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Theophile Gautier

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Theophile Gautier
Theophile Gautier by Nadar (1856).
Theophile Gautier by Nadar (1856).
Activity (s) Writer, poet, painter and art critic
Birth 30 August 1811
Tarbes
Deaths 23 October 1872
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Movement (s) Romanticism , Parnassus

Pierre Jules Theophile Gautier, born at Tarbes on 30 August 1811 . Surprisingly early, he was only five when he began to read . His first passions were Robinson Crusoe and Paul et Virginie , who made a strong impression, then he dreams of becoming sea , before his passion for theater , including painting sets .

In 1820 , at age nine, he made a brief stint as a half-boarder at the Lyce Louis-le-Grand. His parents have it removed after one quarter because it decays . Happier as "external" College Charlemagne , Gautier meets the young Gerard Labrunie (later Nerval ). At that time, he began to show a particular taste for late Latin poets whose language the strange fascination.

It is terminal when it begins to attend the workshop of the painter Edward Louis Rioux (1790-1855), rue Saint-Antoine , and discovers that occasion that he suffers from myopia .

"The great romantic boutique ..."

June 27, 1829 , Walter met the man who would become his "master" in literature, Victor Hugo , in which the present and Gerard Petrus Borel. This event precipitated his writing career. On 25 February 1830 , he participated in the famous battle of Hernani , wearing a red vest that had a lasting minds. The same evening, he left the shop Rioult.

While conducting "all major campaigns romantic", he wrote a first book of verse, which his father financed the publication in Mary. The work was released in 1830 and goes completely unnoticed. These early poems show, however, a very clever young poet, having already acquired the manner of his illustrious predecessors. Gautier, however, is evidence of real originality by an innate sense of form and expression clear and precise.

Hugo condottiere the Romantic movement with Theophile Gautier, long hair, mustache and overseen by croup.

He continues to attend Victor Hugo and his family. It is within this circle he made the acquaintance of Celestin Nanteuil , who three years later when Walter reprint his first verses in a new book, Albertus, illustrated as "an etching ultra-eccentric" . He also met the editor romantic Renduel Eugene , who has just published the evenings Walter Scott, Paul Lacroix . At his request, he wrote in 1833, Young France, which account truculence with the lives of artists who form the Cenacle. In this book "baroque," Gautier is the lucid and ironic to witness these "Precious Ridicules of Romanticism" . Two years later, he also publishes in Renduel Mademoiselle de Maupin ( 1835 ), which is a real scandal.

Leaving home, place des Vosges , Theophile Gautier moved impasse Deanery, the site of the present Place du Carrousel, in an apartment where he meets Camille Rogier , Arsene Houssaye and Nerval .

The debut of novelist and critic

Honore de Balzac , who appreciates these young talents, sends Jules Sandeau their offer to contribute to The Chronicle newspaper in Paris in 1836. Balzac, who deigned to find me a talent and said, sent for by Jules Sandeau " . Gautier publishes news and love as The Dead The Golden Chain and art critics. It will be very impressed by the "master" and later he will contribute to his legend with biographical sketches of Honore de Balzac .

Portrait by Auguste de Chatillon (1839).

He also worked for the magazine by Charles Malo, literary France, and the daily life of Emile de Girardin , La Presse. In this paper, Gautier first loads of art criticism. An estimated more than two thousand the number of serials and articles he had written for this newspaper. A limited number of these items is collected in volumes: The Grotesque, The History of the painters, the Modern Art, The Fine Arts in Europe, history of drama for twenty-five years, Art Treasures Russia, Contemporary Portraits, History of Romanticism, Literary Recollections, etc.. All articles are written in a gleefully tongue clean, soft, clean and bright. Gautier invents its own way of writing an art critic who is not only the trial, analysis, but also to recreate the feeling of aesthetic correctness. It seeks to render, in words, visual sensation, musical produced by the direct perception of the artwork. This task of the writer occupies a lifetime. "I worked at La Presse, Le Figaro, La Caricature, the Museum of Families in the Revue de Paris, the Revue des Deux Mondes, wherever we wrote then. Often ponderous, this daily work does not stop him from playing sports (boxing and canoeing) and continue to create poetry and drama. Thus in 1838 appeared The Comedy of Death, a collection of poems quite different from precedents under the influence of Shakespeare , Goethe and Dante , Gautier sculpts with force spectrum of Death. In 1839 , Gautier yield to the temptation of the theater he has always admired and wrote a tear of the devil and The Enchanted Tricorn and Pierrot Posthumous. These are fantasies, enchanting pastoral, an opera, not imaginary and it is still living in the booklets for several ballets, the most famous was that of Giselle , danced at the Opera House on 28 June 1841 , with a prodigious success.

