Page 14 - Gallery 19c Volume 3_Les Types de Paris_digital_Neat

Mallarmé wrote a total of eight short poems called life as a road mender. The third and final theme of this 1 “Les types de Paris de Raffaëlli … est un album de croquis du maître d’Asnières, avec des légendes par
Chansons bas, which consisted of two sonnets and six chapter in Les Types is women, under which the poet and les auteurs les plus en renom de Paris: du Daudet, du Zola, du Mallarmé même et du Bourget aussi.
quatrains organized by three main themes, or categories. the visual artist again took two different approaches. C’est encore un livre pour les amoureux de Paris.” Raffaëlli was dubbed the “master of Asnières” in
reference to the Parisian suburb that was both his home and main source of inspiration between 1872
In the first group, the reader enters the world imagined Whereas Raffaëlli emphasized their noble attitude, a
and 1892, until he moved to rue de Courcelle within the Parisian walls.
by Mallarmé through three poems he deliberately wittier Mallarmé chose to place their skills in seduction
oriented to emphasize the repulsion/attraction caused at the fore of his narration. In the “Marchande d’habits” 2 “Au moment où de tous les côtés la province et l’étranger se préparent à rendre visite à la grande
by the fragrance of the given character. For example, quatrain, for instance, Mallarmé implies, perhaps cité, n’était-il par opportun de faire connaître le Paris d’aujourd’hui, le vrai, avec ses types les plus
frappants, ses dessous ignorés, ses physionomies qui lui donnent à la fois le charme et la vitalité.”
while the lavender peddler might conjure romantic out of his own fantasy, that the woman who sells old
From one of the two prefaces to Les Types de Paris, quoted in Agate Nicky, A Crisis of Distinction:
images of a street trade for its odorous flowers, clothes is secretly undressing the narrator and leaves Reading Fin-de-Siècle Anxieties through Les types de Paris, PhD dissertation, New York University,
Mallarmé, against all odds, conveys that the lavender him naked as a god, in a “discreet allusion to the 2014, p. 18.
aroma is but a cover for the vermin in her hair. Two quasi-divine character of the poet.” Throughout the
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more texts from the same “odoriferous” lexical field chapter, Raffaëlli counterbalanced such tendencies of “J’apercevais la vie en triste.” Quoted in Lucien Puech, “Raffaëlli,“ Le Figaro, May 27, 1896.
follow: “Marchand d’ail et d’oignons” and “Le carreleur de Mallarmé to obscure by drawing evocative illustrations, 4 “Portraits of the common people.“ Also the title of one of the sections of Raffaëlli’s 1884 exhibition.
souliers” (the cobbler). In the first poem, Mallarmé and although the authors did not work in symbiosis, Jean-François Raffaëlli, Catalogue Illustré des œuvres de Jean-François Raffaëlli: exposition du 15
ironically rhymes “éloignons” (push away) with “oignons” they successfully created a coherent narrative. Beyond mars au 15 avril 1884: exposées 28bis avenue de l’Opéra: suivie d’une étude des mouvements de l’art
(onions) to extol the business-impairing aroma of the satire and Mallarmé’s humor, the chapter triumphs moderne et du beau caractériste, exh. cat., Paris, 1884.
alliums in general and the lachrymal effect of peeling in revealing a side of the City of Lights stripped of its 5 Quoted in Barbara S. Fields, Jean-François Raffaëlli, the Naturalist Artist, New York, 1979, p. 141.
onions in particular. This effect of literary contrast glamour and baring its complexities.
is further explored in “Le carreleur de souliers,” when 6 Léon Daudet, Devant la douleur, souvenirs des milieux littéraires, politiques, artistiques et médicaux
Mallarmé juxtaposes the fragrance of lilies and the smell Now considered as both an artwork and a socio- de 1880 à 1905, vol. 3, Paris, 1915, pp. 163-168.
of shoes and leather. Meanwhile, Raffaëlli’s drawings of historical document, Les Types de Paris is material 7
these urban characters emphasize the dignity of these proof of the interrelationship between members of the Raffaëlli to Mirbeau in a letter dated June 10 or 15, 1888: “il faut que vous me rendiez un grand service;
je viens de traiter avec Plon un très bel album illustré de fin d’année sur les types de Paris. Pour cet
merchants despite their difficult working and living Parisian intellectual elite of the 1880s. It also ensures album, j’ai compté que mes amis seraient assez gentils pour me faire chacun un bout de texte, et je
conditions. The combination of the two very contrasting the legacy of the true Paris and its working-class culture viens vous demander quelques lignes.” In Correspondance suivie des articles de Mirbeau sur Raffaëlli,
views, while unsettling, succeeds in transporting the for generations to come. At the time of its publication, Tusson, France, 1993), p. 41.
reader to the real environment of the humble subject Les Types de Paris was well received. Rodin wrote of 8 “Une réunion de pacifiques poètes et de charmants littérateurs.” Mirbeau to Raffaëlli in a letter dated
and brings more depth and complexity to otherwise Raffaëlli, apropos of the collaborative project: “Without December 31, 1885. In ibid., p. 27.
ordinary trades. him, we would have passed through the banlieues
without seeing their beauties; he has given a majestic 9 Gustave Geffroy, “Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850–1924),” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 10, no. 5,
As requested by Raffaëlli in the outline of his project, present to both the poor suburban people and the November 1924, pp. 167-196.
two poems by Mallarmé—“Le Cantonnier” and artists, who like me enjoy his heart and intervention.”
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10 Marnin Young, “Heroic Indolence: Realism and the Politics of Time in Raffaëlli’s ‘Absinthe Drinkers,’”
“Le crieur d’imprimés”— fall under the second category, Les Types de Paris was also a commercial success. Priced
Art Bulletin 90, no. 2, June 2008, pp. 235–259.
or theme, as portraits. “Le Cantonnier,” for example, at 100 francs, the luxury bound volume sold out rapidly.
which is reminiscent of Raffaëlli’s painting shown in The book remained dear to Raffaëlli, who kept a copy at 11 See Lloyd James Austin, “Mallarmé and the Visual Arts,” in French 19th Century Painting and
1881 at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition, exults the his studio until his death in 1924. 19 Literature, ed. U. Finke, New York, 1972, pp. 232-257.
sentiments of dignity and resolve in the fate of a harsh

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