Looking at Pictures is a 2015 English-language collection of 25 prose pieces and feuilletons by the Swiss author Robert Walser, focused entirely on Walser's observations about paintings and artists. The writings date from the years 1902 to 1930 and are translated by Susan Bernofsky, Lydia Davis, and Christopher Middleton. The book includes a color image reproduction of each artwork discussed, which is presented alongside the writing.
Background Walser often spent time observing and ruminating on the visual arts while also publishing his written work in various newspapers and journals. His brother Karl Walser, with whom he lived for several years in Berlin, was an accomplished painter and stage set designer who gave Walser access to artistic social circles.
Most of the included pieces were published individually in Walser's lifetime with no intention of publishing them together.
Style and themes The pieces have been described as vignette-like, different from each other in style and temperament, and more about people than paintings. Some of the writings meticulously describe the painting in the title while others are meditations that barely touch on the artwork that is supposedly the subject.
In the words of Susan Bernofsky, Walser's "narrator often zeroes in on elements of a picture that would not ordinarily be the focus of a gaze of either a connoisseur or critic." In some cases, Walser makes a mockery of art appreciation and his role as critic, can't imagine a way to examine a piece until he imagines that the depicted scene comes alive, or digresses (seemingly ironically) on various names and topics without discussing what was named in the title. In Bernofsky's analysis, the prose pieces imply "that the value of art might lie in its ability to inspire viewers to rare and beautiful thoughts of their own."
Sam Korman at Flash Art wrote that Robert Walser’s prose is "attentive to surfaces in a way that is both dedicated and momentary. He misdirects, diverges and floats around the exterior of things to reveal the many beautiful and inscrutable points of connection." Michael Miller at Book Forum noted that the artworks "set the author's imagination in motion, inspiring him to concoct elaborate dramas that extend far beyond the confines of the scenes portrayed. The paintings he writes about all tend to spill outside of their boundaries."
Elisa Wouk Almino at Hyperallergic wrote that the essays are not traditional art criticism and resemble daily observations or journal entries. "The meandering manner with which Walser moves through artworks is like the aimless promenade he takes around town in his [stories about walks], stopping when a sight delights or intrigues him. He moves through details with a sense of discovery, mesmerized by the tablecloth in a Cézanne painting that 'is virtually smiling, beaming.'"
Tess Edmonson at C Magazine wrote that the texts, 100 years after their composition, are playful and very different from "contemporary art publishing’s thinkpiece economy." Edmonson also discusses diegetic breaks in the writings. For example, Walser imagines in "Diaz's Forest" that a woman tells her child, "I swear to you," she tell it, "as truthfully as I am standing here with you in this forest painted by Diaz, you must earn your livelihood with bitter toil so that you will not go to ruin inwardly." Also, the painting’s leaves "murmur" about "[what] has been written in this brief essay."
Dominic Jaeckle at 3AM Magazine categorized several kinds of writing in the collection: allegorical fiction, critical circumnavigation of unique artworks or inaccessible genius, oblique reviews presented in a highly personal and obfuscated vernacular, and blueprints for the quiet pleasures of criticism as a form of detective work.
Format Most of the pieces are in Walser's common style of the feuilleton, in other words free-ranging essays that mix fictional short story or historical fiction with personal essay-like musings, or "chatty musings" in the words of one reviewer. Walser himself writes that one of the pieces is a "tiny, infinitesimally small little essaylet." (See main article on Walser's format and genre.)
Reception Will Stone in a review at the Times Literary Supplement called the writings extraordinary and wrote that the texts "fizz with mischievousness, panache, feverish energy, and archaic eloquence." Stone described Walser's visual eye "insightful, capricious and daring, wayward and unpredictable, at times endearingly comical." He observed that the "chatty musings" often end in "a bitter climax or sagacious denouement." He noted that the point of the writings is "less art criticism than an opportunity for Walser to unleash his unique imagination via the feeling or memory triggered by [the artworks]."
