The Real Life of Shadows presents Jean Frémon’s personal pantheon of artists in nineteen short vingettes that explore the lives and lasting influence of these painters and writers throughout history. In this highly original work, Frémon visits each artist at a crucial moment in life, in order to distill an essential spiritual biography and portrait of the artist. The elegance and inventiveness of his writing make us privileged witnesses of these poetic investigations.

The stylistic elegance and intellectual brilliance of Jean Frémon’s writing about artists is unrivaled in both his essays and fictions. As with his essays, there is not a drop of sentimentality or dogma here, but there is a lot of necessary nourishment and original insight.—John Yau

Jean Frémon’s Real Life of Shadows delivers its dazzling récits with delicately calibrated irony. His painterly journey, ably translated by Cole Swensen, portrays a parallel present of chance and circumstance.—Norma Cole

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