how I ever defended such canvases. The seas are marble. And what about the actual allegory? I left there, exasperated, saying to myself, like M.Folantin, "Tout fiche le camp!" [And Courbet's ignorance of values? I'm afraid I'm alone in my opinion, but I don't mind saying it. I believe, in my soul and conscience, now, that Courbet is a false great painter..." Attached, 4pieces: Roland Dorgelès, Méry Laurent, Pierre Louÿs, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen.
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