Rare documents are not common.
Translated from French.
Rare documents are not common. And vice versa. 🧐
In 1921, Jean-Louis Vaudoyer reviewed the Vermeer exhibition at the @museeorangerie in @lefigaro, Marcel Proust, who was living a reclusive life 🛌, recalled having seen the Dutch painters in situ twenty years earlier. He asked Vaudoyer to accompany him on a private tour of the exhibition. 🖼️
There, after looking at the “View of Delft” once more, Marcel Proust felt a bit unwell 🥴 and had to sit down for a moment to regain his composure. A photograph of Proust, standing as straight as a pole, cane and hat in hand, would go on to become famous. It was used, for example, as the visual for the exhibition “La Fabrique de l’œuvre” at @labnf in 2022.
Another, lesser-known one shows him sitting on a bench, probably in the Tuileries, clearly blinded by the sun and with a particularly tousled moustache. ☀️🤵🏻♂️
And finally, a third photo – this one, which is a bit of a failed shot, shows him with his eyes closed on the same bench. An original print went on sale not long ago at @sothebys. 💶
This photo shoot of Proust has remained famous because, first and foremost, these are the last photographs of Proust whilst he was still alive and the first photographs of him since before the war. Even when he was awarded the @academiegoncourt Prize in 1919, Proust had not been photographed: he had provided the press 📰🗞️ with photographs dating from the years 1900–1910. We therefore have very few photographs of Proust taken whilst he was writing “In Search of Lost Time”. 📚
And then, of course, Proust incorporated this visit to the Vermeer exhibition into his work: it is the episode in which Bergotte, the writer, dies whilst looking at the ‘View of Delft’. An episode that Proust continued to revise right up until his final hours, on the night of 17–18 November 1922. 🪦🕰️
#ÀlaRechercheduTempsperdu #Proust #proustagram #MarcelProust #JeanLouisVaudoyer #Vermeer #JohannesVermeer #VuedeDelft #petitpandemurjaune #Orangerie
Thank you, have a good day.