Forgetting Demeurisse René, artist of the lost generation

Résumé du document

René Demeurisse (1895-1961) was an artist of the generation that fought the fire. In 1930 he exhibited a huge canvas titled "The Forgotten", at the Salon d'Automne. This masterpiece, which depicts the skeleton of a dead soldier in the humid forest of Retz, represents a sublime poetic death. But it touched the sensitive issue of the duty of memory: the stoic acceptance of death and the destructive passage of time on memory. A mirror of the soul of a painter, this unique composition that would not deny the philosopher Alain, stigmatized by the specter of a whole population poured into the impossible mourning of the Great War. Experienced as a provocation by some, Oblivion was more the evidence of a spiritual man who had suffered and accepted the inevitable cycle of life. It is certainly one of the most sincere imaging post-combat arts that we have been given.

Extraits

[...] No sooner does distinguish it at first glance the helmet and the gun placed at his side. This is a French soldier. In this unknown, it remains higher than bone. The lower body and the entire left shoulder has disappeared, pulverized or carried by animals of the forest. Two deer and a rabbit surround this remnant incongruous. One of them turns his gentle look a little sad to him. This painting gives an impression contrasting peaceful life of sadness and melancholy, between dream and reality. [...]

[...] "You have achieved what you had dreamed of: there are no more happy or more rare," he wrote in May (10). Rene Demeurisse could engage in a simple sketch of the scene on his usual notebook. Instead, he embarked on a bold composition, size of a history painting. The historical choice of format is still significant although no longer academic mainstream of the century. It embodies a tradition. According to the hierarchy of genres, history painting was intended to educate and elevate the soul of the viewer. It has a feature informative and educational, or ideological. [...]

[...] du Seuil, Coll. New History of Contemporary France, vol p. Claisse Stépahnie and Thierry Lemoine [studies compiled and presented] How (will) come out of the Great War? Views on some countries 'winners': Belgium, France and Great Britain, Paris, ed. L'Harmattan p. Collective, 14-18: die for the fatherland, Paris, ed. Le Seuil, coll. History p. Crocq Louis, The psychological trauma of war, Paris, ed. Odile Jacob p. Dorgeles Raymond, Waking the Dead, Paris, ed. Mornay p. [...]

[...] Conclusion Rene Demeurisse, veteran painter has not painted the Great War to the image of Marcel Gromaire or expressionist Otto Dix, from the same generation as him. But he talked about the painful memory of it with a humility that did not always like her. He admitted he had been overtaken by oblivion, this fear felt by all the post-combatant during the twenties and thirties. As Roland Dorgeles shocked by finding her novel The Cross of wood by the award fatalistic "It's true, forget remains had struck the heightened sensitivity of his contemporary visitors of the Salon d'Automne. [...]

[...] Dupâquier Jacques, History of the French population, T.4, Paris, ed. PUF p. Olivier Faron, Children mourning, orphans and wards of the nation from World War I (1914-1941), Paris, ed. La Découverte p. Katia Granoff, My life and my meetings, Paris, Christian Bourgeois editor p. Jagielski (Jean-François), The Unknown Soldier, invention and posterity a symbol, Paris, ed. Imago p. Le Naour Jean-Yves, The Living Unknown Soldier, Paris, Hachette Littérature p. Antoine Prost, The Veterans (1919-1939), Paris, ed. Gallimard-Julliard p. Note Erich Maria, on the Western Front again, Paris, Librairie Stock p. [...]