Versailles series and Benois. Versailles in the works of Benois
"Academician Alexandre Benois is a subtle esthete, a wonderful artist, a charming person." A.V. Lunacharsky
World famous Alexander Nikolaevich Benois acquired as a decorator and director of Russian ballets in Paris, but this is only part of the activity of an eternally searching, captivating nature, possessed of irresistible charm and the ability to light up those around him with his necks. Art historian, art critic, editor of two major art magazines “World of Art” and “Apollo”, head of the painting department of the Hermitage and, finally, just a painter.
Himself Benois Alexander Nikolaevich wrote to his son from Paris in 1953 that “... the only one of all the works worthy of outliving me... will probably be a “multi-volume book” A. Benois remembers“, because “this story about Shurenka is at the same time quite detailed about an entire culture.”
In his memoirs, Benoit calls himself "the product of an artistic family." Indeed, his father - Nikolai Benois was a famous architect, maternal grandfather of A.K. Kavos was an equally significant architect, the creator of St. Petersburg theaters. Elder brother A.N. Benoit - Albert is a popular watercolorist. With no less success we can say that he was a “product” of an international family. On his father’s side he is French, on his mother’s side he is Italian, or more precisely Venetian. Its family connection with Venice - the city of the beautiful decay of once powerful muses - Alexander Nikolaevich Benois felt especially acutely. There was Russian blood in him too. The Catholic religion did not interfere with the family's amazing respect for the Orthodox Church. One of the strongest childhood impressions of A. Benois is the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral (St. Nicholas of the Sea), a work of the Baroque era, the view of which opened from the windows of the Benois family house. With all of Benoit’s completely understandable cosmopolitanism, there was only one place in the world that he loved with all his soul and considered his homeland - St. Petersburg. In this creation of Peter, who crossed Russia and Europe, he felt “some kind of great, strict force, great predestination.”
That amazing charge of harmony and beauty that A. Benoit received in childhood, helped make his life something like a work of art, amazing in its integrity. This was especially evident in his novel of life. On the threshold of his ninth decade, Benoit admits that he feels very young, and explains this “curiosity” by the fact that the attitude of his adored wife towards him has not changed over time. AND " Memories"He dedicated his to her, " Dear Ate" - Anna Karlovna Benoit (née Kind). Their lives have been connected since they were 16 years old. Atya was the first to share his artistic delights and first creative attempts. She was his muse, sensitive, very cheerful, artistically gifted. Although not a beauty, she seemed irresistible to Benoit with her charming appearance, grace, and lively mind. But the serene happiness of the children in love was to be tested. Tired of their relatives' disapproval, they separated, but the feeling of emptiness did not leave them during the years of separation. And finally, with what joy they met again and got married in 1893.
The couple Benoit there were three children - two daughters: Anna and Elena, and a son, Nikolai, who became a worthy successor to his father’s work, a theater artist who worked a lot in Rome and at the Milan Theater...
A. Benoit is often called “ artist of Versailles" Versailles symbolizes in his work the triumph of art over the chaos of the universe.
This theme determines the originality of Benoit's historical retrospectiveism and the sophistication of his stylization. The first Versailles series appears in 1896 - 1898. She received the name " The last walks of Louis XIV" It includes such famous works as “ The king walked in any weather», « Feeding the fish" Versailles Benoit begins in Peterhof and Oranienbaum, where he spent his childhood years.
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Nevertheless, the first impression of Versailles, where he visited for the first time during his honeymoon, was stunning. The artist was overcome by the feeling that he had “already experienced this once.” Everywhere in the Versailles works one can see the slightly dejected, but still outstanding personality of Louis XIV, the Sun King. The feeling of the decline of a once majestic culture was extremely consonant with the era of the end of the century when he lived Benoit.
In a more refined form, these ideas were embodied in the second Versailles series of 1906, in the artist’s most famous works: “”, “”, “ Chinese pavilion», « Jealous», « Fantasia on a Versailles theme" The grandiose in them coexists with the curious and exquisitely fragile.
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Finally, let us turn to the most significant thing that the artist created in the theater. This is primarily a production of the ballet "" to the music of N. Tcherepnin in 1909 and the ballet " Parsley"to the music of I. Stravinsky from 1911.
In these productions, Benois showed himself not only as a brilliant theater artist, but also as a talented libretto author. These ballets seem to personify two ideals that lived in his soul. “” is the embodiment of European culture, the Baroque style, its pomp and grandeur, combined with overripeness and withering. The libretto, which is a free adaptation of the famous work of Torquato Tasso “ Liberated Jerusalem", tells about a certain young man, Viscount René de Beaugency, who, while hunting, finds himself in a lost pavilion of an old park, where he is miraculously transported into the world of a living tapestry - the beautiful gardens of Armida. But the spell dissipates, and he, having seen the highest beauty, returns to reality. What remains is an eerie impression of life, forever poisoned by a mortal longing for extinct beauty, for a fantastic reality. In this magnificent performance, the world of retrospective paintings seems to come to life. Benoit.
IN " Parsley“The Russian theme, the search for the ideal of the people’s soul, was embodied. This production sounded all the more poignant and nostalgic because the booths and their hero Petrushka, so beloved by Benoit, were already becoming a thing of the past. In the play, puppets are animated by the evil will of an old man - a magician: Petrushka is an inanimate character, endowed with all the living qualities that exist in a suffering and spiritualized person; his lady Columbine is a symbol of eternal femininity and the “blackamoor” is rude and undeservedly triumphant. But the end of this puppet drama Benoit sees differently than in an ordinary farce theater.
In 1918, Benois became the head of the Hermitage art gallery and did a lot to ensure that the museum became the largest in the world. At the end of the 20s, the artist left Russia and lived in Paris for almost half a century. He died in 1960 at the age of 90. A few years before his death Benoit writes to his friend I.E. Grabar, to Russia: “And how I would like to be where my eyes were opened to the beauty of life and nature, where I first tasted love. Why am I not at home?! Everyone remembers some pieces of the most modest, but so sweet landscape.”
Petersburg: Aquilon, 1922. 22 p., l. ill.; 600 num. copies, of which 100 copies. registered, 500 copies. (1-500). In an illustrated color publisher's cover. Oblong. 24.4x33.8 cm. The printing of this album was sharply criticized by contemporaries!
