Dresden

While in Dresden between 29/01 and 19/02/37, Beckett visited the Gem?ldegalerie nine times, both for its collection of Old Masters and its modern wing. Over a week in February, he was also twice invited to see the private collection of Ida Bienert, which comprised works by, amongst others, artists of the Bauhaus school like Wassily Kandinsky, whose Tr?umerische Improvisation Beckett was especially impressed with. Bienert gifted Beckett the catalogue of her collection “on condition that I show it to nobody in Germany” (15/02/37), because it had been compiled by Will Grohmann, a Jewish art historian. The work of Kandinsky and the critical lens through which Grohmann read it later made their way onto the pages of Beckett’s second novel, Watt (1953).

Wassily Kandinsky, Tr?umerische Improvisation (1913)

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Watt wondered how long it would be before the point and circle entered together upon the same plane. Or had they not done so already, or almost? And was it not rather the circle that was in the background, and the point that was in the foreground? […] And he wondered what the artist had intended to represent (Watt knew nothing about painting).
(Watt, Chapter II)

Another painting that left its mark on his work was Zwei M?nner in Betrachtung des Mondes. Its visual composition informs Waiting for Godot and the lack of depth that Beckett, borrowing terminology from music theory, called “bémolisé”, would emerge as a central component of his thinking about the relationship between art and reality.?

Caspar David Friedrich, Zwei M?nner in Betrachtung des Mondes (1819/20)

Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden | Foto: Elke Estel

14/02/37

Pleasant predilection for 2 tiny languid men in his landscapes […], that is the only kind of romantic still tolerable, the bémolisé.?

A country road. A tree. […] The light suddenly fails. In a moment it is night. The moon rises at back, mounts in the sky, stands still, shedding a pale light on the scene.

VLADIMIR: At last! (Estragon gets up and goes towards Vladimir, a boot in each hand. He puts them down at edge of stage, straightens and contemplates the moon.)??
(Waiting for Godot, ACT I)

W?hrend er vom 29/01 bis 19/02/37 in Dresden war, besuchte Beckett neunmal die Gem?ldegalerie, sowohl um die Sammlung Alter Meister und den Flügel mit moderner Kunst zu sehen. Im Laufe einer Woche im Februar wurde er zudem zweimal eingeladen, die private Sammlung Ida Bienerts zu besichtigen, in der sich unter anderem Werke der Künstler des Bauhaus wie Wassily Kandinsky befanden. Kandinskys Tr?umerische Improvisation beeindruckte Beckett besonders. Bienert schenkte Beckett den Katalog ihrer Sammlung ?on condition that I show it to no one in Germany“ (15/02/37), da der Katalog von Will Grohmann, einem jüdischen Kunsthistoriker, zusammengestellt worden war. Das Werk Kandinskys und Grohmanns kritische Interpretation davon würden sp?ter ihren Weg auf die Seiten von Becketts zweitem Roman Watt (1953) finden.

Wassily Kandinsky, Tr?umerische Improvisation (1913)

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Watt wondered how long it would be before the point and circle entered together upon the same plane. Or had they not done so already, or almost? And was it not rather the circle that was in the background, and the point that was in the foreground? […] And he wondered what the artist had intended to represent (Watt knew nothing about painting).
(Watt, Chapter II)

Ein weiteres Gem?lde, das seine Spuren in Becketts Werk hinterlie?, war Zwei M?nner in Betrachtung des Mondes. Die Komposition des Bildes spiegelt sich wider in Warten auf Godot und die Abwesenheit optischer Tiefe für die Beckett sich den Begriff ?bémolisé“ aus der Musiktheorie leiht, sollte sich als zentrale Komponente seines Denkens über die Beziehung zwischen Kunst und Wirklichkeit herausbilden.

Caspar David Friedrich, Zwei M?nner in Betrachtung des Mondes (1819/20)

Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden | Foto: Elke Estel

14/02/37

Pleasant predilection for 2 tiny languid men in his landscapes […], that is the only kind of romantic still tolerable, the bémolisé.?

A country road. A tree. […] The light suddenly fails. In a moment it is night. The moon rises at back, mounts in the sky, stands still, shedding a pale light on the scene.

VLADIMIR: At last! (Estragon gets up and goes towards Vladimir, a boot in each hand. He puts them down at edge of stage, straightens and contemplates the moon.)??
(Waiting for Godot, ACT I)