The Moon and Sixpence · Chapter
XVIII explained
The narrator settles in Paris and reconnects with Dirk Stroeve, a kind but mediocre painter whose genuine love for art and generous nature make him both a figure of ridicule and a valued friend.
What happens
The narrator settles in Paris and reconnects with Dirk Stroeve, a kind but mediocre painter whose genuine love for art and generous nature make him both a figure of ridicule and a valued friend.
Themes in this chapter
Convention vs. Individuality
Stroeve's conventional, sentimental painting contrasts with the avant-garde movements like Impressionism, highlighting the tension between popular taste and artistic innovation.
The Artist as Outcast
Stroeve is both a social outcast due to his buffoonish nature and a figure of pity, yet his sincere devotion to art sets him apart from more cynical contemporaries.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Arrives in Paris, finds an apartment, and visits Dirk Stroeve.
- Dirk Stroeve
A poor painter with genuine enthusiasm for art; generous, emotional, and often ridiculed by his peers.
Key passages
“I quickly found myself a tiny apartment on the fifth floor of a house in the Rue des Dames, and for a couple of hundred francs bought at a secondhand dealer’s enough furniture to make it habitable.”
The narrator rented a small fifth-floor flat on Rue des Dames and furnished it cheaply with secondhand items.
Establishes the narrator's modest living situation in Paris.
“Dirk Stroeve was one of those persons whom, according to your character, you cannot think of without derisive laughter or an embarrassed shrug of the shoulders.”
Stroeve was the kind of person who provoked either mockery or pity, depending on your disposition.
Introduces Stroeve as a comical yet sympathetic figure.
“He was very emotional, yet his feeling, so easily aroused, had in it something absurd, so that you accepted his kindness, but felt no gratitude.”
His emotions were so exaggerated that his generosity seemed ridiculous, making it hard to feel truly thankful.
Highlights the paradoxical nature of Stroeve's character.