“Everything flows, everything changes, everything must change, everything cannot help but change. However, through all the changes in human artistic creativity there passes one life-giving stream, the same one that gives it the character of authenticity, this is sincerity. True joy comes from the consciousness that creations, be it plastic images (including a performance), be it musical sounds, be it thoughts and words, correspond to some kind of internal hint or what is commonly called “inspiration” But only as long as this correspondence exists, true art is born. beauty is born; when it is replaced by the vain desire to amaze and surprise with novelty or, even worse, the desire to “be in fashion,” then art and beauty disappear, and in their place is a dull fake, or even simply ugliness.”
Alexander Nikolaevich Benois
(from the last book of memories)
At the end of 1896, Benois, Bakst and Somov went to Paris. Lansere and Yakunchnkova are already there. Soon they are joined by Ober and Ostroumova, who entered Whistler's workshop. Diaghilev, Nurok, Nouvel appear in Paris intermittently. But Benoit is not attracted to French academies either. From the landscape studies, drawings, and sketches made in Paris and Brittany, one can see how quickly the artist’s independent formation was taking place. Here we meet for the first time an observant draftsman and watercolorist with his own style. A pencil stroke is boldly used on top of the widely laid watercolor, freely sculpting the form and sharpening the character of the image; this gives the sheet transparency, full of air, and some special ease. In parallel with studying nature, the study of the culture and art of France begins. In the Louvre, he first appreciates Delacroix and Corot, Daumier and Courbet. At contemporary art exhibitions at the Durand-Ruel Gallery, his attention is drawn to the Impressionists: he discovers Monet and Degas. Benoit is especially close to Lucien Simon, Rene Menard and Gaston La Touche; These Parisians, associated with traditional forms of painting, much stronger than the impressionists, incomprehensible to most, enjoyed wide fame at that time. But he doesn’t like much in contemporary French art. He is disappointed by the “morbid fantasies” of Gustave Moreau, the “foggy painting” of Eugene Carriere, and the nightmares of Odilon Redon. He is no longer on the same path with the Symbolists: “The Symbolists and decadents suffered bankruptcy, they promised a lot, they gave some scraps.” Benoit and his friends visit the ancient quarters of Paris, the National Library, explore museums, palaces, cathedrals, and travel to Sèvres, Saint-Cloud, Chantilly, Chartres. “Sometimes one word of his, spoken in passing, opened up a whole world unfamiliar to me,” Ostroumova-Lebedeva writes about these walks. At the same time, it is significant, for example, that it was the era of Louis XIV, which for Wilde served as a symbol of the suppression of creative individuality in art, that turns out to be the center of Benoit’s interests. Versailles captivates him with particular force. First of all, the palace itself is a majestic monument of 17th-century classicism, the embodiment of the “colossal style” of Ardouin Mansart. Spurred by reading books telling about the life and rights of the residence of Louis XIV, the artist’s “philosophical” imagination populates the old park with images of the past. In 1905 A.N. Benoit lives with his family in Versailles:
A.N. Benoit
Diary 1905
October 13. Despite two bad hotels, today we moved to Versailles rue de la Paroisse. Damn heavy books. - The children were delighted. Just before leaving, I received “The Lay” with my article about Telyakovsky and “Our Life” - with the two Dimins. This was encouraging. Had breakfast at Juveu's with Stepan. He had them before. - We already had dinner at home, in Versailles. The apartment is cozy, and the stench is from meat<лавок>No. It feels like I would like to live here for a century. I managed to put the books away in a giant poster. He sent a request for money to Baron Wolf, letters to Wrangel, Argutinsky, Zhenya and Katya.
October 14. This morning we almost quarreled over money bills. Atya is funny. As soon as you start talking about this topic, she begins to tremble, understand words at random, and so on. Cleaned up. During the day with the children at the foir and in the park. Sun and cold. Beautiful. - Upon returning home, the wonderful impression was spoiled by letters from home. - Dobuzhinsky writes about misunderstandings with the Red Cross (Roerich’s intrigues and Kurbatov’s stupidity are obvious), Frank - that an unsympathetic review of “ABC” appeared in “Rus”, and a particularly angry one in “The Spectator” (Artsybusheva). Dobuzhinsky is also indignant about the latter. What does this mean? Is it really a consequence of my leaving “Rus”? Or is Roerich here too? In any case - Russian absurdity. It's obvious that it's time for me to go home. There is no point in relying on friends. In addition, there is some confusion with “Enlightenment”. - Explanation with Atya. Tears: “It’s all my fault.” - Having refreshed myself with grog, I became happier. It's all lottery and fate! Maybe he'll take it out. Well, he won’t take it out, because somehow it will all end. Professor Trubetskoy died.
October 15. I was in church. Our concierge is a doorman there. - Having drunk coffee, I went to work in the park and, despite the cold, made a good sketch at the Bassin de Bacchus [Bacchus Pool]. - Stepan arrived for breakfast. Bakst “fell ill.” - We all took a huge walk together to Petit Trianon [Little Trianon]. We met Shcherbatov and his wife, but he (pretended? What) did not recognize. - At home we were sorting out the collection. I feel more energetic today. I don’t give a damn about St. Petersburg and will take a break from intrigue and squabbles at work and in painting. And then whatever God gives.
October 16. In the morning I made (unsuccessfully) a sketch of the alley with the Baths. Not too cold. Children are in the way. During the day I dozed off and did not go to M. de Nolhac, to whom I have a letter from Benoit. It was posted that the reception was on Wednesday. - Having changed into dirty clothes, I made another sketch of the same alley with the Baths, and again unsuccessfully. I starched the paper in vain. I don't like it now.
October 25. In the morning I finished the scene in the countess's bedroom. In the afternoon I visited de Nolhac, the Director of Versailles, and brought him iconographic material on Elizabeth. He was kind and promised to show me a lot of interesting things. - There was a telegram from the Ratkovs that they were in Paris. We’ll have to go. Annoyance for the lost time. - Painted in the park until sunset . Finished Wells "L"Homme invisible" ["The Invisible Man"].
