{"id":31404,"date":"2026-07-15T16:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=31404"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:13:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:13:56","slug":"the-7-spectral-perils-of-dorothea-tanning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2026\/07\/15\/the-7-spectral-perils-of-dorothea-tanning\/","title":{"rendered":"The 7 Spectral Perils of Dorothea Tanning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tanning0.jpg\"<\/p>\n

I like a picture series, and this is one I hadn’t encountered before. Dorothea Tanning’s Les 7 p\u00e9rils spectraux<\/em> (1950) is a portfolio of seven lithograph prints with accompanying text, “Pourquoi Rester Muets?”, by Andr\u00e9 Pieyre de Mandiargues. Of the series, the artist had this to say:<\/p>\n

My first lithograph adventure has become a book. An album with seven perils in it. Because to the seven deadly sins I preferred the seven spectral perils, life being more perilous than sinful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What we don’t have\u2014or I’ve been unable to find\u2014is a list of perils to go with their respective prints. I’d guess, therefore, that with the perils being replacements for sins there’s a correspondence with the traditional prescriptive list, although this still leaves us to guess which is which. The print that shows a sunflower framed by a knife and fork may be allied to gluttony or it may refer to something entirely different, sunflowers being a recurrent, often enigmatic, feature of Tanning’s paintings.<\/p>\n

\"tanning1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

First Peril.<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s a further correspondence with Une Semaine de Bont\u00e9<\/em>, the collage novel created by Tanning’s husband, Max Ernst, in the 1930s. Ernst’s “Week of Kindness” comprises seven days, each of which is assigned a “capital element”, only in Ernst’s scheme we have a definite list of elements: mud, water, fire, blood, blackness, sight, and “unknown”. Since Tanning’s perils may also refer to a private mythology we’ll have to assign them to “unknown” as well, unless further information comes to light.<\/p>\n

\"tanning2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Second Peril.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"tanning3.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Third Peril.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"tanning4.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Fourth Peril.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"tanning5.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Fifth Peril.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"tanning6.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Sixth Peril.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"tanning7.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Seventh Peril.<\/em><\/p>\n

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 The Surrealism archive<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Temptations<\/a>
\n\u2022 8 x 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements<\/a>
\n\u2022 Max and Dorothea<\/a>
\n\u2022 Dorothea Tanning, 1910\u20132012<\/a>
\n\u2022 Dorothea Tanning: Early Designs for the Stage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like a picture series, and this is one I hadn’t encountered before. Dorothea Tanning’s Les 7 p\u00e9rils spectraux (1950) is a portfolio of seven lithograph prints with accompanying text, “Pourquoi Rester Muets?”, by Andr\u00e9 Pieyre de Mandiargues. Of the series, the artist had this to say: My first lithograph adventure has become a book. … Continue reading “The 7 Spectral Perils of Dorothea Tanning”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New blog post: The 7 Spectral Perils of Dorothea Tanning","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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,42,18],"tags":[14674,1180,112],"class_list":["post-31404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-books","category-surrealism","tag-andre-pieyre-de-mandiargues","tag-dorothea-tanning","tag-max-ernst"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-8aw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31404","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=31404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31406,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31404\/revisions\/31406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}