Marcel PROUST – Painting, John Ruskin, Giotto and William Turner.

Marcel Proust (1871.1922)

Autograph letter signed to Georges de Lauris.

Five and a half pages in-12° on mourning paper.

[Versailles, shortly before October 20, 1906]

Kolb, Volume VI, pages 241-242.

"I don't know how I found the strength to copy this page for you; I drew it from the desire to have you read it."

A very beautiful letter on painting, quoting John Ruskin on Giotto and Turner.

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"My dear Georges, I hardly have the strength to tell you that I sense you haven't received my letters and that I'm sorry about it. No, don't come now. I'll write to you soon to tell you why. I asked Ruskin (his work, not just his mind; this is a quotation, not a pastiche) what he thought of Mr. Berenson."

Here is his reply (Mornings in Florence VI, 118): “It seems, according to some industrious Englishmen, that I was mistaken in attributing to Giotto the painting in the Uffizi which is by Lorenzo Monaco. This may be true, without everything I have told you about the predella losing any of its value, and it should in no way shake, if you are reasonable, your confidence in everything I can tell you about Giotto. There is one way of knowing about painting that is the domain of artists, and another that is the domain of antiquarians and art dealers. This second way rests on a precise knowledge of the canvas and the conventions of the technique and implies no competence whatsoever with regard to aesthetic qualities properly speaking.”

There are few good experts in the major cities of Europe whose opinion carries more weight than mine on matters of authenticity . They will tell you whether a painting can be attributed to so-and-so, but they have no idea about the painting's actual value. For example, I once mistook watercolors by Varley and Cousin for early Turner watercolors ; the experts thus demonstrated greater competence than I did regarding the authenticity of these watercolors. Granted, this does not change the fact that they do not know Turner and his work as well as I do. Similarly, you may find me at fault on matters of attribution, even more uncertain, concerning Giotto's early pupils, and on the authenticity of a work from that period. But—and I tell you this with more sadness than pride—know that I am simply the only person who can tell you its true value. You realize that every time I tell you to look at a painting, it's worth it, and every time I speak to you of a master's original genius, it's precisely this originality that I've discerned so accurately, even if I were to make every possible error in attributing these works. When I mistook a Cousin for a Turner, it was a piece of sky treated with an eminently "Turneresque" delicacy that the expert hadn't even suspected! But which another artist besides Turner might have one day managed to equal. Whereas the expert focused only on the quality of the Whatman paper that Cousin used, not Turner.

All this doesn't change the fact that I would very much like to meet Berenson. I don't know how I managed to copy this page for you; I drew it from the desire to have you read it. As soon as the oil treatment has taken effect, write to me. Yours affectionately, Marcel.