Violette Nozières:

The Fruitless Endeavour in a Precarious and Revolutionary Scheme

Tharius L. LeBeaux
Dr. Spieth
20th Century Art History
Fall 2020
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Romanian artist Victor Brauner (1903-1966), along with fourteen Surrealists that were

convinced by Andre Breton, dedicated his artistic energy to a collaborative work called Violette

Nozieres which was published on December 1, 1933. Brauner’s Untitled artwork (fig. 1) in

Violette Nozieres is an illustration of a deteriorated and lacerated female anatomy positioned in

front of parade of “derisory symbols of masculine power”: the palette is fashioned with a column

of seven and a row of five, all together making thirty-five sections with only twenty of the

segments containing visibility to the symbolic masculine depictions. The symbols behind the

female figure are phallic manifestations, moustaches in the Prussian-style, kepis, and top hats, all

in which are associated heavily with the male figure within its century.1 The last two rows of the

palette are questionably blank. What makes the figure recognizable as a female is the dark

shading on the area where the presumed genital area is located, indication of pubic hair within its

spatial. The illustrated physique does not posses a face that is recognizable, but by being vigilant

of its context, its association is not impenetrable to understand or comprehend. The distorted,

female anatomy is associated with Violette Noziere, an eighteen-year-old woman who poisoned

her parents on August 21, 1933, auspiciously slaughtering her father Baptiste Noziere yet was

unsuccessful with her mother, Germaine Noziere. Noziere’s mother subsisted the hellacious

ordeal and later on testified immensely against her pernicious daughter. During the progression

of Violette Noziere’s case, the catastrophic event allured the sympathetic attention of “France’s

most prominent group of avant-garde artists and thinkers,” the Surrealists. André Breton, the

Pope of Surrealism, was the thoroughly aroused by the story and sided with Violette Noziere’s

perspective rather than Germaine Noziere.2 (The public of France was, of the majority, against

Violette Noziere and for the Surrealist to cement themselves with Violette Noziere’s deduction

1
Brad Epley et al, Victor Brauner: Surrealist Hieroglyphs (Houston: The Menil Houston, 2001), 28
2
Sarah Maza, Violette Nozière: A Story of Murder in 1930s Paris (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 2011), 166
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was explicitly intolerable in the eyes of the public, infuriating the bourgeoisie.) This essay will

selectively investigate the political extension surrounding the Surrealists in regards to the case of

Violette Noziere, prominently and sporadically navigating through the prominent artists and

thinkers of the group in order to grasp a particular validity of cohesion and/or differentiation

involving the Surrealists’ political perspective, as a whole and individually: André Breton, Victor

Brauner, Salvador Dali, Rene Char and Louis Aragon are of the few sundry intellectuals who

were excessively active in the group. Visual analysis of the illustrations and poems will be

conducted in order imply emphasis or aid to the investigation concerning the possible political

contribution(s).

Surrealism is an avant-garde art movement that was instituted on October 15, 1924 with

the release of the Manifesto of Surrealism by Andre Breton, the head figure of the Surrealist

group. The term “surrealism” or surréalisme was first associated with Guillaume Apollinaire in

context of his play Les Mamelles de Tiresias (1903)—its grand performance was not until 1917

—in which the term was suggesting something that surmounted reality, transcending to a domain

or realm beyond the comprehension of human mentality and understanding. The Manifesto of

Surrealism’s main purpose was to liberate man, “that inveterate dreamer,” from a tarnished

destiny foisted on society by centuries of stifling Greco-Latin logic.3 Within the manifesto,

Breton contributes the discoveries of Freud, the “marvels found in dreams,” (a great example of

this is the Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud himself), particular aspects of “mental

distraction,” notably insanity or irrationality censured by civilization, surrealism writing or

automatic writing (a technique accompanied priorly with Freud) and other segments of “poetic

Surrealism” as promotional doorways in order to compel man’s or society’s state of need from

3
Andre Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism, ed. Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane (Michigan: The University of
Michigan Press, 1969), 3-5
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man’s internal unto the surface. Breton defined surrealism as “psychic automatism,” expressing

it as the true province of thinking and throughout the Manifesto Breton ensured its purpose was

seen less as an aesthetic than philosophical. Even though visual artists, specifically painters,

played an ensuing position, Breton hankered the principal of Surrealism as a “literary and

philosophical manifestation.”4 The Surrealist denounced mundanities of day-to-day life,

devotional factions regarding family and fatherhood, laddishness from Christianity, and the

systematic values that granted war upon the world, consequently sacrificing the youth of

civilians. Ant-social behaviors, wholly, that tarnished societal rulings (drug addiction, crime,

suicide and aberration of the mental) were depicted as human expression that gravitated toward

freedom and revolt:

“[…] disparity between that which existed and that which was desired was the

result of alterable social conditions rather than of an immutable human condition,

the Surrealists came to demand a radical social upheaval: a revolution.” 5

André Breton, before hitting thirty-years-old and with the help of newly established

Manifesto of Surrealism, would practically become a renowned intellectual in Paris, France and

sparsely in other regions the European and American domain.

