【Paintings in Proust】The Swing (La Balançoire), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876 (p.163)

這一段文字相當富有哲理，普魯斯特以雷諾瓦為例，認為藝術家需要經過長時間才被認可，更重要的是藝術家如同眼科醫師為我們進行治療，改變我們的視野而創造出一個新世界，但普魯斯特同時也認為這是短暫而不持久的，新的地質災難將會隨之取代。




【TEXT】
People of taste tell us nowadays that Renoir is a great eighteenth-century painter. But in so saying they forget the element of Time, and that it took a great deal of time, even at the height of the nineteenth century, for Renoir to be hailed as a great artist. To succeed thus in gaining recognition, the original painter or the original writer proceeds on the lines of the oculist. The course of treatment they give us by their painting or by their prose is not always pleasant. When it is at an end, the practitioner says to us:
‘Now look!’ And lo and behold the world around us (which was not created once and for all, but is created afresh as often as an original artist is born) appears to us entirely different from the old world, but perfectly clear. Women pass in the street, different from those we formerly saw, because they are Renoirs, those Renoirs we persistently refused to see as women. The carriages, too, are Renoirs, and the water, and the sky…Such is the new and perishable universe which has just been created. It will last until the next geological catastrophe is precipitated by a new painter or writer of original talent. (Guermantes Way)

今天，那些風雅之士告訴我們，雷諾瓦是十九世紀的大畫家。可他們說這話時忘記了時間，即使在十九世紀中葉，雷諾瓦也是用了很長時間才被尊為偉大藝術家的。一個獨闢蹊徑的畫家，一個獨樹一幟的藝術家，要像這樣受到公認，必須採用眼科醫生的治療方法。用他們的畫或小說進行治療不總是令人愉快的。治療結束後，醫生對我們說：現在請看吧。我們看見的世界（不是被創造一次，而是經常被創造，就像一個獨出心裁的藝術家經常突然降世一樣）同舊世界大相徑庭，但一清二楚。婦女們在街上行走，和昔日的婦女截然不同，因為她們是雷諾瓦的婦女，從前，我們是拒絕承認他畫上的婦女的。車子也是雷諾瓦的車子，還有大海和天空：我們渴望在雷諾瓦的森林裡散步，可是，當我們第一天看見他的森林時，覺得它什麼都像，唯獨不像森林，比如說它像一幅色調細膩，但就是缺少森林特有色調的掛毯。一個新的不持久的世界就這樣創造出來了。它將存在下去，直到另一個新的別出心裁的畫家或作家掀起一場新的地質災難。
(p.363 追憶似水年華 III蓋爾芒特家那邊 聯經版 1992)