Travel

In May 1840, he moved to Spain , he knows through the tales of Spain and Italy of Alfred de Musset and the East of Victor Hugo. His trip to Spain, so strong impressions of books, is marked by the freshness of vision, the vision of astonishment and concern always exacerbated the accuracy of the mean. These visions give rise to new worms, Espaa, published in a comprehensive collection of Poems in 1845. This first trip will take more soon. In 1845 it is the Algeria , in 1850 Italy , in 1852's Greece and Turkey , in 1858 Russia and in 1869 the Egypt (sent by the Official Journal for the inauguration of the Suez Canal ). Each of these trips result in publications: Italia, Constantinople, but they mostly feed on his literary works, novels, short stories or poems.

Maturity

Besides his work as a critic, he continues to monitor , Walter still keeps a predilection for poetry: it remains, as evidenced by his friends as Emile Bergerat and Maxime du Camp , for example, his passion, his distraction, his exercise daily. Thus, in 1852, appears the first version of Enamels and Cameos , which until 1872 collection is enriched by new poems.

1855 photograph by Nadar
Portrait of charge by H. Gautier Mailly.

In 1857, Walter moved with his wife, Ernesta Grisi (sister of the dancer Carlotta Grisi ), his daughters, Judith and Estelle, who married Emile Bergerat , and his two older sisters, 32 rue de Longchamp in Neuilly-sur- Seine , in a small house where he likes to get his friends Baudelaire he meets regularly (though not he will go to the funeral of Baudelaire when it takes place), Dumas son , Ernest Feydeau , Gustave Flaubert , Puvis de Chavannes or Gustave Dor.

Its association with Eugenie Strong, a very beautiful woman, younger than him and with Spanish origins, he has a son, Theophile Gautier son who begs his father several times in the Moniteur.

In the literary salons of the Princess Mathilde, and was appointed librarian , Gautier also met writers such as Taine , Sainte-Beuve , Prosper Merimee , the Goncourt, for painters like Paul Baudry , Gustave Boulanger , Jean-Leon Gerome , and sculptors as Carpeaux , scientists such as Claude Bernard , Pasteur or Berthelot. At that time Gautier figure head of school. Baudelaire expresses his disciple (he dedicates The Flowers of Evil , calling it "impeccable poet"), Theodore de Banville is dedicating his verses. Theophile Gautier in 1844 founded the club Hashischins with Jacques-Joseph Moreau , a club dedicated to the study of cannabis. This club is frequented by many artists of the era including Charles Baudelaire.

President of the National Society of Fine Arts

Elected in 1862 president of the National Society of Fine Arts , he is surrounded by a committee composed of the most prestigious painters: Eugene Delacroix , Pierre Puvis de Chavannes , Edouard Manet , Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse and Gustave Dore. This election as a cause for envy of some of the lesser-known writers and he failed three times when it comes to the French Academy in 1866 , 1868 and 1869.

Deeply moved by the military events of 1870 , Walter returned to Paris, where he ended his life, plagued by illness, but aware of the duty of teaching and example of which is invested with the younger generation. On 23 October 1872 in the night, his heart stops beating. Hugo , Mallarm or Banville makes him a final "toast funeral." He is buried in Montmartre cemetery in Paris. He was 61 years.

Quotations

"It is really nice that this can only be used for anything and everything that is useful is ugly, because it is the expression of some need, and those of man are ignoble and disgusting, like his poor nature and infirm. "(Preface to Mademoiselle de Maupin)

"He must be at heart a deep gash to pour his verses, the divine tears of gold! "(The Pine Barrens, Espaa)

"Is it not strange that night, which bathes our planet for so many hours, has been shown so rarely? Yet it has its beauty, its picturesque effects, its magic and its seductions. "(Memories of Theatre)

In 1851 , Armand Baschet Theophile Gautier wrote to ask him to define himself. Gautier sent him a biography in which he confessed:

"I had not done anything for the stage, and so we do not accuse me of abusing effects of style, I began with a ballet Giselle, where Carlotta appeared for the first time. The ballet, oddly enough, was a huge success and he has played and still plays in all parts of the world. For a poet, this success does not leave choreography than being demeaning ... "

Works

Poetry

  • Poems (1830), his first book, revised in Volume Albertus or soul and sin (1833).
  • The Comedy of Death (1838).
  • Spain, which appears in the complete volume of the Poems of 1845.
  • Enamels and Cameos (1852), which reappears every time increased in 1853, 1858, 1863 and finally in 1872 in a definitive edition.

The complete poems of Gautier, except enamels and cameos, were published in 1875-1876. Poems and poetry of circumstance "light" appeared to share in the volume Poems of Thophile Gautier who will not appear in his works (1873).

Ballet & Theatre

Theophile Gautier has written some of the most famous ballets in the repertoire. By cons, his theater is a minor part of his work.

