Écrire la peinture d'histoire: Jacques-Louis David dans la fiction de Pierre Michon

Abstract

This article will explore the intermedial dimension of Pierre Michon's novel: The Eleven. Instead of comparing the contribution of the image on the narrative text, which is set around the fictional painter François- Élie de Corentin representing the eleven fathers of the French Revolution, our approach will rather try to understand the use of real pictural references. The allusion to Jacques-Louis David allows to create a fictional work of art inside the novel, where the dialogue with art history suggests to explore literature’s critical dimension. With the narrative he weaves around The Eleven, Michon offers an historical rereading, an exploration on the other side of the narrative, behind what is official, or even institutional, by proposing a cultural mediation that leaves the museum to invest the accessibility offered by literature. In this article, we will focus to what directly results from painting, from historical, sociological and historiographical perspectives.