Christa Giles

…never before, in any period, had the art of
watercolour produced such brilliant hues;
never before had an aquarellist’s wretched
chemical pigments been able to make paper
sparkle so brightly with precious stones,
shine so colourfully with sunlight filtered
through stained-glass windows…glow so
warmly with exquisite flesh-tints. 523
203
Moreau’s technical brilliance leaves Des Esseintes
˝overwhelmed, subjugated, stunned.˝ 524 But the paintings
do not simply awaken Des Esseintes’ admiration at their
virtuosity; upon looking at them he can actually enter into
a world which is a conflation of both his and the artist’s
making. Thus Des Esseintes, while looking at the painting
of Salome, exists ˝amid the heavy odour of these perfumes,
in the overheated atmosphere of the basilica.˝ He ˝hears˝
the ˝strings of a guitar,˝ sees the jewels glitter against
Salome’s ˝moist flesh.˝ What we are presented with is, in
effect, the onlooker’s exclusively subjective sentient
response to Moreau’s paintings. The paintings are a mere
starting point for Des Esseintes’ imagination, as is
consistent with Wilde’s dicta. Through the evocation of the
senses by literary means Huysmans creates a reality more
palpable than the actual material world surrounding Des