It is easy to purport that the Surrealist, instantly after its grand appearance in 1924, has

engaged in and contributed intensely to political affairs, such implication is deniable. The

Surrealists momentarily repudiated [yet] to support “any real revolutionary cause” since the

assemblage depicted independence as “absolute.” To commit Surrealism with a political party

4
Mark Polizzotti, The Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andre Breton (Canada: Harper Collins Canada Ltd,
1995): 207-209
5
Robert S. Short, “The Politics of Surrealism,” Journal of Contemporary History 1, no.2 (1996): pg. 5-6
 LeBeaux 5

would conceive boundaries on the groups disponibilité. The term ‘revolution’ was frequently

embedded in written documentations around the years 1922 to 1925, however, political

implication was not set forth. It was not until 1925 when finally initiated a reassessing of their

materials and expressed exactly what they meant by a revolution. The Surrealist would become

vocal about the menaces of “Terror and Oriental scourge,” expressing heavy concerns about

terrific events through the La Revolution Surrealiste. Breton realized that if the Surrealist group

joined the mutinous scholars in their political affairs, then such association would provide

substantial essence to Surrealism, preventing the Surrealists to vanquish into “impotent

nonconformism.” To dodge conformation from the public into sole activism in literary avant-

garde, it was best to side with the politics of the proletariat, particularly associating themselves

with communism. The aggressions involving l’armée française under Philippe Pétain and the

Riffs located in Morocco expedited their engagement with politics; their adoration for Eastern

undeveloped civilizations, repugnance of the military and polished nationalists caused forth their

condolences to Abel-el Krim. The Surrealist sought out communism in conquest of spiritual

independence, seeing that communism, through the eyes of Andre Breton, that it provided some

positive rationale to a revolt that seemed, to the public, highly idealistic. Unfortunately, valid

“cohesion or ideological agreement” was foreseen. For example, the young, communist editors

of the Clarté. In 1926, their allegiance of the Surrealist group and the Clarté would come to an

end. Contributions to almost every review, in which the Surrealists and the young communists

saw tried to bring their ideas into a melting-pot and set the stage for their revolutionary cause,

failed to appear to the public.6 Nevertheless, this did not stop the Surrealists from pursing their

claim to spiritual independence.

6
Robert S. Short, 7-8
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André Breton, Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Benjamin Peret, and Pierre Unik, in January of

1927, applied for the French Communist Party (PCF). The five explained to the “Au Grand

Jour” they believed their artistic and philosophical ideas did not fall far from theirs: Hegelian

dialectic was believed to have a linkage to the disparities of constructed reality, its historical

resolution embedded in Marxism. To no surprise, the welcoming from the PCF to the five

Surrealists was cold, “Breton was summoned five times before its Control Commission and was

asked to explain why he still considered himself a surrealist,” despite is conversion to

communism. Much of PCF’s anguish and numerous interrogation towards the Surrealists were

due to their publications of La Revolution Surrealiste. The communist were exceptionally

convinced that the Surrealists’ inadequate beseeching towards communities and communal

engagement was tarnished by the hands of their “premature artistic experiments.” Furthermore,

the Surrealists were not precise on their raison d’etre once admitted to the party. Though the five

emphasized the reason for joining the party, they wanted to be seen as typical civilians and not

surrealists within the group, their talents were unclear in terms of functionality. Their literary

activity, specifically their pamphleteering, was seen as a “destructive force” because their main

objective was to insinuate protest in regard to politics through artistic endeavors, using insult and

satire as their main weapons: their goal was to deconstruct their audience through their literature

and rouse deception amongst class-order.7 Over the years, Andre Breton would try to maintain

the purpose of surrealism with the association of political endeavors; however, such progression

would lead to the conversion of several members of the Surrealist group.