December 4th. Very bad weather, spent the whole day at the auction. There were coins and engravings. Quite cheap, but I'm penniless. - For half an hour, despite the cold, I painted the “Pyramid” for the painting “Winter Dream” (argument with Harlequin). Regnier is very good in places, but often falters. I don’t understand at all what the attached diary means. Obviously this is a hoax. But what does de Nolhac and the link to his publications have to do with it. In any case, this brings disharmony. - Plot: the poisoned life of one very handsome courtesan in love with the king, who, due to an absurd incident, does not enjoy the favor of Louis XIV. Lots of subtleties. Skeptical cult of the kingdom. Common with France, but without his plebeian lining.
December 5th. I painted “Pyramid” again and spent two hours at the auction. I missed a good miniature: “A Lady of the Times of Louis XIV”, on copper, for 8fr. 50. - I finished Régnier, I continue with Michelet. - He has “Collier de la Reine” [“The Queen’s Necklace”] in a completely different light. The “pretty” Valois [Valois] is whitewashed, and the representative of the church Rohan is put in escrom. - It hits the queen hard too. A hint of lesbianism, of lovers. - She still has the necklace! So trust historians and history. In the evenings I compose my “Ministry”.
December 6. In the morning I made a rain effect near the palace (with Apollo).
December 9. I started (for the first time in the morning) painting with oil paint. - Unpleasant tying and inability to follow the contours. Still, the underpainting gave the effect I wanted. - During the day I painted figures for the second painting. In the evening at Versailles, in the 17th century. Very nervous. Successfully improvised on the piano. - I finished my articles about the Ministry of Arts. - I realize that they are now untimely. But, in general, I lost all connection between my own mood and the mood of Russian society.
In 1897-1898, he painted a series of landscape paintings of the Versailles parks in watercolors and gouache, recreating in them the spirit and atmosphere of antiquity. A series of watercolors “The Last Walks of Louis XIV” appears. Later, more than 40 paintings and graphic works were written, created by the master in different years, dedicated to Versailles - an outstanding monument of French architecture and landscape art of the 17th century. Benoit, in his own words, was “intoxicated by Versailles” and “completely moved into the past.” In the series of watercolors and gouaches “The Last Walks of Louis XIV” (1897-1898), as well as in the “second Versailles series” (1905-1907) and in works completed in 1922, after the artist left Russia forever, he adheres to a clear, somewhat dry plastic language that distinguishes French landscape and architectural graphics of the 17th century. This series for a long time secured for Alexandre Benois, who since childhood showed an increased interest in the art of Russian and Western European classicism and baroque, the fame of “the singer of Versailles and Louis.” In the works of the “Versailles series,” nature and history appear in inextricable unity. Architectural structures, sculptures and alleys of the famous residence of the French kings look like silent witnesses of an irretrievably gone great era, preserving the memory of the creators and owners of the Versailles ensemble. Along with sketches painted from life, the artist performed genre paintings that recreated not just characteristic scenes of a distant historical era, but its very unique atmosphere. High craftsmanship allowed Benoit to present the image of Versailles Park as an image of an entire era that developed its own etiquette, fashion and majestic style, which retained its attractiveness for the artist who lived and worked in the troubled twentieth century, filled with disasters and upheavals.
In September 1921, a new private publishing house, Akvilon, arose in Petrograd, which soon became the best among publishing houses specializing in the publication of bibliophile literature, although it only existed for a little over two years. The owner of Aquilon was a chemical engineer and passionate bibliophile Valier Morisovich Kantor, and the ideological inspirer, technical director and soul of the publishing house was Fedor Fedorovich Notgaft (1896-1942), a lawyer by training, an art connoisseur and collector. Aquilon in Roman mythology is the north wind, flying with the speed of an eagle (lat. aquilo). This mythologem was used by M.V. Dobuzhinsky as a publishing brand. Treating the book as a work of art, Aquilon employees strived to ensure that each of their publications was an example of an organic combination of artistic design and text. In total, Aquilon published 22 books. Their circulation ranged from 500 to 1500 copies; The mouth of the edition was personalized and numbered and was subsequently painted by hand by the artist. Most of the publications had a small format. To reproduce illustrations, the techniques of phototype, lithography, zincography, and wood engraving were used, and they were often placed on inserts printed in a way other than the book itself. The paper was selected from noble grades (laid paper, coated paper, etc.), and the illustrations were distinguished by high quality printing. F.F. Notgaft managed to attract many “World of Art” students to cooperation, including M.V. Dobuzhinsky, B.M. Kustodieva, K.S. Petrova-Vodkina, A.N. Benoit. The artists themselves chose books to illustrate - in accordance with their own taste and preferences. Characterizing the activities of Aquilon, E.F. Hollerbach wrote: “It was not in vain that the “Aquilon” (Krylov) rushed over the northern capital “with hail and rain” - it was truly a golden shower. “Gold, gold fell from the sky” onto the shelves of bibliophiles (but, alas, not into the publisher’s box office!).” In 1922, 5 books from the publishing house were presented at the International Book Exhibition in Florence: “Poor Lisa” by N.M. Karamzin, “The Miserly Knight” by A.S. Pushkin and “The Stupid Artist” by N.S. Leskova with illustrations by M.V. Dobuzhinsky, “Six Poems by Nekrasov” with illustrations by B.M. Kustodieva, "V. Zamirailo" S.R. Ernst. Created specifically for lovers of fine literature, books from the Akvilon publishing house still remain a common collector's item. Here is their list:
1. Karamzin N.M. "Poor Lisa." Drawings by M. Dobuzhinsky. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1921. 48 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1000 copies. Including 50 personalized, 50 hand-painted (No. I-L). The rest are numbered (No. 1-900).
2. Ernst S. “V. It froze." "Aquilon" Petersburg, 1921. 48 pages with illustrations. Circulation: 1000 copies, including 60 registered ones. The cover is printed in two types - green and orange.
3. Pushkin A.S. "The Stingy Knight" Drawings by M. Dobuzhinsky. "Aquilon", St. Petersburg, 1922.
36 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1000 copies. (60 nominal and 940 numbered). Two copies were hand-painted by the artist for family members. Three cover options - white, blue and orange.
4. “Six poems by Nekrasov.” Drawings by B.M. Kustodieva. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1921 (the year 1922 is stamped on the cover). 96 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1200 copies. Of these, 60 are named, 1140 are numbered. There is one copy painted by Kustodiev by hand.
