Abstract
Proust’s early attachment to Rembrandt, the master of chiaroscuro and portraiture, is seen in his two essays dedicated to the master, “Chardin et Rembrandt” and “Rembrandt”, and in his Rembrandtesque descriptions of human figures in Jean Santeuil. The present study reconsiders Jean Santeuil and Proust’s essays from the perspective of portrait painting, with an eye on the epitome of spirituality with which Rembrandt is often identified, and foregrounds the tension between Platonization and the attention to the material in Proust’s early attempts to appreciate and assimilate Rembrandt. Close examinations of Proust’s texts and Rembrandt’s works that commonly focus on the depiction of old age, the quality of “thinking” and the gaze in portraiture will be viewed through a Merleau-Pontian lens to illustrate the dynamics of the body in Proust’s vision of the dichotomy between the material and the spiritual.
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