About this Exhibition

Private Proust: Letters and Drawings to Reynaldo Hahn was produced by François Proulx, Lecturer on Comparative Literature at Harvard University and guest curator at Houghton Library. This online exhibition was originally a component of the Proust and the Arts web site, which served as a resource both for students enrolled in "French 165: Marcel Proust" and for guests and attendees of the interdisciplinary conference held at Harvard University April 19-20, 2013.

2. Drawings (1902-1906)

In this and the next drawing, Proust casts himself as the suffering Christ; here he removes Christ’s beard but preserves his own signature mustache. He provides captions peppered with his private “lansguage” for Hahn:

"Symbolizes life blindly turning all its hopes away from Marcel, and Reynaldo full of pity collecting blood from his wound and Konsoling him"
Marcel Proust. “L’Église et la Synagogue (aux yeux bandés),” [n.d.]. b 94M-48 (91), 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.