Existential Literature: An Introduction Book

One of Pater's more well-known works, Imaginary Portraits (1887) combines the styles of the two books which preceded it. It's like the character studies of The Renaissance (1873), in which each person is taken to be a representative of a particular artistic ideal or temperament, combined with the historically-informed fiction of Marius the Epicurean (1885). As such, the territory feels familiar to any lovers of Pater. Indeed, most of Pater's essays stretch the facts of historical characters to some extent (in order to expound on the ideas which their images conjured up for him); Imaginary Portraits only takes that imaginative dimension, which is always present in Pater's work, and unfetters it from the need to be factual.

'A Prince of Court Painters' is an interesting consideration of the art and life of Watteau, and of young artists whose preoccupations shadow the humdrum of their day-to-day lives. It's the most consciously fake of all the Portraits, as it takes the form of a diary of a family friend of the Watteau family. 'Denys L'Auxerrois' is a haunting consideration of the lingering pagan spirit in French art, and comparable to 'Apollo in Picardy' in that regard (published in Miscellaneous Studies).

'Sebastian Van Storck' ponders Spinoza's philosophy, and probably contains the most dramatic moments of the book (Sebastian subverts his lifelong nihilism by saving a child from drowning). 'Duke Carl of Rosenmold' celebrates the flowering of the German Aufklärung. Duke Carl's life seems to suggest that individual temperament is crucial in the appreciation of art; that great art becomes great when impressed onto sensitive minds which thirst for beauty and knowledge. In such minds, Pater seems to say, even the most unreal or tawdry of things can inspire and thrill: 'It was but himself truly, after all, that he had found, so fresh and real, among those artificial roses.' (p. 130).

A marvellous book which I shall be returning to!