Elstir is first mentioned

The special status accorded to art in the Recherche is most clearly elucidated in the passages that focus on painting, and in particular on Elstir, the painter whom Marcel meets in Balbec. Elstir is first mentioned in something of an aside after Marcel has begun reading The Letters of Madame de Sévigné while riding on the train to Balbec. It is a book his grandmother has given him to read during the voyage, and he has only just begun reading when he stops to contemplate the mistaken readings of others who are tricked by purely formal particularities that relate to the era, and to life in the salon (I, p.653). In contrast to them, he says of his grandmother:

Mais ma grand’mère, qui était venue à celle-ci par le dedans, par l’amour pour les siens, pour la nature, m’avait appris à en aimer les vraies beautés, qui sont tout autres. Elles devaient bientôt me frapper d’autant plus que Mme de Sévigné est une grande artiste de la même famille qu’un peintre que j’allais rencontrer à Balbec et qui eut une influence si pronfonde sur ma vision des choses, Elstir. Je me rendis compte à Balbec que c’est de la même façon que lui qu’elle nous présente les choses, dans l’ordre de nos perceptions, au lieu de les expliquer d’abord par leur cause. (I, p.653)

{But my grandmother, who had come to this (one) by way of the inside [or “from within”], by the love of her own, for nature, had taught me to appreciate (like/love) the true beauties, that are completely other. They soon hit me all the more so that Mme de Sévigné is a great artist of the same family as a painter that I would meet in Balbec et who had such a profound influence on my vision of things, Elstir. I came to realize at Balbec that it is in the same manner as him that she presents things to us, in the order of our perceptions, instead of first explaining them by their cause. [my own translation]}

This brief paragraph outlines a complex connection between the true beauties realized in art and their capacity to effect a transformation of the viewer’s perception, thus allowing them to see the world as it is. The passage begins with an enigmatic notion of coming “by way of the inside”. What is this the inside to? What is the corresponding outside to the binary that has been implied? We might infer gramatically, by the simple proximity of the preceding “this” and the phrase “by way of the inside”, that we are to understand Marcel’s grandmother as coming by way of the inside of “this”. However, this is not definite, and more importantly, we have no clear antecendent for “this”. Going back further in the sentence, the “inside” could be the inside Grandma, perhaps understood as her consciousness, or as some inner, personal apsect of mind, not determined by outside, social forces. In this sense, the grandmother’s reading is clearly opposed to those of the faulty readers whose mistakes set up the conjunctive “but” with which the sentence begins. Alternately, we might understand the “inside” to be the interior truth of the art in question. For now, it is more important to keep in mind these multiple possibilities than to make a choice amongst them. The next clause, “par l’amour pour les siens”, gives us no more answers than the first. Love has been added to the enigma, hinting at more possible explanations, but “les siens” also lacks an antecendent. The first real clue comes in the next clause, “for nature”. The concept of nature establishes two important binaries. First, nature is traditionally opposed to society, which as an institution is felt to sit on top of nature, and to interfere with its “natural” workings. Within this first opposition is found the second: having both created this unnatural society and choosen to inhabit it, humans also come to be viewed as individually unnatural. Thus, the grandmother’s wisdom, in teaching Marcel to see the true beauties, can be opposed to both the mistakes committed by society, and to the misapprenshions of other individuals. That this should be so is reflected in the various disembodied qutotations of the mistaken readers. These quotations show both individual instances of misaprehension, and also a general pattern of so doing within society at large.


nature ; learn to love true/real beauties ; true/real beauty ; true/real beauties that are completely other ; connection between art and vision, paintings of Elstir bestow particular sense of vision of things ; in the order of our perceptions, what does this mean? ; in the order of our perceptions versus cause