Breton sufficiently tried to cement Surrealism with “an effective revolutionary force” as

well as retaining its independence from total consumption into the art world and total

involvement with the communist party. Alas, Breton’s attempt damaged the quantity of
7
Robert S. Short, 9-10, 13
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Surrealists. In 1932, Georges Sadoul, Maxime Alexandre, Luis Bunuel, and Aragon8 departed

from the Surrealist group to join PCF. Many of the Surrealists felt unsatisfied with Breton’s

authoritative position and conflicting duel-purpose. Furthermore, not everyone in the group

agreed to the communist party, so the separation of ideals would “deliberately calculate” the

disbandment or division of the Surrealists. “Front Rouge,” a poem by Louis Aragon, was

conceived as a treacherous, non-surrealistic boosterism that (allegedly) ravished its devotion to

the communist party. The Surrealist poet was supposed to be a tool in linkage to the

subconscious that utters what can be said legally or socially unacceptable. The fashioned

communication emulated by Aragon and the communists on one end and Breton on the other

manifested heavy distant:

“For Aragon, meaning lay solely in the interpretation made by the reader or by

the majority of society at any given time. […] Aragon concluded that unswerving

service to the revolution was the writer's first duty not merely for the sake of his

ideals as a man but for the sake of the validity of his writing.”9

The exclusion of Surrealists most prominent and valued figures unto another playing field of

intellect would, unfortunately, not stop at Aragon nor Sadoul.

In 1933, Breton and the Surrealists were attracted a newly renowned parricide féminin

named Violette Noziere (fig 2). Violette Noziere poisoned her parents, Germaine and Baptiste

Noziere with a prescriptive drug on August 21, 1933. Noziere successfully killed her father, but
8
Robert S. Short, 16; Aragon was prosecuted for his “propaganda poem, “Front Rouge.” Breton attacked the poem
for its detachment from Surrealism values and wholly with Communism. The Surrealists tried to defend Aragon, but
al poetry from the Surrealists must be “immune to legal proceedings.”
9
Robert S. Short, 17
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her mother endured the pernicious prescription and was able to testify against her own daughter

in court. Andre Breton expressed his sentiments excessively than his colleagues owards Violette

Noziere. He assured himself that Violette was the victim, and her parents were miscarriages to

her emotional necessities. Violette articulated her reasoning for the crime, saying that it was for

the countless years of penetrable, sexual assault she endured from Baptiste Nozière.10 Germaine

Nozière in court denied these accusations, telling the court she believed it was for financial again

—to kill her parents in order to run off with her lover Jean Dabin (fig. 3). Breton convinced

fifteen of his colleges to contribute to a “collective volume,” Violette Noizeres (fig. 4), that

resulted in a publication comprised of “eight poems and eight illustrations” in December 1933.

The production of the book was executed by Edouard Mesens, a Belgian publisher and poet, who

was associated with René Magritte. Magritte fabricated a unique impression called the Editions

Nicolas Flamel. The book cover was done by the uncredited Man Ray: a photograph of a N-

shaped brick, assumed to be her father’s name (?), squashed on a proportioned mass of violets; it

also “involves a pelican and some scary dive-bombing birds.”11 To no surprise, Violette Noziere

was not the only femme fatale the Surrealists were infatuated with.

Jules Bonnot, Marquis de Sade, and Germaine Berton are exemplifications that fit the

mould for which the Surrealists celebrated: women who have positioned themselves against

society by committing villainous atrocities. Germaine Berton was celebrated by the Surrealists

during its origin in 1924. She appeared La Revolution Surrealiste’s first publication. Berton was

culpable for assassinating French journalist Léon Daudet. Her portrait was positioned in the

10
Sarah Maza, pg 97: “It was when I was twelve, when my mother was off at the market, that he started touching me
with his finger. At that point I was very ignorant of those things. He took me the first time one morning when I went
to his bed to say good morning. The beds were placed then as they are now. I was surprised and did not resist. At the
start and for about a year, I gave in.[…] My mother did not know what was going on, but she could have noticed.
She saw Papa kiss me on the mouth several times, and he was constantly stroking me. Sometimes when she came up
from fetching the milk she found me lying beside Papa. But she did not say anything. I was in my nightgown. She
never said anything to my father in front of me, and I don’t know if she ever said anything to him in private.”
11
Sarah Maza, 166, 169-170, 173
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center with smaller headshots of twenty-eight Surrealists surrounding it. The function of women

in the Surrealists group has conceived numerous curiosities from scholars in regard to the

femmes fatales of the Surrealist movement. From the male Surrealists’ traffic in wives and

girlfriends to their “images of dismembered and tortured female bodies they produced, (Man

Ray’s 1930 photographic portrait of his female companion, Lee Miller, titled The Surrealist

Woman) does not unswervingly asseverate the emancipation of women.

