Le rendez-vous manqué de Bouvard et Pécuchet avec la peinture

Abstract

Did Flaubert plan to include a chapter on the fine arts, or even on painting alone, in his last novel? Some elements in the genetic file of Bouvard et Pécuchet suggest that he did, but closer examination confines this intention to the earliest stage of the novel's scriptural conception. The writer then suppressed both the practical application and the critical examination of painting by his two characters, leaving literature in first place, even when it came to thinking about the two aesthetic domains in interaction, as shown by his use of the notes taken from the reading of Réflexions critiques sur la poésie et sur la peinture by the Abbé Dubos (1733).

Keywords

• intertextuality
• fine arts
• painting
• genesis of Bouvard et Pécuchet
• editorial drafts