On a Poet to a Poet

Artist: Samij Datta
Title: On a Poet to a Poet (2008)
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper

Description: The painting “On a Poet to a Poet” depicts a young Théodore de Banville, the mid-19th century French poet who was an influence on the symbolist poets. Baudelaire wrote a poem “To Théodore de Banville” and send it to him in a letter in 1842. The painting here is a token remembrance of that friendly flattery that was the theme of the poem in the letter send to de Banville. In the painting, Banville is set against a backdrop of detachment so widely acknowledged by the late 19th century French Parnassian poets. Two different styles have merged that constitutes this background: the section just above the head and the section below the level of the eye. The narrow slant brush strokes in various colours in the upper section gives the painting a sense of fashion which disappears into the lower section of the background more subdued and detached in its tone reflecting a drab working-class setting. Banville is drawn using thick strokes of brush and the colours glow with a light reflecting what Baudelaire referred to in the poem as the “fire of precocity”. It’s a painting of Banville’s youth- there is subtle delicacy in the handling of colours that gives it a “nonchalant look”. Also colours give the painting a dimension and harmony reminiscent of the neo-impressionists.


The lower half of the background is pointillist in its style: the little dots of blue, yellow, brown and orange gives it a texture and the look of oldness and maturity. The dichotomy between naturalism and symbolism is eminent in this painting. The life/dream binary is evident here as also the literature influenced by modern biology and literature influenced by mysticism. The disrespect shown here for the traditional style of portraitures has lot in common with 19th new revolutionaries who were either symbolists, nabis, orphists and vitalists. This flouting of authorized aesthetic conventions for the sake of exploring multiple possibilities within the means of artistic or poetic expression is what brings the present artist close to the French symbolist tradition. This hexagonal portrait of Banville is fitted into a white frame with strip borders. The use of black against a glowing orange gives the portrait a pictorial synthetism. The optical sensations evident here is what brings it closer to the heart of Neo-Traditionalism.- Joy Roy Choudhury.