The French Theosophist’s esoteric ideas were crucial for the approach to spirituality of several leading Belle Époque’s artists.
by Massimo Introvigne
Article 2 of 2. Read article 1.
In the first article of this series, I presented the life and esoteric ideas of French Theosophist Édouard Schuré (1841–1929), who published in 1889 “The Great Initiates,” an immensely influential work during the Belle Époque. Considering its translations in languages other than the original French, it went into more than five hundred editions, yet is a book almost forgotten today.
Schuré also wrote frequently as an art critic. His influence on the visual arts began before his esoteric period. In 1877, French painter Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904), a Wagner enthusiast, met Schuré and confessed that he had closely followed the latter’s book “Le Drame musical” in his celebrated Wagnerian engravings.
Sometimes described as influenced by Schuré, the monumental “Christ on Olympus” (1890–1897) by German symbolist painter Max Klinger (1857–1920) predates “The Great Initiates” and has been variously interpreted. At that time, both Schuré and Klinger were part of Wagner’s circle, and might have discussed ideas on the unity of religions there.
It is impossible to account for all the multiple influences of “The Great Initiates” on the arts. It offered a template for an interpretation of all religions and traditions, which could be extended beyond the text itself. In Finland, artists such as Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931), Pekka Halonen (1865–1933), and Väinö Blomstedt (1871–1947) read Schuré and saw Väinämoinen, the hero of the national epic “Kalevala,” as part of the chain of the Great Initiates.
A continent apart, American artist Emil Bisttram (1895–1976) read “The Great Initiates” and found there how to integrate his fascination for New Mexico’s Native Americans into his Theosophical worldview. Native Americans, Schuré argued, were survivors of the “red race” of Atlantis.
Bisttram learned about Schuré in New York’s Delphic Circle, a branch of the Greek Delphic Movement founded by poet Angelos Sikelianos (1884–1951). Sikelianos and his American wife Eva Palmer (1874–1952) were Schuré enthusiasts. They even tried to persuade him to come to Greece and become the leader of their movement intended to revive the ancient Delphic mysteries. The Delphic Circle also hosted the leading Mexican muralists and introduced them to Schuré, although at least José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) might have already read “The Great Initiates” in Mexico.
Perhaps more unexpectedly, Schuré befriended in Paris Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944) and influenced Italian Futurists, as confirmed in the writings of Arnaldo Ginna (1890–1982), himself a member of the Theosophical Society.
Anticipating modern art historians, Schuré had its doubts on the category of symbolism, although he never completed the book he wanted to write on the subject. He counted as friends various “symbolists,” including Odilon Redon (1840–1916), whose “Orpheus” (1903–1910) was indebted to “The Great Initiates,” and Carlos Schwabe (1866–1926), who called himself a disciple of Schuré. In turn, Schuré was influenced by the ideas and works of Gustave Moreau (1826–1898), whom he however never met.
Schuré was read by abstract artists interested in Theosophy such as Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) and Piet Mondrian (1872–1944). American art historian Linda Dalrymple Henderson also noted the influence of “The Great Initiates” depiction of Orpheus on “Orphic cubism.” In fact, František Kupka (1871–1957), the Czech artist more often associated with the somewhat elusive concept of Orphic cubism, was familiar with Schuré’s ideas.
Schuré’s living room in Paris was decorated with four paintings by Maurice Chabas (1862–1947). In the first decades of the 20th century, Chabas, an eclectic symbolist who experienced with several styles and went from Christian Science to Theosophy and Catholicism, converted his studio in Neuilly into a salon patronized by such diverse characters as Schuré, Péladan, esoteric author René Guénon (1886–1951), and Dominican theologian Father Antonin Sertillanges (1863–1948).
Schuré’s idea of an art that should tell stories rather than simply entertaining emerges from his preface to “La Mission de l’Art” (1900) by Belgian painter Jean Delville (1867–1953). Although Delville and Schuré met only in 1899, the Belgian artist’s masterpiece “L’École de Platon” (1898), where Plato and his twelve disciples represent at the same time Jesus Christ and the apostles, typically expressed Schuré’s idea that all great religious leaders are part of the same chain.
Delville and Schuré shared common concerns and ideas, as evidenced by the Luciferian “Angel of Splendors,” painted by the Belgian artist in 1894. They remained friends for years. Through Delville, who was also the leader of the Theosophical Society in Belgium, Schuré became influential on a larger circle of Belgian artists.
Schuré’s influence went beyond the French–speaking countries. Spanish painter and Theosophist José Villegas Cordero (1844–1921), who became the influential curator of the Prado Museum in Madrid, asked Schuré to preface the catalogue of his 1916 exhibition on the Decalogue, acknowledging his debt to the French writer.
