E. E. Cummings: Modernist Painter and Poet

when faces called flowers float out of the ground
-it's april(yes,april;my darling)it's spring!
yes the pretty birds frolic as spry as can fly
yes the little fish gambol as glad as can be
(yes the mountains are dancing together)26
The same two-edged potential
holds for the views of Mount Cho-
corua that Cummings painted tire-
lessly from his family's farm in the
White Mountains of New Hamp-
shire, much as his hero, Paul
Cezanne, repeatedly returned to
the distant motif of Mont Sainte-
Victoire. Indeed, Cummings's View
from Joy Farm (see fig. 15) even
borrows the framing motif from
Cezanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire
(1886-88, Courtauld Institute). As
View from Joy Farm suggests,
these landscapes, while technically
accomplished, sometimes lapse
into prettiness and conventionality.
Occasionally, though, when inspi-
ration overcame his chronic un-
certainty in oils, Cummings could
turn out impressive work, particu-
larly in watercolors calling for
light, fast brushwork. His painting
Untitled (fig. 18), in capturing one
moment of a shifting, tumultuous
68 Spring 1990
n(o)w
how
the
dis(appeared cleverly)world
iS Slapped:with;liGhtninG
sky, recalls the nature poems that,
although carefully crafted, evoke a
startling moment-a lightning
bolt, for example, as in the poem
"n(o)w," excerpted below-with
the feeling of spontaneity.2'
Comparisons of subject matter
in the paintings and poems may
reveal shared themes and likewise
suggest parallel strengths (inspired
spontaneity) and weaknesses (sen-
timentality, triteness) to which
Cummings's work in each medium
is prone. But such comparisons do
not really explain how his painting
relates to his poetry.
Genre brings us a little closer.
The other side of Cummings's lyr-
ical affirmation was his corrosive
satire and biting portraiture. As his
Chaplin (see fig. 10) shows, Cum-
mings had a caricaturist's eye for
telling detail. Even in a drawing
obviously tossed off in a hurry,
such as one of his friend and pa-
at
which(shal)lpounceupcrackw(ill)jumps
of
THuNdeRB
loSSo!M
(Excerpt from E. E. Cummings, "n(o)w")