The first poem is in the volume is by André Breton. The poems explore the reportage

involving Violette Nozière herself, Germaine and Baptiste Nozière, and Jean Dabin. (Dabin was

her lover at the time). The Surrealists voiced their exasperations towards the family for

incarnating a particular demeanor in which the Parisian society applauded— Parisians praising

them, the parents solely, for their industrious and acquisitive onuses, having “new dinning room

sets and money stashed away” to appear like the bourgeois even if they were lower class.12 Andre

Breton expresses, throughout his poem, how he sees Violette as a Surrealist woman, her

“ressembles plus une personne de vivant ni de mort” but something in the midst: a mythical

edifice. Breton dismisses Germaine for her meddling behavior in the poem. He sardonically

called her out, typifying her as l’excellente femme for reading a love letter that was cached in her

textbook. It is enthralling to recognize that Breton and the other surrealists utilized the first three

letters in her Violette’s name, viol, directly and indirectly. Breton insinuates this in his poem in a

subtle way, he connected the first part of Violette’s name to the later anathematic, incestual

affair. Benjamin Peret directly uses the word rape or violait to emulate the anathemata, writing as

if he witnessed or was told by Violette Nozière herself about the terrific event.13 To the

Surrealists, words can communicate a certain function in essential, forthcoming incidents.

12
Sarah Maza, pg 173
13
Max Ernst, et al, Violette Nozières (Paris: Editions Nicolas Flamel 1933) 9, 32
 LeBeaux 10

Regardless of the truth, the Surrealists were audacious to express their opinionated literacy

concerning the crime of Violette Nozière. The illustrations in the book permits the poems’

content to accumulate a greater comprehension of the eight Surrealists’ perspective.

Rene Magritte’s illustration (Fig. 5) depicts a young female seated on a man’s lap as she

is sexually caressed by him—the man’s hand underneath her blouse. At the foreground of the

composition is another man with a top hat, his backside facing the viewer, who seems to be

observing the sexual engagement. Sarah Maza notes that the representation depicted by

Magritte’s illustration implicates that she “ was not just violated by her father” but she was also

“gang-raped.” Though the notion of gang-rape from the Surrealists can be understood, it is

difficult to make this connection by simply looking at an illustration by Magritte. What can be

clearly depicted is the “Oedipus complex”. Commentators flaunted the phrase around to heighten

the perception of Violette being a harlot, trying to lay every fault in the horrific situation on her

shoulders. To be accurate, the correct terminology would be “Electra complex,” for this would

represent what the commentators were trying to profess to the general public: a female juvenile

who has immense attraction for her father. Freuds’ works was only mentioned by commentators

for pillorizing intentions. The psychiatrists of France were more prone to use theories of

“degeneration” and not waste their time on self-indulged theories.14 Without investigating the

depth of Violette Nozières, cohesively, the Surrealists seemed aligned in their responses (through

their illustrations and literacy)—all of them supported Violette and dismissed the father through

their artworks. However, based on the fact that there were only eight Surrealists who contributed

to the project speculates otherwise.

14
Sarah Maza, pg 128, 168-169; 94; The degeneracy thesis, in 1925, was still considered a popular tool in
psychiatric discovery. Dr. Élisabeth Cullère had written a thesis about parricides, paying more attention to the
females than males. Cullère concluded, “that they too suffered from some form of hereditary degeneracy usually
combined with that catchall female problem, ‘hysteria’.”
 LeBeaux 11

In the continuation of André Breton’s poem, the first illustration to be seen is from

Salvador Dali. The portrayal of Violette Nozière precisely align themselves to the ‘generic

female nude;” however, Dali’s representation as well as the associated title “Paranoid Portrait

of Violette Nazière (Nozière)” brings forth questioning of Dali’s view of Violette (Fig 6). The

image shows an emaciated figure assembled with priapic, bony components. The head is

presumed to be of a primordial fledgling with its beak, too, imitating a phallus. Dali’s reason for

contributing to the book was out of “fealty.” He saw the Violette Nozières as meager and this can

be clearly seen in Dali’s illustration. Her phallus-like skull implicates her sexual mindset which

can be connected to her rich affairs with a multitude of men (from her first love Camus/Raymond

to her most recent Dabis). The illustration from Dali angered Breton and some of the others, yet

the illustration would still be stapled within the book. Dali’s views would also hinder him

association with his Surrealist colleagues with his belief in Hitlerism: Dali noted that Hitlerism

was a phenomenon, like Communism, that underscored the middle-class “moral and aesthetic

certainties.”15 The last straw for Dali was in 1934 with his new artwork, The Enigma of William

Tell (Fig 7). The artwork manifests Lenin with a worker’s cap holding a bill; Lenin’s right rump

is exposed, appearing like sodden bread. Like Dali’s illustration for Violette Nozières, The

Enigma of William has a crutch in which is seen supporting an anatomical portion of the figure.

