Theophile Gautier

Théophile Gautier and His Cats

Happy birthday to French art critic, journalist, fiction writer, and poet Théophile Gautier (30 August 1811–23 October 1872), who was an early proponent of Romanticism. However, after publishing the poetry collection Albertus (1832) and Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835), he embraced l’art pour l’art, or “art for art’s sake.”

8 Comments

  1. Dan Hise

    I read once that Gautier dressed in red and green satin and took a leashed lizard (iguana?) for a stroll on Les Champs. “Epater le bourgoisie!” (Shock the middle class!) was the watchword. Early version of the beatniks and hippies. Heck, it may be true.

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