L’iconothèque de gaspard de la nuit.

This study attempts to shed a new light on Aloysius Bertrand’s Gaspard de la Nuit by exploring its subtle connection with the pictorial arts. The analysis considers the function of painting in Bertrand’s poetry as a type of artistic screen, acting as a filtering device which enhances the poet’s vision. The first part of this study examines the direct impact of Flemish and Dutch painting on Bertrand’s imagery. The second part of this study analyses the poet’s techniques to express the visible. Although reflecting the Romantic aesthetic aspirations of a new synthesis of the arts, Bertrand’s exploration of the spatial potential of literature, in addition to his use of a pictorial corpus makes him profoundly original in the history of literature.