French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Le Brun, Sade. Attaquer le soleil (Exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris)
Art and Visual Culture

Sade. Attaquer le soleil - Exhibition, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, October 14, 2014 – January 25, 2015
Annie Le Brun
Guy Cogeval (Preface)

Publication date: 25/10/2014 Publisher: Gallimard (Editions) ISBN: 978-2-07-014682-6 EAN: 9782070146826 Format: Paperback No. of pages: 332 p.

“The purpose of this book is to demonstrate how, long before assuming a major role in 20th-century thought, the work of the Marquis de Sade shaped a significant dimension of 19th-century sensibility, even though his figure and ideas were largely deemed accursed at the time. For while Baudelaire, Flaubert, Huysmans, Swinburne, Mirbeau, not to mention Apollinaire, drew upon his work in various ways, all indications suggest that the true power of this thought lies also in its ability to have encountered, revealed, and even provoked the profound subterranean currents stirring visual expression, concerning both the inscription of desire and its power of metamorphosis.

It is the image of the body being disrupted from within, heralding a revolution in representation. Whether evident in Delacroix, Moreau, or Böcklin, what is at stake also disturbs Ingres, Degas, or Cézanne, and of course Picasso. Meanwhile, Félicien Rops, Odilon Redon, and Alfred Kubin gravitate toward an expression that had hitherto remained marginal (curiosa or madness), before Surrealism, claiming Sade as its own, recognized desire as a great inventor of form.

Tracing this trajectory allows us to measure the extent to which, by articulating what one refuses to see, Sade prompted the visualization of what cannot be spoken. Or how the 19th century served as the conduit for a line of thought that, by encouraging the exploration of the bodily imaginary, ultimately gave rise to the first physical awareness of the infinite.” — Annie Le Brun.

Published by Gallimard to accompany the landmark exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, this volume is authored by the writer and critic Annie Le Brun. The work investigates how the controversial writings of the Marquis de Sade helped shape the aesthetic and psychological sensibilities of the nineteenth century, tracing a subterranean lineage that connects Romanticism and Symbolism directly to the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, most notably Surrealism.

The book will interest scholars and enthusiasts of French literature, cultural history, and art history who wish to understand the complex interactions between transgressive literature and visual representation. By examining how writers and painters confronted the dark underside of desire, the study offers valuable perspectives on the evolution of modern artistic expression and the persistent human fascination with the forbidden.