19 pages • 38-minute read
Musée des Beaux Arts
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Background
Literary Context
Modernist poet T. S. Eliot became a major influence on Auden while he was studying at Oxford. Though Auden’s work, especially in later years, veered away from the more distanced aesthetics of high Modernism, much of it is still situated within the movement. “Musée des Beaux Arts” was first published in a Modernist magazine, New Writing in 1939.
Modernism was a response to a rapidly changing world affected by industrialization and urbanization. It is rooted in the late 19th century and flowered in the years after World War I: “The enormity of the war had undermined humankind’s faith in the foundations of Western society and culture, and postwar Modernist literature reflected a sense of disillusionment and fragmentation” (Kuiper, Kathleen. “Modernism.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021).
Literary Modernism is characterized by its search for new modes of expression that often manifested in artistic experimentation like the use of fragmented images and voices, stream of consciousness, and allusions, “requiring the reader to take an active role in interpreting the text” (Kuiper). It is inspired by developments in psychology, philosophy, social sciences, and physics as well as the arts.
“Musée des Beaux Arts” finds the new by combining free verse with traditional formal elements. It employs layers of allusions. It is infused with dread and expresses a sense of alienation even as it searches for meaning in art.
Historical Context
“Musée des Beaux Arts” was written in December of 1938, a period marked by the events preceding World War II. The poem’s focus on human reaction to suffering is shaped by rising hostilities.
Auden would have been aware of the political climate in continental Europe. He briefly lived in after he graduated from Oxford, maintaining ties strong enough to be aware of the growing danger. Auden agreed to marry Erika Mann to help her escape from Nazi Germany in 1935.
The Spanish Civil War, which began in July of 1936, is “often interpreted as a prelude to World War II, as Western ‘International Brigades’ and the Soviet Union support[ed] the [democratic] Republicans, while the Axis powers support[ed] the [‘fascist-leaning’] Nationalists” (Editors. “World War II in Europe.” National Geographic, 2001). Auden went to Spain to briefly join the fight in 1937.
In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, and in September it took the German speaking Sudetenland in then Czechoslovakia. The first agreement between Germany and Japan was signed in 1938. On November 9-10 of that same year, the Kristallnacht, a pogrom against Jews throughout Germany, left hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses damaged or destroyed. Mass arrests resulted in thousands being sent to concentration camps.
People of Auden’s generation remembered WWI and were still dealing with its aftermath. The dread of another war contributed to the Modernist sense of alienation and fueled a desire to find meaning in art and life. “Musée des Beaux Arts” follows a speaker musing over similar questions. The paintings, filled as they are with allusions to past wars and suffering, also speak to the poem’s present, and to the future.
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