The Pictures
from PART I - FAUSTROLL'S LIBRARY
Summary
Jarry was active in the world of pictorial art, and he goes to the trouble of specifying the images on Faustroll's wall. Thus they merit brief recognition here. It is reasonable to suggest that they were present in Jarry's unusual apartment at 7, rue Cassette – the ‘Grande Chasublerie’.
Panmuphle first notes ‘trois gravures pendues à la muraille’, and his punctuation (see full quotation in the Introduction above) causes doubt as to whether these are three un-named engravings, or whether the ‘trois gravures’ are in apposition with the following three (out of four) pictures. The distinction is significant in the case of Beardsley.
Let us now consider the pictures individually.
Une affiche de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril
Jarry made the acquaintance of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, surely the most widely recognised figure of the Belle Epoque, during his time with the Théâtre de l’Œuvre; Toulouse-Lautrec was one of the artists responsible for the set of Ubu Roi. Personal acquaintance may well play a part in the choice of this particular work, as with many of the livres pairs. However, we have no means of knowing the exact poster we are dealing with, as Toulouse-Lautrec produced several designs featuring Jane Avril, the star singer/dancer of the Moulin Rouge, most of them very familiar images to the modern eye. It is not surprising that in the 1899 Almanach, he is ‘celui qui affiche’ (OCBP I, p.561). Jarry met Jane Avril as well as the artist through the Œuvre, where she was briefly lured to play (predictably) Anitra in Peer Gynt. Her name appears immediately above Jarry's on Edvard Munch's poster for the production. Much later, she surfaces ephemerally in Jarry's Le Moutardier du Pape, where Sir John of Eggs, looking for his wife Jane, lets slip the punning Jane Avril slogan:
Où il a d'la Jane
Y a du plaisir!
(OCBP III, p.157)Whether there is any real compliment to Avril in the choice of the poster is uncertain. Jarry was known as a misogynist, but this does not mean that there were no women he valued; the warmth of his relationship with Rachilde and (at times) his sister is a matter of record.
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- The Pataphysician’s LibraryAn Exploration of Alfred Jarry’s ‘Livres Pairs’, pp. 15 - 20Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2000