Newsletter of 12 April 2026

NEWSLETTER OF 12 APRIL 2026

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear members,

I. Acquisition of a portrait of Mr Van Blarenberghe by Paul Baignères

The collections of the Musée Marcel Proust - Maison de Tante Léonie have just been enriched by the purchase, at public auction, for a very modest sum, of this pastel by Paul Baignères depicting Henri François Alexandre van Blarenbergue (1819-1906).

Two reasons for this acquisition:

Paul Baignères was a friend of Marcel Proust, and we already hold a work by him (a view of Lake Geneva).

Mr van Blarenberghe is mentioned from the very first sentence of « Sentiments filiaux d'un parricide », Proust's text (1907) on the murder of the widow Blarenberghe by her son (the first sentence is as follows: « Quand M. van Blarenberghe le père mourut, il y a quelques mois, je me souviens que ma mère avait beaucoup connu sa femme » ["When Mr van Blarenberghe the father died, a few months ago, I remember that my mother had known his wife well"]).

Proust also mentions van Blarenbergue in a long letter to Daniel Halévy: "As for Mr Van Blarenberghe the father, Maman thought highly of him, and he was charming towards us whenever we made those journeys that my health made so complicated for me and so sad for Maman. I remember the ordeal of our journey to Venice, and at each station where Maman wanted me to be able to set down my cross, have an empty carriage, and take an anti-asthmatic fumigation there, she would produce a long letter that Mr Van Blarenberghe had given us (he was, I believe, chairman of the board of the Compagnie de l'Est) which the Italian stationmasters found highly amusing. [...] Mr Van Blarenberghe was rather too reactionary for Maman's taste, she who had the greatest and most tender heart I could ever imagine. He was somewhat of the sort of person of whom she used to say: "he does not like anything that might bring down rents and railway shares." But since my grandfather's death, she had, with a kind of fetishism, adopted, and turned into objects of worship, into instruments of commemoration and ceremony, what during his lifetime she had perhaps found a little excessive in him; and yet my grandfather, kind and tender as she was, whom I saw go for weeks without sleeping because he had seen a man strike a child in the street, and who, even when ill and almost an invalid, would have his cab stop two streets from his home so as not to risk troubling his concierge with the sight of a luxury he could not afford himself, my grandfather believed that the good of the people could only be achieved under an authoritarian regime (relatively speaking) and, moreover, an anticlerical one (even more relatively speaking; Louis-Philippe sent his sons to the lycée)."

After restoration, the work will be hung at the Maison de Tante Léonie.

II. Private visit of the exhibition Renoir dessinateur - 18 May

The association is offering you a private visit of the exhibition Renoir dessinateur, currently showing at the musée d'Orsay, on Monday 18 May (the museum's weekly closing day) at 3.30pm.

This visit is prompted by Proust's fondness for the painter (a fondness notably recalled by Emily Eells in our publication Au Louvre avec Marcel Proust) and also by the presence, in this exhibition, of the portrait of Madeleine Adam by Renoir, a work in a private collection in the United States.

Madeleine Adam married Léon Yeatman, and the couple were friends with Marcel Proust. It is known that the three of them visited Rouen Cathedral together in 1903.

If you are interested in this visit, please let us know at contact@amisdeproust.fr

A financial contribution will be requested to fund the guide who will be assigned to us. It will be possible to visit, unguided, the other Renoir exhibition presented by the museum: Renoir et l'amour.

In addition, alongside this exhibition, we will welcome, on Thursday 21 May, at the hôtel Swann, Dosithée Yeatman, who will come to talk to us about her grandmother.

III. Proustian news

In publishing news, worth noting:

- the publication of Entre Mirbeau et Proust, Alice, by Christophe David (Éditions BoD), a portrait of Alice Regnault, wife of Octave Mirbeau, and a study of her connections with Marcel Proust

- the online publication, on the website of the Société des Hôtels Littéraires, of a Proustian portrait of Henriette Nigri, wife of Mariano Fortuny, by Corinne Dromer

IV. Calendar of Proustian events

Monday 13 April, at 10am, at the École normale supérieure, a lecture by Matthieu Vernet, Les livres de Proust. Tour d'horizon d'une bibliothèque fantôme, as part of the seminar Proust. « Papiers. Livres. Archives. Bibliothèques »

Thursday 16 April, at the hôtel Swann, as part of the "rencontres des amis de Proust": presentation by Natalie David-Weill of her book on Irène Cahen d'Anvers (see above)

From 16 April to 23 June, at the hôtel Swann, the exhibition Proust et les femmes de sa vie.

