Théophile Gautier

Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was born on 30 August 1811 in Tarbes, in southwestern France, and died in Paris on 23 October 1872. He was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic, active in a century when Romanticism, political upheaval, journalism, travel writing, and the visual arts pressed closely against one another. His family moved to Paris in 1814 and settled in the old Marais district, placing him early in the city that would shape most of his working life.

Gautier was an ardent defender of Romanticism, though his own work has always been difficult to classify. Later writers and movements looked back to him, including Parnassianism, Symbolism, Decadence, and Modernism. He was admired by figures as different as Balzac, Baudelaire, the Goncourt brothers, Flaubert, Pound, Eliot, James, Proust, and Wilde. His output ranged across poetry, fiction, drama, criticism, ballet scenarios, and travel literature, with titles such as Voyage en Espagne (1843), Trésors d’Art de la Russie (1858), and Voyage en Russie (1867).

Several forces formed Gautier’s taste and temper. He briefly attended Collège Louis-le-Grand, then continued at Collège Charlemagne, but his most significant instruction, including Latin, came from his father, Jean-Pierre Gautier. At school he formed a lifelong friendship with Gérard de Nerval, who introduced him to Victor Hugo. Hugo became a major influence, and Gautier is remembered at the celebrated premiere of Hernani for wearing an anachronistic red doublet. After the 1830 Revolution brought hardship to his family, he chose to remain among friends in Paris, seeking independence in the Doyenné district.

By the end of 1830, Gautier was attending meetings of Le Petit Cénacle, an art circle that included Nerval, Alexandre Dumas, père, Petrus Borel, Alphonse Brot, and Philothée O’Neddy. The group gained a reputation for extravagance and eccentricity, traits that suited the young Gautier, whose appearance was described as defying convention. He began writing poetry as early as 1826, but much of his adult life was spent in journalism, especially for La Presse and later Le Moniteur universel. Journalism gave him income, contacts, and chances to travel through Spain, Italy, Russia, Egypt, and Algeria.

Gautier also had a lasting connection with dance. He wrote several scenarios for the Romantic Ballet, most famously Giselle, first interpreted by the ballerina Carlotta Grisi, the great love of his life. In public literary life, his standing grew steadily: he directed Revue de Paris from 1851 to 1856, became editor of L’Artiste in 1856, and used that review to publicize Art for art’s sake doctrines. In 1862 he was elected chairman of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, working with a committee that included Eugène Delacroix, Édouard Manet, Gustave Doré, and others. In 1868, Princess Mathilde Bonaparte offered him a sinecure as her librarian, giving him access to the court of Napoleon III.

Gautier spent the Franco-Prussian War in Paris with his family after returning on news of the Prussian advance, and he remained through the invasion and the aftermath of the Commune. He died at 61 of a long-standing cardiac disease and was buried at the Cimetière de Montmartre. His writing still draws readers because it joins strong opinions about art with an eye for place, color, movement, and culture. Whether in criticism, travel books, or ballet, Gautier wrote as someone who cared intensely about form, beauty, and the freedom of the artist.