Complaints Jules Laforgue - Lithos Dauchot 1/100 With SUITE 1957 Poetry

Gabriel Dauchot

“He is today one of the greatest artists in Paris, in the tradition of an Utrillo, a Marquet, or a Dufy. He invites us on a nostalgic stroll through a timeless Paris, that of the small trades, of mechanics and grisettes, of attic rooms and bistros, that cheeky Paris that amuses and touches him, and which he restores to us in his own way.”

— Jacques Chirac, Rétrospective Gabriel Dauchot, [exhibition catalog], Lanobre, Château de Val, summer 1992.

Jules Laforgue, Symbolist Poet

Laforgue is rooted in this fin de siècle spirit, with the peculiarity of that writing style that is irony, with which he treats artistic clichés. By 1885, the wave of romanticism had passed, and Laforgue, with his Complaintes, contributed to subverting the ideals of that literary school: he exposes its flaws, its faults, its excesses. Particularly in his “Complainte d'un autre dimanche,” whose main theme is a sunset.

“Undoubtedly, one still encounters readers who are irritated or disconcerted by Les Complaintes, but, provided one is capable of grasping the subtleties of a language, what Laforgue implies so as not to have to state it directly presents hardly any difficulties of interpretation. If his poetry is ungainly, it is not to cause scandal; on the contrary, it is out of discretion; if it is clownish, it is because human respect forbids him the romantic effusions of a Musset and his spoiled-child whining.”