The Sea

Visual art is a recurrent motif in the book, used to explore ideas of identity and self-expression. It is continually referenced through Max’s allusions to it: Visual art is the basis of his professional career and one of the major ways through which he understands and analyzes the world. His numerous references to artists, including Bonnard, Botticelli, Tiepolo, Gerricault, and De la Tour, underpin the narrative. Max’s reflections on Bonnard’s multiple depictions of his wife, Marthe, invite comparison with Max’s mental portraits of Connie, Chloe, and Anna and explore the ways in which men think about women. Bonnard’s concern with catching transient, intimate moments and fleeting movements of light reflects Max’s desire to capture a fleeting but profoundly important moment in his own life. It is also a way to retrospectively order and give meaning to his memories. For example, as he observes Connie Grace observing flowers in the kitchen, time is momentarily suspended and the scene is preserved at his will, with a ray of sunlight conveniently falling down to illuminate the tableau. In his memory, the scene is abruptly interrupted by the family racing in after a small dog, but he doubts the veracity of this memory since he has no idea who owned the dog or where it came from. The impression is ultimately one of active aesthetic composition rather than passive recollection. Max mentally arranges Rose and the Graces into the famous tableau of Botticelli’s Primavera, as if trying to make sense of his memories by ordering them as portrait subjects. Max’s critical gaze seeks to objectify and control the individuals he looks upon.

There is a degree of regret in the fact that Max is an art historian rather than an artist: He studies the art of others rather than creating art himself. Max seems to feel threatened by and jealous of his wife’s active photography career. When he looks back on their relationship, he is retrospectively ashamed that he did not take her artistic ambitions more seriously. His rather narcissistic vision is threatened by her contrasting worldview, and her creations, even or especially of him, are outside his control. The graphic photos that Anna takes of fellow patients’ bodies during her final illness disturb and alienate Max. They reflect an experience of impending death that excludes him because he cannot yet fully relate to or understand it. They are also a vivid reminder of physical reality and mortality of the human body.