Théophile Gautier

Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, journalist and art and literary critic. Born in Tarbes, in south-western France, and settled in Paris from childhood, he belonged to the Romantic generation, though his work resists easy classification. Later movements such as Parnassianism, Symbolism, Decadence and Modernism all look back to him, and he is often cited as a forerunner of aestheticism and the doctrine of art for art's sake.

His family moved to Paris in 1814. He began at the Collège Louis-le-Grand but illness took him away after a few months, and he finished his schooling at the Collège Charlemagne. His most important teaching, including his Latin, came from his father at home. At school he befriended Gérard de Nerval, who introduced him to Victor Hugo, a major early influence. Around 1830 he joined Le Petit Cénacle, a group of artists known for its eccentricity, and began a bohemian phase in which he wrote poetry and contributed to newspapers, mainly La Presse. That journalism, which he never came to enjoy, gave him the chance to travel to Spain, Italy, Russia, Egypt and Algeria. His travel writings, such as Voyage en Espagne and Voyage en Russie, are personal in tone and reveal his tastes in art and culture.

Gautier was also a notable writer of Romantic ballet. His scenario for Giselle is the best known, and his personal life was marked by a long relationship with the dancer Carlotta Grisi, who rejected him, and later with her sister, the singer Ernesta Grisi, by whom he had two daughters. After the Revolution of 1848 he wrote almost a hundred articles in nine months. He directed the Revue de Paris from 1851 to 1856 and later became an influential critic for L'Artiste and Le Moniteur universel. The French Academy rejected him three times, yet his reputation was secure, helped by Sainte-Beuve's praise and his place in Princess Mathilde Bonaparte's salon.

His style combines descriptive precision with formal care. His novels favour exoticism, fantasy and the pursuit of beauty for its own sake, as in Mademoiselle de Maupin, whose preface sets out the autonomy of art. His legacy is mainly formal: Baudelaire dedicated Les Fleurs du mal to him, and his insistence that criticism should let readers see the work of art shaped later writers and critics.