5. Leskov N.S. “Stupid artist. A story at the grave." Drawings by M. Dobuzhinsky. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922. 44 pages with illustrations on separate sheets (4 sheets in total). Circulation 1500 copies.
6. Fet A.A. "Poems". Drawings by V. Konashevich. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922. 48 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1000 copies.
7. Leskov N.S. "Darner." Drawings by B.M. Kustodieva. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922.
44 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1000 copies.
8. Henri de Regnier. "Three Stories" Translation by E.P. Ukhtomskaya. Drawings by D. Bouchen. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922. 64 pages with illustrations. Edition of 500 copies, including 75 registered and 10 hand-painted (25 are indicated in the book).
9. Ernst S. “Z.I. Serebryakov." "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922. 32 pages (8 sheets of illustrations). Circulation 1000 copies.
10. Edgar Poe. "Golden Bug" Drawings by D. Mitrokhin. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922. 56 pages with illustrations. Circulation 800 copies. (including registered copies; one of them, hand-painted by Mitrokhin, is the property of Notgaft F.F.).
11. Chulkov G. “Maria Hamilton. Poem". Drawings by V. Belkin. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922.
36 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1000 copies.
12. Benoit A. “Versailles” (album). "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922. 32 pages (8 sheets of illustrations). Circulation: 600 copies, including 100 registered and 500 numbered.
13. Dobuzhinsky M. “Memories of Italy.” Drawings by the author. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923.
68 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1000 copies.
14. "Rus". Russian types B.M. Kustodieva. Word: Evgenia Zamyatin. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923. 24 pages (23 sheets of illustrations). Circulation 1000 numbered copies. From the remains of reproductions, 50 copies without text were made not for sale.
15. “Toy Festival.” Fairy tale and drawings by Yuri Cherkesov. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1922. 6 pages with illustrations. Circulation 2000 copies.
16. Dostoevsky F.M. "White Nights". Drawings by M. Dobuzhinsky. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923. 80 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1000 copies.
17. Weiner P.P. "About bronze". Conversations about applied art. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923. 80 pages (11 sheets of illustrations). Circulation 1000 copies.
18. Vsevolod Voinov. "Wood Engravings" 1922-1923. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923. 24 pages of engravings. Circulation: 600 numbered copies.
19. Radlov N.E. "About Futurism." "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923. 72 pages. Circulation 1000 copies.
20. Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P. "Landscapes of Pavlovsk in wooden engravings." "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923. 8 pages of text and 20 sheets of illustrations (woodcuts). Circulation 800 copies.
21. Petrov-Vodkin K.S. "Samarkandia". From travel sketches of 1921. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923. 52 pages with illustrations. Circulation 1000 copies.
22. Kube A.N. "Venetian glass". Conversations on applied arts. "Aquilon". Petersburg, 1923. 104 pages with illustrations and 12 illustrated sheets (phototypes). Circulation 1000 copies.
The album “Versailles,” where the artist’s watercolors are accompanied by his own text, is “Benoit’s largest graphic work during the years of the revolution. Initially, it was planned to print 1000 copies: 600 in Russian and 400 in French, but only the Russian version was printed. The album sold out rather slowly. The reason for this was, firstly, the high price, largely due to the complexity of typographic reproduction of the illustrations (the album was printed for more than six months), and secondly, reviews from critics who considered the publication unsuccessful and reproached the printers for the low quality of printing, “unpleasant” format and typesetting in two columns. The album was published on thick paper. The illustrations were printed using the photolithography technique in four colors. The edition includes 26 watercolors by the artist; In addition, the introductory article and list of drawings are accompanied by headers and endings - they are printed using zincography. Benoit also designed the title page with an allegorical headband and the motto of the King of France and the owner of Versailles, Louis XIV, “Nec pluribus impar” (“Not inferior to multitude”) and an illustrated cover. Versailles was one of the artist’s favorite themes. This work is based on numerous field observations: back in October 1896, Benoit made his first trip to Paris, where he sketched views of Versailles, which laid the foundation for his famous Versailles series. In Benoit's watercolors, the Versailles landscape is presented in its aesthetics as a Russian landscape. Art critics were able to discern in it associations with Levitan’s “Above Eternal Peace”, and with Pushkin’s thoughts “about indifferent nature”, and with the ironically interpreted idea of a fairy tale about a sleeping princess that no one will wake up. We find confirmation of this in the artist’s letters, where he more than once speaks of his inextricable connection with the park ensemble, calling it “my dear, my dear Verst.” Versailles for Benoit is the personification of the harmonious unity of man, nature and art. In the article preceding the album, he formulates this important idea for him as follows: “...Versailles is not an ode to royal power, but a poem of life, a poem of humanity in love with nature, ruling over this very nature... a monumental hymn to courageous strength, inspiring feminine charm, united human efforts for common goals.
1906 State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow.
Paper on cardboard, gouache, watercolor, bronze paint, silver paint, graphite pencil, pen, brush 48 x 62
IN The King's Walk Alexandre Benois takes the viewer to the brilliant Versailles park from the time of Louis XIV.
Against the backdrop of an autumn landscape, the artist depicts a solemn procession of the monarch with his courtiers. The flat modeling of the walking figures seems to transform them into ghosts of a bygone era. Among the court retinue, it is difficult to find Louis XIV himself. The artist does not care about the Sun King. Benoit is much more concerned with the atmosphere of the era, the breath of the Versailles park from the time of its crowned owner.
Author of the painting King's Walk Alexander Nikolaevich Benois is one of the organizers and ideological inspirer of the artistic association World of Art. He was a theorist and critic of art. Peru Benoit has carried out research on the history of both domestic and Western European art. His multifaceted talent manifested itself in book graphics and scenography.
Benoit's pictorial works are mainly devoted to two themes: France during the time of Louis XIV "The Sun King" and St. Petersburg in the 18th - early 19th centuries (see "
Laskina N.O. Versailles of Alexandre Benois in the context of French literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: on the history of locus recoding // Dialogue of cultures: poetics of local text. Gornoaltaisk: RIO GAGU, 2011. pp. 107–117.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the dialogue between Russian and Western European cultures had reached, perhaps, maximum synchronicity. The cultural plot that we will touch upon can serve as an example of how close the interaction and mutual influence was.
