‘The rest is silence: the senses of Roger Fry’s endings’

Abstract

This paper explores the endings found in some of Roger Fry writings, especially the monograph Cézanne: A Study of His Development (1927) and the essay ‘Art History as an Academic Study’ (1933). In both, Fry invokes silence. In the former, he suggests a fundamental mismatch between language and visual experience; in the latter, he identifies himself with a personification of silence: ‘King Log’ from Aesop’s fable. Fry uses his silent endings to broach larger questions concerning his critical certainty and his critical capabilities; here, too, he will reflect upon and undercut his own role, and even invoke more spiritual realms. Indeed, Fry’s Quaker heritage may have sensitized him to the power of silence, encouraging him to see parallels between silent worship and aesthetic contemplation.

Keywords

• Roger Fry
• Woolf
• formalism
• Cézanne
• silence
• Quaker