2. Drawings (1902-1906)

Proust traveled to Belgium and to the Netherlands in October 1902, primarily to view paintings. In this illustrated letter to Hahn, Proust depicts the church and harbor in Dordrecht; years later, in Swann’s Way, he would describe the young narrator’s ardent wish to view a church next to the sea.

On the back of the letter, a poem accompanies the drawing:
“Dordrecht, a place so pretty
Cemetery
Of illusions I treasure
When I attempt to draw
Your canals, your roofs, your spire […]”

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Marcel Proust, Letter to Reynaldo Hahn, [October 1902?]. b 94M-48 (89), Houghton Library, Harvard University. Gift, Mrs. Bradley Martin, 1994.