Reception room

Camille PISSARRO • Pommier sous le soleil, Éragny

In 1884, Pissarro moved to a farm in the Norman village of Éragny, where he developed a passion for observing landscapes and farm work, making him the only 19th-century painter, along with Millet, to take a genuine interest in rural populations. Pissarro lived there for 20 years, immersed in this pastoral setting until the end of his life. Although less well known, the paintings from this period are among his most innovative, revealing a new serenity in the painter. The surface of his works is unified by a pattern of small, distinct brushstrokes, which links Pissarro to Seurat in the creation of ‘pointillism’, a technique that paved the way for a modernised neo-impressionist style of painting.

Camille PISSARRO • Paysanne à la manne

Much has been said about Proust’s relationship with Impressionism through the example of Monet. It is interesting to discuss this in relation to Pissarro, who undoubtedly inspired Proust just as much, particularly in his descriptions of landscapes. He makes direct reference to Pissarro in the section of Jean Santeuil devoted to his stay at the Château de Réveillon, which is full of descriptions of landscapes reminiscent of Impressionist painting. He mentions a neighbour who, ‘with exquisite taste, without altering the style of the castle, [...] had taken with her the Claude Monets and Pissarros she could least bear to part with, those which, moreover, best corresponded to the nature of the country where she found herself’.

Auguste RODIN • L’Homme qui marche, statue acéphale

Marcel Proust loved Propos d'un isolé, which begins with this quote from Rodin, the champion of modern sculpture, whom Proust, another genius who revolutionised the art of the novel, could not help but admire: ‘I know we have to struggle because we are often against the spirit of our time.’ " Rodin's masterpiece was unveiled at the 1900 World’s Fair and then reproduced several times in bronze and marble. A truncated figure, composed of body fragments, seemingly unfinished, the sculpture is eminently modern and announces the more experimental art of the 20th century. The theme was taken up by many contemporary artists, including Alberto Giacometti, who produced multiple versions between 1947 and 1960.

Eugène BOUDIN • Les barques échouées, Trouville

Eugène Boudin chose the Normandy coast as the setting for his landscape drawings and paintings (over 300). He painted ahead of his time, creating Proustian visions ‘where the sea enters the land, where the land is already marine’, as Proust would say. He foreshadowed the character of the painter Elstir in Balbec, who, in "À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs", paints the port of Carquethuit and uses ‘only maritime terms for the small town, and only urban terms for the sea’, and ‘accustoms the eyes to recognising no fixed boundary, no absolute demarcation between land and ocean’. In Boudin's views of the Norman ports, there is also this subtle demarcation between land and sea.

Eugène BOUDIN • Marée haute à Trouville

Described as the ‘King of the Skies’ by Corot, Boudin, whom Monet considered his master, foreshadowed the Impressionist revolution. Although Proust probably never met him, he saw his paintings and shared his passion for the Normandy landscape and its poetic and pictorial beauty. ‘How madly I love this country, the most beautiful I know,’ Proust wrote to Louisa de Mornand in 1905, "[...] between Trouville and Honfleur, on the heights, is the most admirable country one can see in the most beautiful countryside, with ideal sea views. And there are houses known only to artists, in front of which I have heard millionaires exclaim: “What a pity I have a castle instead of living here!”

Camille COROT • Paysage à Montgeron

As early as 1899, Proust devoted a chapter of Jean Santeuil to ‘An art lover. Monet, Sisley, Corot’. In it, he describes a painting by Corot similar to this one: "It was a whole expanse of rolling countryside, with a village scattered across the slope [...] The canvas was very small, but the landscape was vast. [...] The idea conveyed in the painting must have been that the countryside changes quickly [...] So our art lover bought this painting, which perhaps gave him a deeper feeling for the countryside than a Monet...". Also quoted in À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) – Charles Swann collects works by Corot – could the painter therefore be one of the models for Elstir, the painter in the novel?

Phonograph

It was at the 1878 World's Fair that the public discovered Edison's phonograph. The operator spoke in a loud voice in front of a mouthpiece containing a membrane of the type used in Bell's telephone while rotating a cylinder with a crank. The vibrations of the blade, caused by the sound, animate a steel point which engraves grooves in the tin foil surrounding the cylinder. The voice, recorded, is amplified and played back through a megaphone placed on the mouthpiece.

It was mainly the musical field that gave this invention all its interest. Before the First World War, the "rolls", by allowing the diffusion of songs and short musical pieces, gained an enormous success.

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