From 18 April at 7pm to 19 April at 7pm, at the Ateliers Mommen (Brussels), a complete reading of La Prisonnière

On Tuesdays, from 5 to 19 May, at 2.30pm, in Boulogne-Billancourt (amphithéâtre Landowski), a series of three lectures on Proust by Catherine Cusset

Saturday 9 May, at the Cité de la langue française (Villers-Cotterêts): a lecture by Luc Fraisse, La langue subtile de Proust peut aller jusqu'au franc-parler, followed by a performance by Denis Podalydès, Un humour de Proust

Monday 18 May, at 10am, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, a lecture by Claire Bustarret, Aborder la matérialité des Cahiers : usages des supports et gestes d'écriture, as part of the seminar Proust. « Papiers. Livres. Archives. Bibliothèques »

Thursday 21 May, at the hôtel Swann (Paris VIIIe), as part of the "rencontres des amis de Proust": a lecture by Dosithée Yeatman on her grandmother, Madeleine Adam Yeatman (see above)

22 May, 19 June, by video-conference, from 3.30pm to 5.30pm, seminar on the editing of Proust's correspondence, organised by Françoise Leriche and open to all (link for the video-conference)

Saturday 23 May: journée des aubépines at Illiers-Combray: a lecture on Anna de Noailles by Françoise Breuillaud Sottas, historian, curator of the exhibition on Anna de Noailles shown at Evian in 2019, lunch, a piano recital by Philippe Cassard, readings from Proust's correspondence with Anna de Noailles by Ivan Morane.

28 May, at the Hôtel Swann (Paris VIIIe), presentation of the book Cent lettres inédites de Marcel Proust. Correspondance retrouvée 1886-1922, forthcoming from Éditions Honoré Champion, edited by Julie André, Sophie Duval and Guillaume Fau

29 May: a study day on Pélerinages proustiens organised at the École Normale Supérieure by Christophe Pradeau

Saturday 20 June: pianola demonstration at the musée de la musique mécanique in Dollon (Sarthe), organised by Jean-Paul Henriet (registration open)

Saturday 27 June, 3pm: meeting at the Maison de Tante Léonie with Laurent Mauvignier, prix Goncourt 2025

Friday 4 and Saturday 5 September, at Illiers-Combray (domaine de la Citadelle), a literary conference organised under the aegis of the Institut universitaire de France by Luc Fraisse and Olivier Guerrier, Identifier les autres et/ou se faire 'lecteur de soi-même' : Proust et la reconnaissance.

Saturday 12 September, 3pm: meeting at the Maison de Tante Léonie with Pierre Lemaitre, prix Goncourt 2013

Also:

From 21 May to 27 September, at Tate Britain (London), an exhibition on James McNeill Whistler

28 and 29 September, in Barcelona, a conference on Marcel Proust et les langues minoritaires ou minorées, organised by ARIPIC and the société catalane d'amis de Marcel Proust

V. 102 Bd Haussmann

In closing, below you will find two photographs taken somewhat clandestinely (please do not share them) during the first of the two visits to 102 boulevard Haussmann that we were able to organise. There is no cork lining in what was Proust's bedroom (now a sitting room with white walls); the large and small drawing rooms of his flat have been combined into one large meeting room with wood-panelled walls.

As usual, in the previous letter (27 March) you will find other information, some of which is still relevant.

Yours faithfully,

Jérôme Bastianelli

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Members' vote in the pastiche competition

You have a few days left if you wish to take part in the "members' prize" of our pastiche competition.

These can be viewed on our website: /assets/actualites/archive-ancien-site/docspdf-dossierpastiches20252026.pdf

To vote, simply send an email, before 15 April, to contact@amisdeproust.fr

Sponsorship of the Maison de Tante Léonie

In addition to your membership, you are now offered the opportunity to support the Maison de Tante Léonie more regularly through a monthly sponsorship, voluntary and entirely optional, which you may cancel at any time. This gesture, from 9 euros per month before tax relief, contributes directly to the museum's financial stability and to the development of its projects.

To find out more: www.amisdeproust.fr/ParrainageMTL