Dayton Hare at Michigan Daily wrote in a review, "Walser is alternatively witty and touching, offering both humorous observations about humankind and serious proposals about art. [...] One of his most striking characteristics is his ability to deftly blend the solemn exposition of ideas with gentle mockery. [...] It can be sardonic and funny, or it can be profound and insightful, or it can be all at the same time." Hare advised that the book can serve as light reading or not, depending on the reader.
Michael Miller at Book Forum wrote in a review that Walser's "eccentric enthusiasm provides a sense of cohesion and holds the reader's attention, even as [his] narratives grow [...] erratic. This [...] is why he can slip from irrational exuberance to depressive defeat, and remarkably [slip between styles], without apology, explanation, or even transition."
Michael Hofman at New York Review of Books wrote in a review that the "adorable bookling" is ideal to "slip into the pocket and take out to read in the elevator", and he urged "anyone with any tenderness in their soul" to buy one or two copies. Publishers Weekly wrote that the "slim volume" is an "illuminating collection." The reviewer said that "the assemblage and variety of writings serves as an artistic manifesto for one of the 20th century's most important writers and contributes to the recently revived interest in Walser's work." Musician Stephen Hough called the book wonderful. Kirkus Reviews called the essays "allusive and elusive."
Meeka Walsh at Border Crossing Magazine wrote that the writings show "sensual transport and miraculous engagement" with the art and "[do] very much with little." Walsh expressed surprise that Rilke and Walser never met or associated, as their literary careers happened at the same time. She gives examples of similar writing and sentiments between them about nature observations, color, and close sensory experience of art.
Barry Schwabsky at Hyperallergic wrote that works are marvelous, inimitable, and charming, and break the rules of writing about painting: "Rule one: If the painting is not an illustration of an existing story, [...] resist inventing a story [that] the painting could have [...] illustrated. [...] Rule two: Don’t use the painting as an excuse to free-associate." Schwabsky called Walser one of the great literary free-associators, but expressed frustration that the pieces often didn't have enlightening explanations of how the artworks achieved the effects they did. Elisa Awouk Almino, also at Hyperallergic, wrote that the essays are not especially useful in grounding art in history, but stated "we don’t need to look to him for the findable facts" and quoted one of Walser's sentences from the book, "Everything I have neglected to say can be given voice to by others." Almino also stated, "beneath each of the essays in Looking at Pictures is a longing to express the feeling that drives art: the very joys and reasons for living."
Paul Maziar at ArtCritical wrote that Walser writes about art with "a distinctive rigor of discernment and impassioned description, [instead] of frigid academicism or conventions engaged to meet expectations. Maziar added that "we don’t come to this kind of book for news or intellectual rightness, much less the truth." He compared Walser's and Giorgio Vasari's writings about artists, as their "characterizations of people and the art of the past show a depth of feeling and a surprising poetic consciousness. Maziar particularly praised the humorous essay on Brueghel the Younger's copy of The Parable of the Blind (1616), saying "Walser’s turn of phrase, his oblique point of view and illogical descriptive methodology relative to the painting’s subject, make seeing it now a different experience."
Pieces included Pieces are translated by Susan Bernofsky except in cases where otherwise noted. Titles with non-conventional capitalization, i.e. lowercase keywords, refer to pieces that Walser never titled or published in his lifetime.
"A Painter" "Apollo and Diana (1914) "The Van Gogh Picture" "A Note on Van Gogh's L'Arlesienne" "Portrait of a Lady" "The Dream (I)" "Watercolors" "Hodler's Beech Forest" "An Exhibition of Belgian Art" "The Brueghel Picture" "Catastrophe" "Saul and David (II)" "Diaz's Forest" "The Artist" "Olympia" "Come here, beloved new fresh beautiful tale of a painter" "Scene from the Life of the Painter Karl Stauffer-Bern" "Among other things he painted Madame his Mama" (1925) "Aubrey Beardsley"Translated by Lydia Davis (1926) "A Tiny Little Bit of Watteau" "Watteau" "A Picture by Jean-Honoré Fragonard" "The Kiss (III)" "A Discussion of a Picture" (1926) "Thoughts on Cezanne"Translated by Christopher Middleton (1929)
Footnotes
Translators
References