Did Modigliani really sign other painter's paintings to up-sell them?
August 19, 2010 11:18 AM Subscribe
Surely Heidegger didn't actually walk about the woods in van Gogh's boots, right? Anecdotes in Wittgenstein's Mistress: complete fictions or some basis in truths?
I just finished David Markson's fantastic book Wittgenstein's Mistress. Perhaps this is a terribly stupid question, but how much veracity is there in the little stories Kate tells about artists and philosophers? Or are they all figments of Markson's imagination/Kate's Delusions? They of course get continually confounded and such as the book progresses, but I'm wondering about the stories in their first incarnations.
Such as: did Rembrandt's students really paint coins on the floor to trick him? And did he really have a one-eyed cat named Argus? Did Heidegger really wear van Gogh's boots to walk about in the woods in? Did Turner really have himself strapped to a ship mast? Did Aristotle have a lisp and thin legs? Could Beethoven not do multiplication? Did A.E. Housman really not let Wittgenstein use his bathroom? Did Maupassant really eat lunch everyday at the Eiffel Tower so he wouldn't have to look at it?
If there is some kind of truth to these stories, does anyone know the sources? Or a resource for finding their sources? Or is this a case of 'David Markson read every biography ever written on everyone before writing this book?'
Thanks all.
I just finished David Markson's fantastic book Wittgenstein's Mistress. Perhaps this is a terribly stupid question, but how much veracity is there in the little stories Kate tells about artists and philosophers? Or are they all figments of Markson's imagination/Kate's Delusions? They of course get continually confounded and such as the book progresses, but I'm wondering about the stories in their first incarnations.
Such as: did Rembrandt's students really paint coins on the floor to trick him? And did he really have a one-eyed cat named Argus? Did Heidegger really wear van Gogh's boots to walk about in the woods in? Did Turner really have himself strapped to a ship mast? Did Aristotle have a lisp and thin legs? Could Beethoven not do multiplication? Did A.E. Housman really not let Wittgenstein use his bathroom? Did Maupassant really eat lunch everyday at the Eiffel Tower so he wouldn't have to look at it?
If there is some kind of truth to these stories, does anyone know the sources? Or a resource for finding their sources? Or is this a case of 'David Markson read every biography ever written on everyone before writing this book?'
Thanks all.
I'd heard the Maupassant claim before: wikipedia echoes it, and cites a source for it.
posted by misteraitch at 11:30 AM on August 19, 2010
posted by misteraitch at 11:30 AM on August 19, 2010
Best answer: In this interview (closer to the bottom) Markson goes into detail about how he collects anecdotes and claims that they're all true. However, this is in reference to his later books, like Reader's Block and This is Not a Novel, fwiw.
posted by fryman at 11:37 AM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by fryman at 11:37 AM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Or is this a case of 'David Markson read every biography ever written on everyone before writing this book?'
More likely, he read a combination of biographies and biographical dictionaries. The recent discussion of his books being sold at Strand Books included a reference to his copy of a biographical dictionary of great composers.
posted by jayder at 11:58 AM on August 19, 2010
More likely, he read a combination of biographies and biographical dictionaries. The recent discussion of his books being sold at Strand Books included a reference to his copy of a biographical dictionary of great composers.
posted by jayder at 11:58 AM on August 19, 2010
Best answer: It's a painting of boots, so, probably Heidegger did not walk around in them.
Jayder is right: Markson spent a lot of time collecting information and anecdotes from reference material, not (just!) from biographies of individual figures.
posted by kenko at 12:48 PM on August 19, 2010
Jayder is right: Markson spent a lot of time collecting information and anecdotes from reference material, not (just!) from biographies of individual figures.
posted by kenko at 12:48 PM on August 19, 2010
did Rembrandt's students really paint coins on the floor to trick him?
I'd heard/read this before WG, but that doesn't make it necessarily true.
posted by juv3nal at 1:02 PM on August 19, 2010
I'd heard/read this before WG, but that doesn't make it necessarily true.
posted by juv3nal at 1:02 PM on August 19, 2010
Response by poster: It's a painting of boots, so, probably Heidegger did not walk around in them.
Ostensibly van Gogh did own a pair of boots at some point (though Heidegger of course wrote about the paintings, not the boots themselves), so it would be possible that Heidegger had gotten his hands on a pair. Who knows?
In any case, thank you. The interview was very enlightening. It would appear that yes, for the most part, Markson just did his research.
Any more information about specific anecdotes, however, is still very welcome!
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:15 PM on August 19, 2010
Ostensibly van Gogh did own a pair of boots at some point (though Heidegger of course wrote about the paintings, not the boots themselves), so it would be possible that Heidegger had gotten his hands on a pair. Who knows?
In any case, thank you. The interview was very enlightening. It would appear that yes, for the most part, Markson just did his research.
Any more information about specific anecdotes, however, is still very welcome!
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:15 PM on August 19, 2010
Response by poster: I am especially curious about the Wittgenstein/Housman story, if anyone has heard the tale before.
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:05 PM on August 19, 2010
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:05 PM on August 19, 2010
Best answer: "[Housman] shared the same staircase in Whewell's Court in Trinity with the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Housman had a lavatory in his set, which Wittgenstein didn't. Taken short one day the philosopher knocked at the poet's door, and asked permission to use it. On the grounds that he disagreed with Wittgenstain's philosophical therories, Housman refused." [Source].
posted by misteraitch at 3:36 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by misteraitch at 3:36 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Apparently Turner, himself, claimed to have been strapped to the mast, though he was likely making it up.
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turner/gallery3d.htm
posted by tallus at 4:04 PM on August 19, 2010
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turner/gallery3d.htm
posted by tallus at 4:04 PM on August 19, 2010
Best answer: The 'coins on the floor' anecdote may be ascribed to the elitist myth that limned Rembrandt as a 'coarse—if admittedly genius—eccentric.'
posted by Haruspex at 4:06 PM on August 19, 2010
posted by Haruspex at 4:06 PM on August 19, 2010
I'd heard/read this before WG WM, but that doesn't make it necessarily true.
FTFM.
Gah I am an idiot.
posted by juv3nal at 4:47 PM on August 19, 2010
FTFM.
Gah I am an idiot.
posted by juv3nal at 4:47 PM on August 19, 2010
Well, I didn't like HIS poetry, so there!
posted by wittgenstein at 5:36 PM on August 19, 2010
posted by wittgenstein at 5:36 PM on August 19, 2010
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