The semiotization of a place, the construction of a cultural myth around a specific locus, requires the participation of various actors in the cultural process. Regarding the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it is quite reasonable to talk not so much about the spread of individual author’s ideas, but about the “atmosphere” of the era, about the general ideological and aesthetic field that gives rise to common signs, including at the level of “local texts.”
Especially well studied are aesthetic loci tied to historically highly significant places, most often large cities, religious centers or natural sites, usually mythologized long before the formation of the literary tradition. In these cases, “high” culture connects to an already running process, and it is fair to look for the roots of literary “images of places” in mythological thinking. It seems interesting to pay attention to rarer cases when a locus initially represents the implementation of a narrowly focused cultural project, but then outgrows or completely changes its primary functions. Versailles can be attributed to such loci with a complex history.
The specificity of Versailles as a cultural phenomenon is determined, on the one hand, by the peculiarities of its appearance, on the other, by its development, which is atypical for a local text. Despite the gradual transformation into a normal provincial city, Versailles is still perceived as a place inseparable from its history. For the cultural context, it is fundamental that the palace and park complex was conceived politically as an alternative capital, and aesthetically as an ideal symbolic object, which should not have any aspects not related to the will of its creators. (The political motives for transferring the center of power from Paris to Versailles are perfectly combined with mythological ones: it meant clearing the space of power from the chaos of the natural city). Aesthetically, this, however, as we know, is a deliberately dual phenomenon, since it combines the Cartesian thinking of French classicism (straight lines, emphasizing perspective, grids and lattices and other methods of extreme ordering of space) with typical elements of baroque thinking (complex allegorical language, stylistics of sculptures and most fountains). During the 18th century, Versailles increasingly acquired the properties of a palimpsest, while maintaining its extreme artificiality (which became especially noticeable when fashion demanded the play of natural life and led to the emergence of the “queen’s village”). We should not forget that the original idea of the design of the palace symbolically turns it into a book in which a living chronicle of current events should have instantly crystallized into a myth (this quasi-literary status of the Versailles palace is confirmed by the participation of Racine as the author of the inscriptions - which can be considered as an attempt namely literary legitimization of the entire project with the help of the name of a strong author).
A locus with such properties poses the question of how art can master a place that is already a finished work. What remains for the authors of subsequent generations other than reproducing the proposed model?
This problem is especially clearly highlighted when compared with St. Petersburg. The methods of implementing the capital’s myth are partly consonant: in both cases the motive of the construction sacrifice is actualized, both places are perceived as the embodiment of personal will and the triumph of the state idea, but St. Petersburg, being still much closer to the “natural”, “living” city, attracted interpretations from the very beginning artists and poets. Versailles, during the active period of its history, almost never became the subject of serious aesthetic reflection. In French literature, as all scholars of the Versailles theme note, for a long time the functions of including Versailles in the text were limited to a reminder of social space as opposed to physical: Versailles was not described either as a place itself, or as a work of art (the value of which has always been questioned - which, however, reflects the skepticism characteristic of French literature, well known from the representation of Paris in the French novel of the 19th century.)
Since the beginning of the 19th century, the history of literature has recorded more and more attempts to form the literary image of Versailles. French romantics (primarily Chateaubriand) are trying to appropriate this symbol of classicism, using its symbolic death as a capital after the revolution - which ensures the birth of Versailles as a romantic locus, where the palace turns out to be one of many romantic ruins (researchers even note the “Gothicification” of the Versailles space It is important that in this case the general romantic discourse completely supplants any possibility of understanding the specific properties of the place; there were no ruins in Versailles even in its worst times, just as the Romantics found a solution to the problem: to introduce a locus into the text that was immediately available. was a text, and to avoid tautology, it is necessary to recode the locus. In the romantic version, this implied, however, the complete destruction of all its distinctive features, so the “romantic Versailles” was never firmly entrenched in the history of culture.
In the 1890s, a new round of existence of the Versailles text began, interesting primarily because this time many representatives of different spheres of culture and different national cultures participated in the process; “decadent Versailles” does not have one specific author. Among the many voices that created a new version of Versailles, one of the most notable will be the voice of Alexandre Benois, first as an artist, later as a memoirist.
Sporadic attempts to romanticize the Versailles space by imposing on it properties borrowed from other loci were replaced at the end of the century by a sharp return of interest in both the place itself and its mythogenic potential. A whole series of very similar texts appears, the authors of which, despite all their differences, belonged to the general communicative sphere - therefore, there is every reason to assume that, in addition to published texts, salon discussions played a significant role, especially since the city of Versailles is becoming a fairly noticeable center of cultural life, and the Palace of Versailles, which is being restored at this time, is attracting more and more attention.
Unlike most poetically appropriated loci, Versailles never becomes a popular setting. The main sphere of implementation of the Versailles text is lyrics, lyrical prose, essays. The exception that proves the rule is Henri de Regnier’s novel “Amphisbaena,” which begins with an episode of a walk in Versailles: here a walk in the park sets the direction of the narrator’s reflection (designed in the spirit of lyrical prose of the turn of the century); as soon as the text leaves the framework of the internal monologue, the space changes.
We can highlight several key, from our point of view, texts that played the most important role at this stage of the interpretation of Versailles.
First of all, let’s name the series “Red Pearls” by Robert de Montesquiou (the book was published in 1899, but individual texts were quite widely known from the early 90s from salon readings), which was most likely the main driving force behind the fashion for Versailles theme. The collection of sonnets is preceded by a long preface in which Montesquieu develops his interpretation of Versailles as a text.
It is impossible to ignore the many texts of Henri de Regnier, but especially the lyrical cycle “City of Waters” (1902) should be highlighted.
No less representative is the essay by Maurice Barrès “On Decay” from the collection “On Blood, On Pleasure and Death” (1894): this unique lyrical obituary (the text was written on the death of Charles Gounod) will become the starting point in the further development of the Versailles theme as in Barrès himself , and among his then numerous readers in the French literary environment.
Let us also especially note the text entitled “Versailles” in Marcel Proust’s first book, “Leasures and Days” (1896) - a short essay included in a series of “walking” sketches (preceded by a text entitled “Tuileries”, followed by “Walk”) . This essay is remarkable in that Proust is the first (and, as we see, very early) to note the actual existence of the new Versailles text, directly naming Montesquieu, Rainier and Barrès as its creators, in whose footsteps Proust’s narrator takes a walk through Versailles.
