Gautier, Théophile (1811–1872)

French Romantic poet. His later works emphasized the perfection of form and the polished beauty of language and imagery, for example Emaux et camées/Enamels and Cameos (1852). He was also a novelist (Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835)) and later turned to journalism. His belief in the supreme importance of form in art, at the cost both of sentiment and ideas, inspired the poets who were later known as Les Parnassiens.

Gautier was born in Tarbes. He studied to be a painter, but instead devoted himself to writing. He threw himself with great fervour into the Romantic movement and was an ardent follower of Victor Hugo. In 1832 he produced his first long poem, Albertus, an extravagant theological legend remarkable for its perfection of style, its colour and imagery. Then followed La Comédie de la mort 1838, Les Jeune-France (an attack on the ‘false Romantics’, 1833), and Mademoiselle de Maupin, which shocked public opinion by the contempt for morality it displayed. As a journalist, for 30 years his chief work was that of art critic and serial writer.