ABSTRACT
The two protagonists of L'histoire d'un dessinateur, the master and the disciple in a story about apprenticeship, are but idealized projections of Viollet-le-Duc himself. With that last publication, he accomplishes nothing less than a self-restoration, demonstrating how, thanks to proper mentoring, the innate qualities of his young avatar, petit Jean, could develop unhindered. One site in the novel connects with Viollet-le-Duc's life in less obvious ways: Boissy-Saint-Lger, petit Jean's birthplace. The basic story line is considerably enriched by a wealth of autobiographical references. Jean displays precocious talent in drawing, as did Viollet-le-Duc, while Majorin, a rather stern bachelor, is a polymath with scientific pretensions, as was Delcluze. Commissioned and greatly helped by Viktor Butovsky, director of the Museum of Industrial Art in Moscow, Viollet-le-Duc was thus free to define single-handedly a whole tradition and then speculate about its future. It was a true rebirth.
