Most people are familiar with Rainer Maria Rilke as a poet, but in his two books of "Letters", Rilke proves his prose to be just as beautiful and well-crafted. In Letters on Cézanne, Rilke explores the synergy between visual art and the poetic arts by meditating on the works of his most important influence, the artist Paul Cézanne. The letters go much further than the title would convey, however, as Rilke also meditates on van Gogh, Rodin and other contemporaries of his.
The introduction to the 1985 translation of this work, by Heinrich Wiegand Petzet, provides the context for the letters that follow. Rilke's friendships with artists provided him with the language of sculpture, and helped him to understand how to look at pictures. Rilke considered Cézanne to be a great master; as the introduction elucidates, the letters published here were written "in the fall of 1907 under the immediate impression of a memorial exhibition of works by Cézanne, who had died in the previous year."
One of the most striking things about Rilke's letters, is the sense of wonder the reader gets. Rilke is discovering how to interpret art, seemingly before our very eyes. He stands and reasons his way through his emotional reactions to paintings, whether he understands them or not.
"I again spent two hours in front of a few pictures today; I sense this is somehow useful for me When I remember the puzzlement and insecurity of one's first confrontation with his work, along with his name, which was just as new. And then for a long time nothing, and suddenly one has the right eyes"
In his letters, Rilke seems just as fascinated with the act of painting as perpetrated by Cézanne, as with the paintings resulting from the artists actions.
"While painting a landscape of a still life, he would conscientiously persevere in front of the object, but approach it only by very complicated detours. Beginning with the darkest tones, he would cover their depth with a layer of color that led a little beyond them, and keep going, expanding outward from color to color, until gradually he reached another, contrasting pictorial element, where, beginning at a new center, he would proceed in a similar way."
Rilke's letters helped me to understand how to really look at art, how to see many facets of a work, the importance of color choice, stroke, composition. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Rilke has managed to find a way to add words to the pictures that don't point out the obvious, that aren't redundant, but bring about added comprehension of an artist's vision.
