The Pictorial Arts

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Les Chansons de Bilitis — 6

These is from the later date of 1922, and reflects a more mature style for Barbier. I don't know if you can see it on your screen, but our redhead appears to have beads of sweat forming. Well, yeah.

I have some real confusion as to why this is signed 'Larry'. This drawing is, as you can see, from 1910—the earliest time Barbier was commissioned to illustrate Billitis. BUT, from what I can tell, it was a private collector who commissioned these drawings, to inSERT them into an 1898 edition, along with some letters from the author and illustrator. The author, Pierre Louÿs, was also called M. Larry, and from what I can figure, the collector wanted Barbier to sign the drawings with that name.

Did I get that all wrong? Have I confused it, or was it already befuddled?

Les Chansons de Bilitis — 2

Les Chansons de Bilitis — 1

While we're on the subject of Bilitis, I would be remiss to postpone an appreciative look at Barbier's illustrations for Les Chansons de Bilitis, The Songs of Bilitis. He actually was commissioned to approach this literary work several times over many years, and the artwork is SO art deco. Fittingly so, because Barbier was one of the great movers of the movement.

You're probably impatient with my technique of posting one image at a time, but the way this 'blogging format works with earlier posts on the bottom, feeding toward the top (and my particular handicap of having to post only 5 images at a time), this is my way of presenting in the order that I want the images to be seen. Plus, with my deadlines, I can only pop in to the collection for a moment, once in a while. So, for now, one at a time it is.

Friday, February 5, 2010

The Tomb of Bilitis

When all is said and done regarding this person of Bilitis, she was but a myth — a creation of a clever man. But her creator wrote her history so convincingly that, for a while, learned men thought she truly had lived in ancient times. And the author ended her history's account with these poignant words:

"When the tomb was opened she appeared in the state in which a pious hand had laid her out twenty-four centuries before. Vials of perfume hung from earthen pegs, and one of them, after so long a time, was still fragrant. The polished silver mirror in which Bilitis saw herself, the little stylus which spread blue paint upon her eyelids, were found in place. A little nude Astarte, relic forever precious, still watched over the skeleton, decked with all its golden jewels and white as a branch of snow, but so soft and fragile that the moment it was breathed upon, it fell to dust."

Pierre Louÿs

Constantinople, August 1894

The Grotto of the Nymphs

Desire

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Elegies at Mytilene

Impatience

Ah, sweet musings to slowly feast upon.

Bucolics in Pamphylia

Each text page of The Songs of Bilitis is a self-contained prose poem, ostensibly written by this ancient lass. To me they are touching, with simple profundity, evoking a heady reverie of the senses. Ultimately the nature of the book is lesbian in tone, but to me, sexuality aside, they are the musings of a sensitive and interesting person.

Pogany's header illustrations sometimes repeat themselves throughout the book, but they too are sensitive and profound. Amazing that two men constructed a work that is so positive in its classical feminine tone. I'm not going to show every poem, but over the next few posts, I will show a goodly number of ones that resonate with me, as well as the full pages of art by Pogany.

Enjoy the text as much as the images.

Living the Life Pastoral

Classical Greek mythology can be viewed from at least two angles. One that we are most accustomed to is from the viewpoint of the gods — the myth stories and fables. The other viewpoint is from the average person of ancient times, believing in, but not being witness to the great events of deities and spirits.

Living the life pastoral.

One of my favorite books ever, evokes the sensuality of those times. It is beautifully written, and beautifully illustrated. It is The Songs of Bilitis, by Pierre Louÿs, illustrated by Willy Pogany.

These scans are from a very limited artist's edition, printed in 1926, slightly different from the subscription limited edition.

Wikipedia describes the book thusly:

The Songs of Bilitis /bɪ’li:tis/ (Les Chansons de Bilitis; Paris, 1894) is a collection of erotic poetry by Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925).

The book's sensual poems are in the manner of Sappho; the introduction claims they were found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus, written by a woman of Ancient Greece called Bilitis, a courtesan and contemporary of Sappho, to whose 'life' Louÿs dedicated a small section of his book. On publication, the volume deceived even the most expert of scholars. Though the poems were actually clever fabulations, authored by Louÿs himself, they are still considered important literature.

Louÿs claimed the 143 prose poems, excluding 3 epitaphs, were entirely the work of this ancient poet—a place where she poured both her most intimate thoughts and most public actions, from childhood innocence in Pamphylia to the loneliness and chagrin of her later years. Although for the most part The Songs of Bilitis is original work, many of the poems in the collection were reworked epigrams from the Palatine Anthology, and Louÿs even borrowed some verses from Sappho herself. The poems themselves are a blend of mellow sensuality and polished style in the manner of the Parnassian school, but underneath run subtle Gallic undertones which Louÿs could never escape. To give authenticity to the forgery, Louÿs listed some poems as "untranslated" in the index; he even craftily fabricated an entire section of his book called "The Life of Bilitis", crediting a certain fictional archaeologist Herr G. Heim ("Lord S. Ecret") as the discoverer of Bilitis' tomb. And though Louÿs displayed great knowledge of ancient Greek culture, ranging from children's games in "Tortie Tortue" to application of scents in "Perfumes", the poems were eventually exposed as a literary fraud. This did little to taint their literary value in the eyes of the readers, however, and Louÿs' open and sympathetic celebration of lesbian sexuality earned him sensation and historic significance.