Edouard Vuillard : carnets intimes (1888-1905 et 1er janvier 1914-11 novembre 1918) : édition critique avec présentation, notes, annexes et bibliographie
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Abstract EN:
Critical edition of painter edouard vuillard's diaries kept at the library of the institut de france. Publication in full _texts and sketches_ of the diaries of his youth (18881905). Partial publication of the subsequent diaries (january 1st 1914 to november 11th 1918). The edition of the text and research that went with it, accounted for in our notes and annexes, make it possible to understand the training of the painter during his student's years, to reassess some events concerning not only vuillard himself but also members of the nabi group to which he belonged, and to try to understand the demands of a creative conscience over a significant period of time, besides allowing us to ponder the origin of, and the part played by, personal writing for the painter and reconsidering the question of the artist's commitment during world war i. After studying vuillard's intimist thought processes in relation to painters' writings in general, our presentation brings out the academic and religious origin of vuillard's intimist writing and specifies its characteristic features. Thus it seems to us the painter's diaries express the essentially tragic feeling artist has of his relation to the world, a feeling he shares with non-painters diarists, but one which is compounded by the contraints specific to contemporary painting: the metaphysical doubt presupposed by keeping a diary is, for the painter combined with aesthetic doubt, while faith in salvation through his works is contradicted by the impossibility to complete the works. Finally, the closeness between vuillard's concerns as a painter and his concerns as a diarist can be related to the ambition he has to objectivize the capturing of sensation regarded as founding all creation. Vuillard's diaries lead us to conclude there is an essentiel kinship between painting and intimist writing, dependent as they both are on the present, the fragmentary and the incomplete.
Abstract FR:
Edition critique des carnets du peintre edouard vuillard (1860-1940) conserves a la bibliotheque de l'institut de france. Publication integrale, texte et croquis, des carnets de jeunesse (1888-1905). Publication partielle des carnets intimes posterieurs (1er janvier 1918-11 novembre 1918). L'edition du texte et les recherches qui l'ont accompagnee, dont nos notes et nos annexes rendent compte, permettent d'apprehender la formation du peintre dans ses annees etudiantes, de revoir certains evenements concernant vuillard lui-meme mais egalement les membres du groupe nabi auquel il appartint, de tenter de comprendre l'exigence d'une conscience creatrice sur une duree significative; elles autorisent en outre a reflechir sur l'origine et le role de l'ecrit personnel pour le peintre et a reconsiderer la question de l'engagement de l'artiste pendant la guerre de 1914-1918. Apres avoir situe la demarche intimiste de vuillard dans la perspective generale des ecrits de peintres, notre presentation precise l'origine a la fois scolaire et religieuse de l'ecriture intimiste de vuillard et caracterise sa specificite. Le journal du peintre nous parait ainsi temoigner d'un sentiment tragique du rapport au monde de l'etre-artiste, sentiment qu'il partage avec les diaristes non peintres mais qui se trouve aggrave par les contraintes propres de la peinture contemporaine: le doute metaphysique que presuppose le journal intime est orchestre pour le peintre d'un doute esthetique tandis que la foi en un salut terrestre par l'uvre est contredite par l'impossibilite d'achever l'uvre. Enfin, la proximite des preoccupations de vuillard-peintre et de vuillard-diariste peut etre mise en rapport avec son ambition d'objectiver la saisie de la sensation concue comme fondatrice de la creation. Les carnets de vuillard permettent de conclure a une harmonie essentielle entre la peinture et l'ecriture intimiste, toutes deux assujetties au present, au fragment et a l'inacheve.