One can also add the names of Albert Samin and Ernest Reynaud, poets of the second Symbolist generation; attempts to interpret Versailles nostalgia also appear in the Goncourts. Let us also note the undoubted significance of Verlaine’s collection “Gallant Celebrations” as a general pretext. In Verlaine, despite references to the gallant painting of the 18th century, the artistic space is not designated as Versailles and is generally devoid of clear topographical references - but it is precisely this conventional place, to which Verlaine’s nostalgia is directed in the collection, that will become obvious material for constructing the image of Versailles in the lyrics of the next generation .
Photo by Eugene Atget. 1903.
Analysis of these texts makes it quite easy to identify common dominants (the commonality is often literal, right down to lexical coincidences). Without dwelling on the details, we will list only the main features of this system of dominants.
- A park, but not a palace.
There are practically no descriptions of the palace, only the park and the surrounding forests appear (despite the fact that all the authors visited the palace), especially since there is no mention of Versailles the city. Barrès, at the very beginning of the essay, immediately rejects the “castle without a heart” (with a parenthetical remark that still recognizes its aesthetic value). Proust's text is also dedicated to a walk in the park, there is no palace at all, there are not even any architectural metaphors (which he tends to resort to almost everywhere). In the case of Montesquiou, this strategy of displacing the palace is especially unusual, since it contradicts the content of many of the sonnets: Montesquieu constantly refers to plots (from memoirs and historical anecdotes, etc.) that require the palace as a setting - but he ignores this. (In addition, he dedicates the collection to the artist Maurice Lobre, who painted the Versailles interiors- but does not find a place for them in poetry). The Palace of Versailles functions only as a society, but not as a locus. Spatial characteristics appear when it comes to the park (which is especially noteworthy if we remember that the real palace is semiotically overloaded; the original symbolism of the park, however, is also almost always ignored - except for a few poems by Rainier, playing on the mythological subjects used in the design of the fountains).
- Death and sleep.
Versailles is constantly called a necropolis or depicted as a city of ghosts.
The idea of “memory of place,” normal for a historically significant locus, is most often embodied in ghost characters and corresponding motifs. (Barrès’s only reminder of the story is the “sounds of Marie Antoinette’s harpsichord” heard by the narrator).
Montesquieu not only adds a lot of detail to this theme: the entire cycle of “Red Pearls” is organized as a spiritualistic seance, evoking from one sonnet to another figures from the past of Versailles and the image of “old France” in general. A typically symbolist interpretation of the “death of place” also appears here. Death is understood as a return to its idea: the sun king turns into the sun king, the Versailles ensemble, subordinate to the solar myth, is now controlled not by the symbol of the sun, but by the sun itself (see the title sonnet of the cycle and the preface). For Barrès, Versailles functions as an elegiac locus - a place for thinking about death, in which death is also interpreted specifically: “the proximity of death adorns” (said about Heine and Maupassant, who, according to Barrès, acquired poetic power only in the face of death).
In the same series are Rainier’s “dead park” (opposed to a living forest, and the water in fountains to pure underground water) and Proust’s “leaf cemetery.”
In addition, Versailles as an oneiric space is included in the necrocontext, since the dream experience that it provokes certainly leads again to the resurrection of the shadows of the past.
- Autumn and winter.
Without exception, all authors writing about Versailles at this time choose autumn as the most suitable time for the place and actively exploit traditional autumn symbolism. Fallen leaves (feuilles mortes, by that time already traditional for the French lyrics of autumn-death) appear on literally everyone.
In this case, plant motifs rhetorically replace architecture and sculpture (“a huge cathedral of leaves” by Barrès, “every tree carries a statue of some deity” by Rainier).
Sunset is closely associated with this same line - in the typical meanings of the era of death, withering, that is, as a synonym for autumn (the irony is that the most famous visual effect of the Palace of Versailles requires precisely the setting sun illuminating the mirror gallery). This symbolic synonymy is exposed by Proust, whose red leaves create the illusion of sunset in the morning and afternoon.
The same series includes the accentuated black color (not at all dominant in the real Versailles space, even in winter), and the direct fixation of the emotional background (melancholy, loneliness, sadness), which is always simultaneously attributed to the characters and the space itself and its elements (trees, sculptures and etc.) and is motivated by the same eternal autumn. Less often, winter appears as a variation on the same seasonal theme - with very similar meanings (melancholy, nearness of death, loneliness), perhaps provoked by Mallarmé's winter poetics; the most striking example is the episode of “Amphisbaena” that we mentioned.
- Water.
Without a doubt, the water dominant is determined by the character of the real place; however, in most late-century texts the “watery” nature of Versailles is exaggerated.
The title of Rainier's cycle "City of Waters" accurately reflects the tendency to superimpose the Versailles text with the Venetian one. The fact that Versailles is in this respect completely opposite to Venice, since all the water effects here are purely mechanical, makes it even more attractive to the thinking of this generation. The image of a city connected with water not because of natural necessity, but in spite of nature, thanks to an aesthetic design, fits perfectly with the chimerical spaces of decadent poetics.
- Blood.
Naturally, French authors associate the history of Versailles with its tragic ending. The literature here, in a sense, develops a motif that is also popular among historians: in the imprint of the “great century” the roots of a future catastrophe are visible. Poetically, this is most often expressed in the constant intrusion into the gallant scenery of scenes of violence, where blood acquires the properties of a common denominator to which any enumeration of the signs of the old regime of Versailles life is reduced. Thus, in Montesquieu’s cycle, sunset paintings are reminiscent of the guillotine, the title “red pearl” itself is drops of blood; Rainier in the poem “Trianon” literally “powder and rouge become blood and ashes.” In Proust, a reminder of the construction sacrifice also appears, and this is clearly in the context of the emerging modernist cultural myth: the beauty not of Versailles itself, but of the texts about it, removes remorse, memories of those killed and ruined during its construction.
- Theater.
