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Drawing, Seeing, Thinking
French Poet and Essayist Paul Valéry’s Reflections on Drawing
Poet, essayist, playwright, novelist Paul Valéry (1871–1945) met and befriended the painter Edgar Degas (1834–1917), almost forty years his senior. In 1936, almost twenty years after Degas passed away, Paul Valéry published an essay entitled Degas, Danse, Drawing. The essay combines recollections of the painter’s personality and philosophy, retelling of his bons mots, praises of his work, with more general reflections on art and modernity. Valéry alternates witty anecdotes and more general paragraphs on his views of what he calls great art. Connecting the two, and one of the central themes of the book, are his thoughts on drawing. Drawing appears not only as a skill which requires both perception and intelligence, but also as the expression of a whole individuality, and ultimately the cornerstone of his vision of great art.
I find Degas, Danse, Drawing to be overall a beautiful and singular meditation on art. It sheds light on the balance between the learning of techniques, the slow mastery of one’s skills through repetitive studies and practice on the one hand, and the expression of one’s unique presence in the world on the other. Valéry’s thoughts could speak to anyone who has tried to draw, irrespective of one’s level — indeed, Paul Valéry himself drew, and can thus…
