Ingénuité et paradoxe : Bonnard et Vallotton illustrateurs de Peter Nansen et de Jules Renard

Two novels apparently without any connection, apart from the proximity of their publishing date, are herein analysed as far as their illustration and their thematic are concerned : The Mistress by the French Jules Renard, illustrated by Félix Vallotton (1896) and Marie by the Danish Peter Nansen, illustrated by Pierre Bonnard (1898). The two novels have in common the fact that they deal with the relationships between men and women, and ask the question of sincerity in love, though they propose different solutions. The illustrators Bonnard and Vallotton were friends, belonged to the same artistic world and were associated in the Nabi movement. The style of their illustrations (drawings reproduced in the technique of the «cliché-trait » in both cases) can appear radically different. Nevertheless it is interesting to show how each of them dealt with light and melodramatic themes, close to serials and theater. In Vallotton’s illustrations features of press caricature can be found, and comparisons with the «shadow theater » then fashionable are necessary. Bonnard, as far as he is concerned, adapts his