Theatricalization is the most predictable element of the Versailles text, the only one, perhaps, associated with tradition: Versailles life as a performance (sometimes as a puppet and mechanical) is already depicted in Saint-Simon. The novelty here is in translating the analogies between court life and theater to the level of artistic space: the park becomes a stage, historical figures become actors, etc. Note that this line of rethinking the Versailles mythology will further manifest itself more and more in interpretations of the French “golden age” by the culture of the twentieth century, including in connection with several outbreaks of interest in baroque theater in general.
Let us now turn to the “Russian side” of this topic, to the legacy of Alexandre Benois. Benoit's "Versailles Text" includes, as is well known, graphic series of the late 1890s and late 1900s, the ballet "Armide's Pavilion" and several fragments of the book "My Memories". The latter – the verbalization of the experience behind the drawings and a fairly detailed self-interpretation – is of particular interest, since it allows us to judge the degree of Benoit’s involvement in the French discourse about Versailles.
The surprise expressed by the French researcher at the fact that Benoit ignores the entire literary tradition of depicting Versailles is completely natural. The artist reports in his memoirs about his acquaintance with most of the authors of the “Versailles” texts, devotes time to the story of his acquaintance with Montesquieu, including recalling the copy of “Red Pearls” donated by the poet to the artist, mentions Rainier (besides this, it is known for sure that he was either otherwise he is familiar with all the other figures of this circle, including Proust, whom Benoit, however, hardly noticed) - but does not in any way compare his vision of Versailles with literary versions. One can suspect here a desire to preserve his undivided authorship, given that copyright is one of the most “sick” topics in Benois’ memoirs (see almost all the episodes associated with Diaghilev’s ballets, on the posters of which Benois’ work was often attributed to Bakst). In any case, whether we are talking about an unconscious quotation or a coincidence, Benoit's Versailles fits perfectly into the literary context that we have shown. In addition, he had a direct influence on French literature, as recorded by Montesquieu's sonnet dedicated to the drawings of Benoit.
Alexander Benois. At the Ceres Basin. 1897.
So, Benoit reproduces most of the listed motives, perhaps rearranging the accents a little. “My Memoirs” is especially interesting in this regard, since one can often talk about literal coincidences.
The displacement of the palace in favor of the park takes on a special meaning in the context of Benoit’s memoirs. Only in the fragments about Versailles does he say anything about the interior decor of the palace (in general, the only mention is the same spectacle of the sunset in the mirror gallery), although he describes the interiors of other palaces (in Peterhof, Oranienbaum, Hampton Court) in sufficient detail.
Benoit's Versailles is always autumnal, with a dominant black - which is also supported in the memoir text by reference to personal impressions. In his drawings, he selects fragments of the park in such a way as to avoid Cartesian effects; he prefers curves and oblique lines, essentially destroying the classical image of the palace.
The image of Versailles-necropolis is also relevant for Benoit. The resurrection of the past, accompanied by the appearance of ghosts, is a motif that accompanies all the Versailles episodes in the memoirs and is quite obvious in the drawings. One of these passages in “My Memoirs” concentrates the characteristic elements of neo-Gothic poetics of the end of the century:
Sometimes at dusk, when the west shines with cold silver, when gray clouds slowly creep in from the horizon, and in the east the heaps of pink apotheoses are extinguished, when everything strangely and solemnly calms down, and calms down so much that you can hear leaf after leaf falling onto the piles of fallen clothing, when the ponds seem covered with gray cobwebs, when the squirrels rush like madmen along the bare tops of their kingdom and the pre-night croaking of jackdaws is heard - at such hours, between the trees of the bosquets, some people who no longer live our lives, but still human beings, fearfully appear and curiously watching the lonely passerby. And with the onset of darkness, this world of ghosts begins to more and more persistently survive living life.
It should be noted that at the level of style, the distance between these fragments of Benoit’s memoirs and the French texts we mentioned is minimal: even if the author of “My Memoirs” did not read them, he perfectly captured not only the general style of the era, but also the characteristic intonations of the version we described above Versailles discourse.
Benoit has even stronger oneiric motives, depicting Versailles as an enchanted place. This idea found its fullest expression in the ballet Armida's Pavilion, where the dream-like plot is embodied in scenery reminiscent of Versailles.
Alexander Benois. Scenery for the ballet "Pavilion of Armida". 1909.
Let us also note the clear contrast with the version of the Versailles text that will be enshrined in most of the performances of the “Russian seasons”. “The Feast of Versailles” by Stravinsky-Diaghilev, like “The Sleeping Beauty” before it, exploit a different perception of the same locus (it is the one that has become entrenched in popular culture and tourism discourse) - with an emphasis on festivity, luxury and youth. In his memoirs, Benoit more than once emphasizes that Diaghilev’s late works are alien to him, and he has a cool attitude towards Stravinsky’s neoclassicism.
The emphasis on the water element is emphasized, in addition to the obligatory presence of fountains or a canal, by rain (“The King walks in any weather”).
The theatricality, provoked as it were by the place itself, is expressed even more clearly in Benoit than in French authors - of course, thanks to the specifics of his professional interests. (This side of his work has been studied as much as possible, and here Versailles for him fits into a long chain of theatrical and festive loci).
The main difference between Benoit's version appears, when compared with the French texts, as a significant “blind spot”. The only typically Versailles range of themes that he ignores is violence, blood, revolution. His tragic shades are motivated by the obsessive image of the old king - but these are motives of natural death; Benoit not only does not draw any guillotines, but in his memoirs (written after the revolutions) he does not link the Versailles experiences either with his personal experience of encountering history or with French tradition. In Benoit's memoirs one can see, on the whole, a completely different attitude than that of his French contemporaries towards the topic of power and loci of power. Versailles remains a repository of someone else's memory, alienated and frozen. This is also noticeable in contrast with the descriptions of Peterhof: the latter always appears as a “living” place - both because it is associated with childhood memories, and because it is remembered from the time of the living courtyard. Benoit does not see it as an analogue to Versailles, not only because of stylistic differences, but also because Peterhof, as he preserved it in his memoirs, continues to perform its normal function.
Without pretending to cover the topic completely, let us draw some preliminary conclusions from the above observations.