Such a leverage can indicate the psychological instability from both the figures, William Tell and

Violette Noziere. This artwork directly marked his interest in Hitlerism which resulted in Dali’s

execution from the Surrealist’s group.

Violette Nozières is seen as an “antipatriarchal,” yet its content does not blatantly support

Violette in feminist manner—mostly personified as an epitome of a Surrealism; it is less

associated with Marxism than rudimentary nihilism. The publication of Violette Nozières never
15
Sarah Maza, pg 177-178
 LeBeaux 12

made it unto the public until the mid-21st century because of its vulgarism in which the

authorities of France dismissed the book as minds from baseless and demented; it never made

any impact on the société française during the excitement of V. Nozière. The Nozière indulgence

was momentarily present but revealed a lot about society and its collective representations.

Brenton, Brauner, and Éluard all felt immensely connected to the case as well as less renowned

contemporary bodies. The case brought about the eclipse of grand political ideologies and new

social conditions hat forged their way to the front line of politics: for example, family privacy

and consumerism was questioned for its contradictory status, being seen as both disturbing and

beneficial.16 Though this was the case, nothing beneficial came from their ‘revolutionary’

engagement with the case of V. Nozière.

Generally, the Surrealists displayed sporadic episodes with politics—enthusiastically they

would take up a political cause then abruptly drop it. Breton tried to loosely connect the

proletarian politics, Communism, to the ‘revolutionary’ intentions of Surrealism without

cementing or subduing its purpose to Communism. Breton articulated that such tight relation to

Communists would impede the liberation to express their artistic philosophy. Even so, their

efforts to collaborate with Communist intellects, like the Clarte, would be fruitless for their ideas

and perspectives alone were dissimilar; their ideas were seen as illogical and self-indulged , just

like the practices in which they drew inspirational theories they drew from. Even the French

Communist Party would disagree with the Surrealists’ preposterous ideals in regard to a

revolution. To associate any form of politics within the revolution would inevitably cause

commodious disjunction within the group in which would consequence in the departure of

various Surrealists. André Breton, who was apprehensive towards his own associates, would be

the catalyst for many of the Surrealist members’ withdrawal. Evidence of this perceived by the
16
Anna Balakian, André Breton: Magus of Surrealism (New York: Oxford University Press 1971), 69-71
 LeBeaux 13

exclusion of Salvador Dali and Victor Brauner. Violette Nozières was created in order to express

the condolences to Violette Nozière for her fortitude and butchery in order liberate herself from

the psychiatric poundage badgered by her mother and father. As stated, this contribution did

nothing in its time but further dissociate its members. The book is infrequently observed as an

stroke devoted to feminism because of its acclaim for Violette Nozière’s Surrealist heroism

rather than anything that would be considered womanly in a political sense. Violette Nozières

was an effective output that was not noticed until decades later.

^ Fig. 1 Victor Brauner, illustration for Violette Nozieres, a Surrealist anthology, (1933)
 LeBeaux 14

^ Fig. 2 A photograph of Violette Nozière in custody, (1933)

^ Fig. 3 Illustration of Jean Dabin, the lover of Violette Nozière, in a Parisian newspaper, (1933)

^ Fig 4. Front cover of Violette Nozières (1933)

Fig 5 René Magritte, illustration for Violette Nozieres, (1933)

Fig 6 Salvador Dali, illustration for Violette Nozieres, (1933)

Fig. 7 Salvador Dali, The Enigma of William Tell, oil on canvas, c. 1933-34
 LeBeaux 17

Bibliography

Balakian, Anna E. André Breton, Magus of Surrealism: By Anna Balakian. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1971.

"Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library: Violette Nozieres." Yale University. Accessed

October 28, 2020. https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3581084.

Breton, André. Manifestoes of Surrealism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969.

Epley, Bradford et al. Surrealist Hieroglyphs: Exhibition Menil Collection, Houston, Oct. 12,

2001 - Jan. 6, 2002. Houston: The Menil Collection, 2001.

Polizzotti, Mark. Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton, 1st ed. Canada: Harper

Collins Canada Ltd, 2009.

Short, Robert. "The Politics of Surrealism, 1920–36*." Surrealism, Politics and Culture 1, no. 2

(2020), 18-36. doi:10.4324/9781315197418-2.