# Pellerin — Sentimental Education character guide

> Pellerin in Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Add Pellerin

**First appearance:** 0009-chapter-ii

## Snapshot

A painter who defends art against politics, insisting that execution matters more than virtue, even when his own taste runs to the safe and salable.

## Who they are

Pellerin moves through the studios and cafés of Frederick's Paris as a working artist who takes commissions, changes styles, and argues about what painting is for. When the austere republican Sénécal demands that art serve morality, Pellerin bristles, invoking Molière and defending the picture-dealer Arnoux with a heat that reveals how much his livelihood depends on men he half-despises. His squabbles over taste and money sketch the era's quarrel between beauty and utility, and give Frederick's circle its sharpest voice on what a painting is worth.

## Relationships

### [Frederick Moreau](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se/characters/frederick_moreau)

_friendship_

Pellerin is a struggling artist and friend who tries to paint Frederick's portrait and represents artistic pretension.

### [Frederick Moreau](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se/characters/frederick_moreau)

_friendship_

Pellerin is a struggling artist and friend who tries to paint Frederick's portrait and represents artistic pretension.

## In the story

### [The Inexpressible She!](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se/chapters/the-inexpressible-she)

Pellerin is an artist who lives modestly and holds strong opinions about art. He reveals to Frederick that Madame Arnoux is virtuous, deepening Frederick's guilt.

### [A Change of Fortune](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se/chapters/a-change-of-fortune)

Frederick asks about him; Arnoux says he does not see him often.

### [Frederick Entertains](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se/chapters/frederick-entertains)

Invited to the housewarming.

### [Chapter: Then she seized him by the ears and kissed him.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se/chapters/then-she-seized-him-by-the-ears-and-kissed-him)

Commissioned by Frederick to paint Rosanette's portrait, which he eagerly accepts.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se/characters/pellerin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/sentimental_education_se/characters