An artificially created locus-symbol is assimilated by culture slowly and contrary to the original intention. Versailles had to lose its political meaning in order to find recognition in the culture of the end of the century, which had learned to extract aesthetic experience from destruction, old age and death. The fate of the Versailles text can thus be interpreted in the context of the relationship between culture and political power: the “place of power,” conceived literally as the spatial embodiment of the idea of power as an ideal authority, simultaneously attracts and repels artists. (Note that interest in Versailles is not accompanied by any of the authors considered by nostalgia for the old regime, and all the attributes of the monarchy function for them solely as signs of a long-dead world). The solution found, as we see, by European literature at the turn of the century is final aestheticization, the transformation of the place of power into a stage, drawing, chronotope component, etc., necessarily with complete recoding, translation into the language of another artistic paradigm.
This idea is directly expressed in Montesquieu’s book of sonnets, where several times Saint-Simon is called the true owner of Versailles: power belongs to the one who has the last word - ultimately, to the writer (of all the memoirists, therefore, the most valuable for the history of literature was chosen). In parallel, the images of the bearers of power in the traditional sense, real kings and queens, are weakened by depicting them as ghosts or as participants in the performance. The political figure is replaced by an artistic one, the course of history is replaced by a creative process, which, as Proust said, removes the irresistible bloody tragedy of history.
The participation of the Russian artist in this process of achieving the triumph of culture over history is a significant fact not so much even for the history of the Russian-French dialogue, but for the self-awareness of Russian culture. It is also interesting that even a superficial comparison reveals the kinship of Benoit’s texts with literature, which was known to him rather indirectly and fragmentarily and which he was not inclined to take seriously, since he demonstratively distanced himself from decadent culture.
Literature:
- Benois A.N. My memories. M., 1980. T.2.
- Barrès M. Sur la decomposition // Barrès M. Du sang, de la volupté et de la mort. Paris, 1959. P. 261-267.
- Montesquiou R. de. Perles rouges. Les paroles diaprées. Paris, 1910.
- Prince N. Versailles, icône fantastique // Versailles dans la littérature: mémoire et imaginaire aux XIXe et XXe siècles. P. 209-221.
- Proust M. Les plaisirs et le jours. Paris, 1993.
- Regnier H. de. L'Amphisbène: roman moderne. Paris, 1912.
- Regnier H. de. La Cité des eaux. Paris, 1926.
- Savally D. Les écrits d’Alexandre Benois sur Versailles: un regard pétersbourgeois sur la cité royale? // Versailles dans la littérature: mémoire et imaginaire aux XIXe et XXe siècles. P.279-293.
Benois Alexander Nikolaevich (1870 - 1960)
The King's Walk 1906
62 × 48 cm
Watercolor, Gouache, Pencil, Feather, Cardboard, Silver, Gold
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
“The Last Walks of the King” is a series of drawings by Alexandre Benois dedicated to the walks of King Louis the Sun, his old age, as well as autumn and winter in the Park of Versailles.
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Versailles. Louis XIV feeding the fish
Description of the old age of Louis XIV (from here):
“...The king became sad and gloomy. According to Madame de Maintenon, he became “the most inconsolable man in all of France.” Louis began to violate the laws of etiquette established by himself.
In the last years of his life, he acquired all the habits befitting an old man: he got up late, ate in bed, reclined to receive ministers and secretaries of state (Louis XIV was involved in the affairs of the kingdom until the last days of his life), and then sat for hours in a large armchair, placing a velvet blanket under his back. pillow. In vain the doctors repeated to their sovereign that the lack of bodily movements made him bored and drowsy and was a harbinger of his imminent death.
The king could no longer resist the onset of decrepitude, and his age was approaching eighty.
All he agreed to was limited to trips around the gardens of Versailles in a small, steerable carriage.” 
Versailles. By the pool of Ceres
King's Walk
“The source of inspiration for the artist is not the royal splendor of the castle and parks, but rather the “shaky, sad memories of the kings who still roam here.” This looks like some kind of almost mystical illusion (“I sometimes reach a state close to hallucinations”).
For Benoit, those shadows that silently glide across the Versailles park are more akin to memories than fantasy. According to his own statement, images of events that once took place here flash before his eyes. He “sees” the very creator of this splendor, King Louis XIV, surrounded by his retinue. Moreover, he sees him already terribly old and sick, which surprisingly accurately reflects the former reality.” 
Versailles. Greenhouse
Versailles. Trianon Garden
From an article by a French researcher:
“The images of “The Last Walks of Louis XIV” are certainly inspired, and sometimes borrowed, from texts and engravings of the time of the “Sun King.”
However, such a view - the approach of an erudite and connoisseur - is by no means fraught with either dryness or pedantry and does not force the artist to engage in lifeless historical reconstructions. Indifferent to the “complaints of the stones, dreaming of decaying into oblivion,” so dear to Montesquieu’s heart, Benoit did not capture either the dilapidation of the palace or the desolation of the park, which he certainly still saw. He prefers flights of fancy to historical accuracy - and at the same time, his fantasies are historically accurate. The artist’s themes are the passage of time, the “romantic” invasion of nature into the classic Le Nôtre park; he is fascinated – and amused – by the contrast between the sophistication of the park scenery, in which “every line, every statue, the smallest vase” recalls “the divinity of monarchical power, the greatness of the sun king, the inviolability of the foundations” - and the grotesque figure of the king himself: a hunched old man in a gurney pushed by a livery footman.” 
At Curtius
Allegory of the River
Allegory of the River
A few years later, Benoit would paint an equally irreverent verbal portrait of Louis XIV: “a crooked old man with sagging cheeks, bad teeth and a face eaten away by smallpox.”
The king in Benoit's "Walks" is a lonely old man, abandoned by his courtiers and clinging to his confessor in anticipation of imminent death. But he appears rather not as a tragic hero, but as a staff character, an extra, whose almost ephemeral, ghostly presence emphasizes the inviolability of the scenery and the stage from which the once great actor leaves, “without a murmur the burden of this monstrous comedy.” 
The king walked in any weather... (Saint-Simon)
At the same time, Benoit seems to forget that Louis XIV was the main customer of the Versailles performance and was not at all mistaken about the role that he assigned himself to play. Since history was presented to Benoit as a kind of theatrical play, the replacement of bright mise-en-scenes with less successful ones was inevitable: “Louis XIV was an excellent actor, and he deserved the applause of history. Louis XVI was only one of the “grandsons of the great actor” who got on stage - and therefore it is very natural that he was driven out by the audience, and the play, which had recently had enormous success, also failed.”
