{"id":45387,"date":"2022-02-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=45387"},"modified":"2022-09-25T16:02:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-25T14:02:40","slug":"leopold-robert-tanguer-in-the-fugue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/literature\/leopold-robert-tanguer-in-the-fugue\/","title":{"rendered":"L\u00e9opold Robert, tanguing in the fugue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday books<\/a> - Quentin Perissinotto<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A native of Neuch\u00e2tel like the painter L\u00e9opold Robert, Bernard Vuill\u00e8me's book traces the fugue and wanderings of a man who left for Venice to join a young doctoral student in the last footsteps of L\u00e9opold Robert. Will the two of them be able to unravel the passions and despair that led the artist to suddenly cut his own throat, alone in his studio, at the age of 40?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

As far back as I can remember, my museum wanderings have left me with memories of the shiny parquet floor and the paintings by L\u00e9opold Robert reflected in it. From these picturesque scenes, where elegantly draped costumes cut through landscapes bathed in distant light, drips a melancholy that fills me every time. The distant horizon seems to flee the canvas, while the soft tones of the clothes catch the eye. I've never been able to say why, but L\u00e9opold Robert's paintings have always held a mysterious appeal for me. However, I never sought to know more about the painter, let alone the man; I was content to appreciate his round, mellifluous hues. Obviously, I was totally unaware that this painter, whom I found pleasant, was the darling of the 19th-century Tout-Paris.th<\/sup> century and the European courts, and was even quoted by Alexandre Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>. I knew nothing about L\u00e9opold Robert. A book then came to be stored in this interstice: Death in a gondola<\/em> by Jean-Bernard Vuill\u00e8me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u00abA life untold is no life at all\u00bb.\u00bb<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This novel is a tireless cross-fertilization: the narrator abruptly abandons his everyday life to marry in Venice and chase a young woman, not without love interest, who is herself pursuing the past of the painter L\u00e9opold Robert. Vuill\u00e8me interweaves this journey with the life and history of the artist from La Chaux-de-Fonds, sketching his childhood in the landscapes of the Jura and the Parisian backstreets he wandered for a few years, freshly arrived in the capital to attend Jacques-Louis David's classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The young L\u00e9opold shone, winning the second Grand Prix de Rome in engraving, but unfortunately that same year, Neuch\u00e2tel fell into Prussian hands. He was consequently stripped of his French nationality and excluded from the Beaux-Arts. He studied with Antoine-Jean Gros for a while, then returned to Switzerland, abandoning engraving in favor of painting. Vuilli\u00e8me's pen then takes us to Italy, where destiny finally brought L\u00e9opold Robert to the doorstep of success and disappointed love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same desire underlies and guides the protagonists of both stories: the refusal to forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Escaping to Venice, twice<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u00abRenouncing one's existence is an excellent way to finally dare to be oneself, without embarrassment or eagerness.\u00bb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By interweaving the lives of L\u00e9opold Robert and the narrator, Vuilli\u00e8me paints a picture of the anxiety of a man who gradually feels himself slipping away, unable to find a foothold. This nostalgic stroll through Venice takes on existential colors as the narrator asks: \u00abWhat was I running away from? The memory-less, history-less character I'd been trying to become since I left for Venice, an impossible rebirth, or the vertical corpse I'd become by dint of wanting to last? What was it I wanted to protect? A certain idea of myself, despite my procrastination in the face of the test of longevity?\u00bb The author takes pleasure in blurring destinies and blurring the contours of territories. Sailing from denial to abandonment, the characters feel Venice slipping away from them: she is an elusive shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n