User:Toby Decker

When "The Waste Land" first appeared in the November 1922 issue of the American periodical, ''The Dial'', it was preceded by Robert Delaunay's painting entitled, "Saint Severin No. 3."  There is no information to suggest whether the juxtaposition of the two works was ever approved of by Eliot, but neither is there information indicate that Eliot opposed the placement of Delaunay's painting at the opening of Eliot's masterful poem.  The editorial choice certainly is an interesting one, especially considering that the works were created nearly ten years apart. Perhaps Delaunay's piece was selected for publication because it demonstrated the painter's divergence from what had been previously produced--just as Eliot's "Waste Land" deviated from foregoing precedent.

Saint-Séverin No. 3, now housed in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, marked a time that Delaunay himself described as "a period of transition from Cézanne to Cubism." According to the Guggenheim's website, "Robert Delaunay chose the view into the ambulatory of the Parisian Gothic church Saint-Séverin...in which he charted the modulations of light streaming through the stained-glass windows and the resulting perceptual distortion of the architecture." Pictured here is the original piece as it appears in the Guggenheim, however, the 1922 magazine printing of the painting represents the work in an especially colorless, dark manner (owing to the cheap black and white print). So although the piece initially, its characteristics strongly rely on light as it streams through colored glass.