2. Drawings (1902-1906)While in Brittany with Hahn, Proust began to work on a novel largely inspired by their affair, now known as Jean Santeuil. He abandoned the project around 1899, when he instead turned to writing translations of John Ruskin. With the help of his mother and of Hahn’s cousin Marie Nordlinger, Proust published translations of The Bible of Amiens (1904) and Sesame and Lilies (1906).
As he worked on his translations, Proust often consulted Émile Mâle’s illustrated treatise, Religious Art in France (1902, revised ed.). Tracing and modifying illustrations from that book, Proust composed drawings for Hahn that are at once whimsical and profound. |
Marcel Proust, "Sainte Anne portant la Vierge (Vitrail de Chartres)," [n.d.]. b 94M-48 (97), Houghton Library, Harvard University. Gift, Mrs. Bradley Martin, 1994.
Adapted from Émile Mâle, L’art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France. Paris: Armand Colin, 1902. 203 M24ba, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. |