{"id":16664,"date":"2015-04-20T02:25:09","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T01:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=16664"},"modified":"2015-04-20T03:46:20","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T02:46:20","slug":"temptations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2015\/04\/20\/temptations\/","title":{"rendered":"Temptations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"catalogue.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Exhibition catalogue.<\/em><\/p>\n

In one of the many recent features about Leonora Carrington I noticed a mention of her Temptation of St Anthony<\/em> painting from 1945 (see below). This was one of eleven works on the theme submitted by different artists for a competition staged to promote Albert Lewin’s The Private Affairs of Bel Ami<\/em><\/a> (1947), a film adaptation of the Guy de Maupassant novel. Carrington is often mentioned when this competition is discussed, along with the other big names, Max Ernst (the winner) and Salvador Dal\u00ed. But you seldom see mention of any of the other competitors, hence this post, an attempt to find all of the competition entries.<\/p>\n

\"carrington.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Leonora Carrington. St. Anthony is often shown with a pig companion but only Carrington depicted the animal for this competition. When asked why the saint had three heads, she replied “Why not?”
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Albert Lewin didn’t make many films but he had a predilection for arty subjects, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami<\/em> being preceded by adaptations of The Moon and Sixpence<\/em> (1942) and The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em> (1945). All three films star George Sanders, and all feature special colour sequences when a painting is revealed. 1945 was the peak of America’s brief infatuation with Surrealism (Hitchcock had Dal\u00ed working on Spellbound<\/em> at this time) so Lewin asked a number of Surrealists to take up the challenge. I was surprised to find that Stanley Spencer was one of the entrants, a name you almost never see in this company; less surprising was Ivan Albright whose painting of the decayed Dorian Gray<\/a> is one of the highlights of Lewin’s earlier film. Leonor Fini was also asked to take part but she didn’t produce anything. The judges were Marcel Duchamp, Alfred J. Barr, Jr, director of the Museum of Modern Art, and art dealer Sidney Janis. Ernst won a cash prize variously reported as $2500\u20133000, while the other entrants received smaller sums. The paintings toured the USA and Britain during 1946\u20137.<\/p>\n

As to the film, I can’t say what this is like because it’s one I’ve yet to see but Self-Styled Siren’s witty review<\/a> goes into some detail. Hollywood apparently had problems with the adult subject matter (Sanders’ character is described as a sexually predatory social climber), and Lewin was forced to tone things down.<\/p>\n

\"albright.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ivan Albright.<\/em><\/p>\n

Albright’s contribution is so frenzied and detailed it approaches psychedelia. Best seen in this large view at Flickr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"berman.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Eugene Berman.<\/em><\/p>\n

Berman art is scarce on the web so I’ve no idea whether this was his entry or merely a sketch. This is one of at least two drawings he made on the St Anthony theme.<\/p>\n

\"dali.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Salvador Dal\u00ed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Easily the most famous of all the pictures. A very memorable image but I can imagine if this had been named the winner its overt eroticism might have caused a problem. This is also a rare depiction for showing the saint directly confronting his temptations; more common is to show him absorbed in prayer or being set upon by demons.<\/p>\n

\"delvaux.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Paul Delvaux.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not a very good offering from Delvaux, and I’m not sure the film censors would have appreciated all that pubic hair.<\/p>\n

\"ernst.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Max Ernst.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ernst’s painting is one of the best of the Fantastic Realism phase his work went through in the mid-1940s. Another one that needs to be seen at large size<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"guglielmi.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Louis Guglielmi.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another artist fallen into obscurity, this one was only available in a monochrome photo print.<\/p>\n

\"pippin.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Horace Pippin.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pippin’s naive style can be very Rousseau-like in his other paintings<\/a> but that quality isn’t evident here, there’s not much tempting going on.<\/p>\n

\"rattner.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Abraham Rattner.<\/em><\/p>\n

The title and date are correct but this painting may not be the one submitted for the competition. Either way, this is another that doesn’t really conjure the theme.<\/p>\n

\"spencer.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Stanley Spencer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Typical of Spencer to fill the canvas with naked flesh. This one does suit the theme but, once again, all that nudity and overt eroticism might have caused the filmmakers some trouble.<\/p>\n

\"tanning.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Dorothea Tanning.<\/em><\/p>\n

Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning had been living together for several years by this time, and they both took something from Gr\u00fcnewald’s Temptation of St Anthony<\/em><\/a> from the Isenheim Altarpiece. Where Ernst has the saint set upon by demons, Tanning invokes lustful spirits. The creature gnawing Anthony’s arm is a nod to the diseased figure in the corner of the Gr\u00fcnewald painting.<\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Max Ernst album covers<\/a>
\n\u2022 Maximiliana oder die widerrechtliche Aus\u00fcbung der Astronomie<\/a>
\n\u2022 Max and Dorothea<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Secret Life of Edward James<\/a>
\n\u2022 Dorothea Tanning, 1910\u20132012<\/a>
\n\u2022 Dreams That Money Can Buy<\/a>
\n\u2022 La femme 100 t\u00eates by Eric Duvivier<\/a>
\n\u2022 Leonora Carrington, 1917\u20132011<\/a>
\n\u2022 The real Basil Hallwards<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exhibition catalogue. In one of the many recent features about Leonora Carrington I noticed a mention of her Temptation of St Anthony painting from 1945 (see below). This was one of eleven works on the theme submitted by different artists for a competition staged to promote Albert Lewin’s The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947), … Continue reading “Temptations”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,21,7,44,31,18],"tags":[7219,454,117,1180,7216,7215,7221,7218,452,730,731,7217,1200,2011,112,349,87,7220],"class_list":["post-16664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-fantasy","category-film","category-painting","category-religion","category-surrealism","tag-abraham-rattner","tag-albert-lewin","tag-dorian-gray","tag-dorothea-tanning","tag-eugene-berman","tag-george-sanders","tag-guy-de-maupassant","tag-horace-pippin","tag-ivan-albright","tag-leonor-fini","tag-leonora-carrington","tag-louis-guglielmi","tag-marcel-duchamp","tag-matthias-grunewald","tag-max-ernst","tag-paul-delvaux","tag-salvador-dali","tag-stanley-spencer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-4kM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}