Whitman on Millet and on the French Revolution
WHITMAN, WALT. Autograph working manuscript on Millet and on the French Revolution
No place, [1881]
One page comprising multiple strips of paper mounted by Whitman on a single larger leaf, inlaid into larger sheet. Very good condition.
This is a fine autograph manuscript by Whitman on the paintings of Jean-François Millet and on the French Revolution.
In 1881 Whitman traveled to the home of Quincy Adams Shaw to see his renowned collection of paintings by Jean-François Millet. There he spent “two rapt hours” recalling “Never before have I been so penetrated by this kind of expression.” In this working manuscript reflecting on that visit, Whitman writes of Millet’s work:
“… inimitable, all perfect as pictures, as works of mere art, and then it seemed to me, with that last impalpable ethic, purpose from the artist (most likely unconscious to himself) which I am always looking for …”
Whitman continues, connecting Millet’s depictions of French peasant life with the French Revolution:
“To me all of them told the whole full story of what went before and necessitated the great French Revolution – long precedent. The crushing of the masses of the a heroic people into the earth, into in abject poverty, hunger – every right denied, humanity attempted to be put back for generations – yet Nature’s force Titanic here, the stronger and hardier for that repression – waiting terribly to …”
The manuscript is also noteworthy as a physical artifact. Whitman assembled it by literally cutting and pasting together multiple sheets, a compositional technique that he frequently employed when revising his work. Bradley and Blodgett observe that “a single page of [Whitman’s] MS may be written on as many as six or seven strips of paper pasted together.”
This is a splendid working manuscript connecting Whitman’s appreciation for art and his love of ordinary working people.
$27,500