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Paul Gauguin and Charles Morice’s Noa-noa: a text between literary and artistic fields

par Dessy, Clément
Référence 99th College Art Association Conference ((second session as business meeting of the ATSAH): 9-12 février 2011: New York (Hilton hotel))
Publication Non publié, 2011-02-11

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

In 1901 La Plume publishes Noa-noa. This text results from a collaboration between painter Paul Gauguin and poet Charles Morice, Mallarmé’s disciple. It is composed of prosaic parts written by Gauguin, about his stay, in Tahiti and poems by Morice. Noa-noa had previously been published by the Revue blanche in 1897, which supported pictorial synthetism and, more exactly Nabis painters (among them Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Kerr-Xavier Roussel, and Édouard Vuillard). It is generally analyzed as a document for painting by researchers in art history. We would like to read this text from a literary point of view and assess the impact of symbolist theories. Charles Morice had published the famous La Littérature de tout-à-l’heure (1889) which is one – but not the least – of the numerous theoretical treaties from the turn of the century. In his Souvenirs du symbolisme (1928), André Fontainas attests to the enormous influence of Morice’s principles on his generation. He referred obsessionally to the idea of synthèse (“synthesis”) which informs most of Gauguin’s pictorial concepts (synthetism). The links between painting and literature are here unquestionable. Other questions may be considered from this literary and artistic event. We know of Gauguin’ suspicion of literature. Why thus has he written this text and collaborated with a poet? On the other hand, what project was Morice pursuing when he decided to insert poems inspired by Gauguin’s prose in Noa-noa? What were the advantages in the literary field of writing with a painter? This study will analyze the form of this text and the links with symbolist literature and pictorial art. Thanksto an aesthetic vision of the text, it can be situated within the evolution of the French movement. It will provide another view of Gauguin thanks to better knowledge of his literary reception. It will also explore the transfer of aesthetic values from pictorial to literary fields.