Claude Monet under the gaze of P.J. Toulet
In 1924, "Notes d'Art" appeared, a posthumous work in which Paul-Jean Toulet (1865-1920) gave his impressions, thoughts and criticisms about the salons, museums and artists he visited between 1905 and 1916.
Randomly walking around the Place du Palais de Justice in Nice, I came across a copy of this book a few months ago, in poor condition. I bought it for a pittance, I undertook to restore it and I discovered a few nuggets, like this article on Claude Monet in which Toulet wrote in particular: "... his canvases seen as a whole are all light and harmony ... the best and the worst that has been said of him was to define him: an eye at the end of the brush".
Paul-Jean Toulet writes about thirty "Water Lilies" exhibited at the gallery owner Paul Durand Ruel.
The book, after restoration... © Fabrice Roy
Writer, poet and art critic, Paul-Jean Toulet trained alongside Willy, of whom he was one of the ghost writers in the same way as Curnonsky or Tristan-Bernard. Inventor of the "Contrerime", an audacious poetic form based on quatrains with embraced rhymes, he published numerous novels (My friend Nane - 1905), literary notes and even tales (Les contes de Bohanzique).
He died in 1920, without having been able to realize a project he had with Claude Debussy, around "As you like it" by William Shakespeare.
In his art history lectures, Fabrice Roy combines the past with the present, in a poetic and playful evocation of the French 19th century...
