Comprehensive Research of Representation and style on Proust and Paintings

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The objective of my research, conducted during the years 2002 and 2003, was toadvance study in the descriptions (representation and style) of paintings appearing in A la Recherche du temps perdu.1). Documents and research pertaining to Proust and paintings were reexamined. Efforts were made to supplement information on the fictional artist Elstir and to gather documents regarding paintings of Proust's era. 2). In addition to the careful examination of information on paintings in thelibrary of the Musee d'Orsay, reexamination of Proust's drafts preserved at the Bibliotheque nationale de France was undertaken. In particular, I gained access to microfilm at the Bibliotheque nationale de France, and I purchased microfilm on the most pertinent 75 notebooks of rough drafts and 20 notebooks offinal drafts. Significant progress was made in investigative research on theauthor's method of representing paintings in his work. 3). Natalie Mauriac (CNRS), an expert specializing in Proust's drafts, was invited to Japan, where she gave advice on these documents and on the subject of Proust and paintings. We had the opportunity to conduct joint research on this theme. 4). From the above investigative research, paintings appearing in A la Recherche du temps perdu were examined to make clear differences between actual paintings (by Carpaccio, Vermeer, etc.) and the descriptions of fictional paintings (Elstir's "Miss Sacripant" and "Carquethuit Port," etc.) appearing in the novel. 5). The fictional paintings and descriptions of nature in the work were studied to determine the role naturalism plays in representation of paintings. 6). The results of this research were utilized in the writing of forty-three items in Dictionnaire Proust (Champion, 2004), published in France.