An American artist who lived in Paris Schuré tried to promote was Louise Janin (1893–1997), whose orientalism was deeply influenced by “The Great Initiates.” Anticlerical and feminist sculptor Marguerite Syamour (1857–1945) was in turn among Schuré’s best friends in the last years of his life.
In 1893, French post-impressionist painter Émile Bernard (1868–1941) met Schuré. He was influenced by the esoteric writer, although Bernard’s spiritual quest finally led him to Catholicism. Bernard was a friend of both Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) and Paul Gauguin (1848–1903). It is unclear whether Gauguin read Schuré, although he certainly discussed Blavatsky and Theosophy with his Polynesian neighbor Jean Souvy (1817–1913) and had read Theosophical books even before.
Both Gauguin and Schuré were crucial influences on Paul Ranson (1864–1909), in whose home the group of the Nabis (“Prophets”) met for several years. Ranson’s “Paysage Nabique” (1890) was painted immediately after “The Great Initiates,” and the figure on the left has been interpreted as Schuré’s Rama picking the flower of knowledge.
The Nabis group originated in 1889, when the unfinished “The Talisman,” painted by Paul Sérusier (1864–1927) following a suggestion by Gauguin, was exhibited in Paris. Most of the Nabis were in direct contact with Schuré.
The short-lived experiment of the Nabis involved several notable artists with esoteric interests, including painters Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) and Felix Vallotton (1865–1925) and sculptor and painter Georges Lacombe (1868–1916). Lacombe’s “Egyptian” sculptures were inspired both by Gauguin and “The Great Initiates.” He also painted a well–known portrait of Sérusier. Just like Gauguin and Bernard, several Nabis spent time in small villages in Brittany. They read local legends through the lenses of Schuré’s collections of folklore.
The Nabis were more than an artist group. French Catholic painter Maurice Denis (1870–1943), who was a member for a time, called it “a secret society of mystical inclination.” They had a ritual and might have had costumes and scepters—although the latter perhaps existed only in Sérusier’s paintings, including his portrait of Ranson. The ritual included playful elements but was also seriously based on Schuré’s “The Great Initiates.” Ranson’s wife (and cousin) France (1866–1952) had the title “the Light of the Temple,” also derived from “The Great Initiates.” She was however not admitted to participate in the all-male Nabi ritual. In 1906, Sérusier painted himself as” Le Prophète inspiré,” probably based on a vision in “The Great Initiates” where Osiris shows the inner structure of the universe to Hermes.
Between 1910 and 1915, Sérusier produced three paintings illustrating the chapter on Krishna of Schuré’s “The Great Initiates,” starting with “La Méditation du Mouni Vasichta.” The second painting, “La Victoire de Krishna sur le Dragon–Serpent,” was among those Sérusier later claimed were influential on Cubism. The third painting depicted Nanda’s daughters Sarasvati and Nichdali. Sérusier also illustrated other parts of Schuré’s “The Great Initiates.”
Sérusier scholar Caroline Ross Boyle claims that, after he discovered it in his Nabi period, “Theosophy would govern the rest of his life.” It also influenced his theoretical writings, including “ABC de la peinture,” which he illustrated with paintings such as “L’Origine,” depicting the pyramid as the origin of all other forms.
Sérusier was impressed when one of the Nabis, Dutch painter Jan Verkade (1868–1946), converted to Catholicism in 1893 and eventually became a monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Beuron. Verkade claimed that “The Great Initiates” had led him to Catholicism. Sérusier discussed the matter with Schuré, who was quite astonished that his book could have led anyone to the Church of Rome. Another Nabi, Danish painter Mogens Ballin (1871–1914), also converted to Catholicism.
Verkade told his friend that his conversion had led to an “occult relationship” with Christ, something Sérusier accepted as “très nabique.” Eventually, Sérusier painted a portrait of Verkade as a monk, visited his Benedictine abbey of Beuron, and for a time promoted the ideas of its leading artist, Father Desiderius Lenz (1832–1928), in France. He even considered conversion to Catholicism, although in the end returned to Theosophy.
Schuré was a leading figure in the European Theosophical and, later, Anthroposophical subculture. He came to esotericism in his forties, when he was already well-known as a leading Wagnerian musicologist. With “The Great Initiates” and his esoteric ideas, he exerted an important influence on the visual arts. Some even tried to establish secret societies and rituals based on his teachings. While he did not promote or endorse a single specific artistic style, Schuré’s esoteric ideas were crucial for the approach to spirituality of a sizable portion of Belle Époque’s visual arts.