  • A tear of the devil, Mystery (1839).
  • Giselle or Les Wilis, ballet (1841); text on wikisource
  • A trip to Spain, Vaudeville (1843).
  • The Peri, ballet (1845); argument wikisource
  • The tricorn Enchanted (1845).
  • La Juive de Constantine (1846).
  • Look but do not touch (1847).
  • The Selam (1850).
  • Daisy, ballet (1851).
  • Gemma, ballet (1854); booklet wikisource
  • Sacuntala, ballet (1858).
  • Women of Diomede (1860).

Two books were published in 1855 (Pocket Theatre) and 1872 (theatre. Mysteries, comedies and ballet), but they are not complete. A theater full of Gautier has been published recently, some parts have waited a century and a half before being reprinted.

Travelogues

  • Tra los montes, now travel by Spain (1843).
  • Zigzags (1845), now grown, and zigzags Caprices (1852).
  • Italia (1852), more or less incomplete.
  • Constantinople (1853).
  • When you travel (1865), a collection of articles.
  • Far from Paris (1865), a collection of articles.
  • Trip to Russia (1867).
  • The East (1877), posthumously.
  • Monday's Holiday (1884), a collection of articles, posthumously.

Art critic, literary critic

  • The Grotesque (1843).
  • Salon of 1847.
  • The Fine Arts in Europe (1855).
  • Modern Art (1856).
  • History of drama in France for twenty-five years (1858).
  • Honore de Balzac (1858).
  • Primer Salon 1861.
  • Report on the Progress of Letters (1868).
  • History of Romanticism, his last work, unfinished (1874).
  • Contemporary Portraits (1874), posthumously.
  • Literary portraits and memorabilia (1875), posthumously.

Gautier also prefaced many literary works, including The Dream and the lives of Nerval (1855) and the third edition of Les Fleurs du mal (1868) Baudelaire.

Various major works

  • Fashion (1858).
  • Vosges (1860).
  • Drawings of Victor Hugo (1863).
  • Intimate Menagerie (1869).
  • Nature in her (1870).
  • Tables seat (1871).

Short stories

Gautier wrote thirty short stories, most of fantastic nature.

The following news appeared in The Young France in 1833:

The following news appeared in Devil's Teardrop in 1839:

The following news are published for the first time in gathering news in 1845:

The following news are published for the first time in the tiger skin in 1852:

  • The Thousand and Second Night
  • The Pavilion on the water
  • Two actors for a role
  • The pillow of a girl
  • The Shepherd
  • The mummy's foot
  • Angela, another title for The Coffee
  • The house of my uncle, another title for the soul of the house
  • The Children's shoes bread
  • Opium Pipe

The following news are published in the Collection of Novels and Tales 1863:

  • The Knight Dual
  • The Club haschichins

The following news are published for the first time in a second edition of the tiger skin in 1866:

  • A Night Tour
  • The False Conversion
  • The album leaf of a young art student

One last story was published posthumously in 1881:

  • Miss Dafn

Novels

Gautier wrote twelve novels, all published in his lifetime:

  • Miss de Maupin. Double Love (1835).
  • The Eldorado, now, quickly, Fortunio (1837-1838).
  • Militona (1847).
  • The innocent Broken (1847).
  • Jack and Jill (1848).
  • The Two Stars (1848), become square Party (1851) and, finally, La Belle Jenny (1865).
  • Arria Marcella, souvenir of Pompeii (1852), actually a novella.
  • Avatar (1857).
  • Jettatura (1857).
  • The Romance of the Mummy (1858).
  • Captain Sunder (1863).
  • Spiritualist (1866).

In addition, Gautier is one of four authors of the epistolary novel La Croix de Berny (1845).

Curiosa (erotic)

Notes and references

  1. a and b The birth of Theophile Gautier was recorded August 30, 1811, and the birth was recorded at two o'clock in the morning "this day" ( scanned document ).
  2. a , b , c , d , e , f , g , h and i Theophile Gautier by himself in L'Illustration of 9 March 1867.
  3. "We fired the chest a beautiful piece of satin or cherry vermilion China, we triumphantly hoisted in front of the cutter horror, with an air of tranquility and satisfaction which alarmed for our reason. (...) To avoid the infamous Red 93, we have a slight proportion of purple in our tone, for we were anxious that we do not intend attribut policy. " Theophile Gautier, "History of Romanticism", 1874 , chap. X.
  4. The Romance and the publisher Renduel on Wikisource
  5. Andr Maurois. Prometheus or the life of Balzac, Hachette , 1965
  6. : Theophile Gautier: Balzac , Le Castor Astral ( ISBN 978-2859203764 )
  7. M. Nadal, Theophile Gautier last paragraph
  8. See this topic: Thophile Gautier and the theater, international symposium in June 2004, dir. Martine Lavaud , F. Brunet, in Bulletin de la Societe Theophile Gautier, No. 26, 2004

Schedules

Bibliography

  • Dictionary Bnzit , critical and documentary dictionary of painters, sculptors, designers and writers of all ages and all countries, Vol. 5 Grnd editions, January 1999, 13 440 p. ( ISBN 270003015X ), p. 925


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