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Gustave Kahn

 

Kahn, Gustave (1859-1936). French poet, editor, and critic who played a major role in the Symbolist movement between 1886 and 1895. As co-editor of La Vogue in 1886, he published poems by Rimbaud and Laforgue which contributed to the development of vers libre, whose cause he also advanced in his 1887 volume of poetry, Les Palais nomades, and in the preface to his collected Premiers poèmes of 1897 [see Versification]. One of the most important art critics of the late 19th c., he helped to establish Symbolism's discourse on painting, in which the Impressionism of Degas and the Neo-Impressionism of Seurat were reconciled with the most recent expressions of the idealist tradition in the work of Moreau and Puvis de Chavannes.

[James Kearns]

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Gustave Kahn (December 21, 1859September 5, 1936) was a French Symbolist poet and art critic.

Kahn was born in Metz.

He claimed to have invented the term vers libre, or free verse; he was in any case one of the first European exponents of the form. His principal publications include Les Palais nomades, 1887, Domaine de fée, 1895, and Le Livre d'images, 1897. Kahn also made a valuable contribution to the history of the movement with his book Symbolistes et décadents, 1902.

In addition to his poems, Kahn was a public intellectual who wrote novels, plays, and literary criticism. He played a key role in a number of periodicals, including La Vogue, La Revue Indépendante, La Revue Blanche and Le Mercure de France. He was also an art critic and collector who stayed current with developments in painting and sculpture until his death. He also played a role in a number of debates on public issues, including anarchism, feminism, socialism, and Zionism. Rimbaud's poem Après le Deluge was published in the fifth issue of La Vogue.

Several of his poems were set to music by the composer Charles Loeffler.

Principal works

  • Palais nomades (1887)
  • Les Chansons d'amant (1891)
  • Domaine de fée (1895)
  • Le Roi fou (1896)
  • La Pluie et le beau temps (1896)
  • Limbes de lumières (1897)
  • Le Livre d'images (1897)
  • Premières poèmes (1897)
  • Le Conte de l'or et du silence (1898)
  • Les Petites Ames pressées (1898)
  • Le Cirque solaire (1898)
  • Les Fleurs de la passion (1900)
  • L'Adultère sentimental (1902)
  • Symbolistes et décadents (1902)
  • Odes de la "Raison" (1902 réédité aux Editions du Fourneau 1995)
  • Contes hollandais (1903)
  • La Femme dans la caricature française (1907)
  • Contes hollandais (deuxième série) (1908)
  • La Pépinière du Luxembourg (1923)
  • L'Aube enamourée (1925)
  • Mourle (1925)
  • Silhouettes littéraires (1925)
  • La Childebert (1926)
  • Contes juifs (1926 réédité chez "Les Introuvables" 1977)
  • Images bibliques (1929)
  • Terre d'Israël (1933)

Quotation

Les Paons
Se penchant vers les dahlias,
Des paons cabraient des rosaces lunaires,
L'assouplissement des branches vénère
Son pâle visage aux mourants dahlias.
Elle écoute au loin les brèves musiques
Nuit claire aux ramures d'accords,
Et la lassitude a bercé son corps
Au rythme odorant des pures musiques.
Les paons ont dressé la rampe ocellée
Pour la descente de ses yeux vers le tapis
De choses et de sens
Qui va vers l'horizon, parure vermiculée
De son corps alangui.
En l'âme se tapit
le flou désir molide récits et d'encens.

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Copyrights:

French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gustave Kahn" Read more