Christa Giles

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often manifests evil. He is paradoxically simultaneously
both insider and outsider; devoid of belief in absolutes he
˝plays with life,˝ 166 and as Wilde says of the ˝flawless
dandy˝ Lord Goring: ˝He is fond of being misunderstood. It
gives him a post of vantage.˝ 167
In Huysmans’ review of Redon’s series Homage to
Goya he describes a Pierrot-like figure who possesses a
˝douleur ambiguë se fondait dans l’ironie d’un affreux
sourire.˝ 168 Like the dandy’s mask the Pierrot’s smile is
essentially the expression of a recognition of dichotomies.
This expression of irony encompasses both an
acknowledgment of human imitations and a refusal to
entirely accept these I imitations accounting in part for the
satanic associations of the Pierrot figure.
In ˝Cauchemar˝ Huysmans describes in detail a plate
from Homage to Goya called ˝The Marsh Flower: A Sad,
Human Face,˝ which consists of a flower growing from a
body of water and possessing the face of a Pierrot:
Une douleur immense et toute personnelle
émana de cette livide fleur. Il y avait dans
l’expression de ses traits, tout à la fois du
navrement d’un pierrot usé, d’un vieux clown
qui pleure sur ses reins fléchis, de la détresse
d’un antique lord rongé par le spleen, d’un
avoué condamné pour de savantes