From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordDessin may concern the act of drawing, a work’s design, or its outlined form.
- In JoubertThe drawing master who condemns color as rouge and lies illustrates a partial judgment: considering color’s nature alone differs from considering its effect.
- In this editionThe English translation uses drawing, design and outline respectively.
- A place to beginDrawing’s perspective on color becomes inadequate when effect is ignored.
- English renderings
- drawing; design; outline
Meaning
Dessin may concern the act of drawing, a work’s design, or its outlined form. The context determines which English noun is useful.
Use in the book
The drawing master who condemns color as rouge and lies illustrates a partial judgment: considering color’s nature alone differs from considering its effect. The choice of Etruscan clay vases over royal precious-metal vessels for models of design further separates formal excellence from luxurious material. A third comparison maps literary traditions onto sculpture, painting and engraving or simple outline. Its proposed correspondences remain suggestive rather than a worked-out history of those traditions. Across the passages, drawing provides an exactness of form that can be valuable without exhausting what an artwork does.
Places to read
- I, p. 442, entry 1, ¶1Drawing’s perspective on color becomes inadequate when effect is ignored.
- II, p. 518, entry 9, ¶1Clay vessels offer better design models than luxurious tableware.
- II, p. 780, entry 7, ¶1Simple outline becomes one term in a comparison of literatures and arts.
Translation in this edition
The English translation uses drawing, design and outline respectively. It does not convert au simple dessin into a named printmaking technique, or interpret every drawing/painting contrast as a ranking of whole artistic traditions.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 442; II, pp. 518, 780.