Des mots pour la peinture

Here is a book that talks about the relationship between painting and literature. Once this has been established, one should in a way stroll through it… Or else you may not find what you are looking for. The presentation does not make it easy, as you cannot always distinguish the literary quote from the explanation. There is no historic analysis of the unforgettable links between writers and painters, but rather a series of examples chosen to show how writers may have appreciated, supported as well as hold in contempt what their counterparts produced. The case of Julien Green is enlightening. He was horrified when he saw a loud (Fauve) portrait of Mrs. Matisse by her husband in 1922 at Gertrude Stein’s home, but had long since changed his opinion when he saw it again 20 years later in the USA… Mario Luzi and Piero della Francesca, Eluard and Delvaux, Quignard and Lubin Baugin, Butor and Le Lorrain, Segalen and Gauguin are some of the couples presented in this intellectual ping-pong.

• Des mots pour la peinture by Jean-Pierre Aubrit and Bernard Gendrel, Seuil, 2010, 192 p., 39 €