The Pluralism of the Artist’s Image as a Search of an Aesthetic Motto in the Goncourt Brothers’ Novel “Manette Salomon”

Abstract

The article studies the aesthetic theories of the French art of the middle of the XIX century through the interaction between literature and painting. In the novel “Manette Salomon” the Goncourt brothers formulate their innovative views of the ways of the development of art through the artists’ efforts to express Beauty. The five painters, different in terms of talent and skill, express the writers’ pluralism in creating the aesthetic ideal. The writers are on the side of those who constantly strive for self-improvement, who do not approve of imitating reality but invent in constant creative torments new ways and techniques in order to express one’s own individual perception.