Portraits of Gautier

Thirteen Portraits and caricatures from the Gautier Collection assembled by an anonymous 19th Century archivist; listed in chronological order of the depiction/original drawing (not printing-date).

Célestin Nanteuil, Portrait of Théophile Gautier. 1838. Graphite drawing, reproduced in offset. Source of reproduction unidentified, c.1860-80.    One of the earliest surviving portraits of Gautier, drawn by his friend and fellow Jeunes-France co-founder Célestin Nanteuil while both were involved with the Bohême Doyenné group. The drawing ended up in the collection of the avanty-garde archivist Charles Asselineau, from whom it was lent for reproduction in this unidentified 19th (or possibly very early 20th) Century source.

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Théodore Chassériau Portrait of Théophile Gautier in Greek Costume. Undated, c. 1840 / reprinted Aug. 1877. Lead on Paper, reproduced in offset.    This undated drawing was probably made around or slightly later than the time of Nanteuil's portrait above. The Romanticist painter Chasseriau was working closely with Gautier at this time as part of the Bohême Doyenné group, and had also painted a mural in Gautier's rented apartment which served as the group's headquarters. MORE ON GREEK COSTUME & ON PUBLICATION

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Anonymous, Caricature of Théophile Gautier. Undated, c. 1840-45. Probably from Le Charivari.     The cartoon addresses Gautier's constant complaint (echoed by all of his friends and collaborators) that financial necessity prevented the full development of his more rarified, complex, and anti-commercial verse. The caption runs:

The harlequin-play is thus your chosen form . . . .

Gautier, do not remain astride this novelty,

And just to provoke laughter in the rightious swarm

No longer provoke tears with your poetry!

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Anonymous, Caricature of Théophile Gautier. Undated, c. 1840-45. Offset. Reprinted in unidentified catalog, late-19th / early 20th Century.    This is a later reprint of the lithograph above, from an as-yet unidentified catalogue of an exhibition or collection.

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Bertal, Caricature of Théophile Gautier at the Salon. 1849. Etching. from Le Journal amusant.    Bertal was a popular illustrator who often collaborated with Gautier's friend Nanteuil. This cartoon riffs on his strong opinions in art criticism; Gautier had been trained as a painter. The caption reads: "Théophile Gautier examines with a disdain that he doesn't seek to hide certain pictures where the landscapists have given in to prejudice by painting trees."

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I. Mailly, Théophile Gautier. 1851? Lithograph.    This caricature references Gautier's love of travel, his fervent orientalism, and his participation in the Club des Haschischins, or Assassins'/Hashish-Smokers' Club, in which Romanticist writers and artists collaborated with a medical researcher in the first scientific experiments on the psychological and cognitive effects of narcotics. Gautier was famously sympathetic to non-Western culture and lifestyle, in ways that we can now recognise often nonetheless failed to escape Eurocentrism and colonialist mentaity.

 

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Judith Gautier & Henri Bouillon, Théophile Gautier. from l'Universe ????. Aug. 16, 1890.    Gautier's daughter Judith (an important novelist, historian and translator of Japanese literature) drew this rather idealistically heroic depiction of Henri Bouillon's sculpted bust of her father. 

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Unsigned, Théophile Gautier in 1860. from a book or article on Victor Hugo [original archivist's notations illegible). Undated, late 19th Century. Etching / Offset.    Gautier would have been 49 years old when this portrait was drawn.

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(Click on article below to expand)

Henri-Charles Oulevay, Mr. Jules Janin and Mr. Théophile Gautier. from The World for Laughing [Le Monde pour rire], No. 10, May 9, 1868. With article on Gautier by Gaston Zap on reverse.    Gautier and Janin, both of them romanticists of the "Generation of 1830", had often been enemies in their youth, trading squibs in various poems and articles thanks to Gautier's radical take on Romanticism, and often collaborators, as was inevitable as they both became fixtures in french journalism. Now they were both being considered for chairs in the Academy (Gautier would never be accepted, Janin had two years to go). Oulevay, the cartoonist, was a militant socialist associated with the Realist movement, and three years later would serve alongside Courbet in the revolutionary Federation of Artists as part of the Paris Commune. I have found little information on Zap, the author of the article on the reverse.

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André Gill, Théophile Gautier Academician (?). from L'Eclipse, May 7, 1869. Colourised Etching.   

This rendering by the popular cartoonist Gill represents Gautier in the form of his much-loved "Tobacco of the Orient", as his torso reads. The "Eternal Regrets" emblazoned on his quasi-Turkish hat are probably the many poems he will never write, thanks to his journalistic duties. The sinecure (essentially a lifetime artist's grant) that accompanied membership in the Academy would have allowed him to give up journalism and devote himself full-time to poetry, hence his hopes of election to the institution he had spend much of his life struggling against.

 

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Théophile Gautier in Russian Costume. Uncredited engraving based on photograph by M. Richebourg. from Illustration, [Feb 9?], 1872. Etching.

Gautier's work as a popular travel writer allowed him to spend considerable time in northern Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and most parts of Europe. The photograph on which this engraving is based, one of his last, was taken in Saint-Petersburg.

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 Engraving by Bocourt, after photograph by Bertall, Théophile Gautier. from Monde Illustré, Oct. 1872. 

This portrait, based on a photograph by the Romanticist illustrator who Gautier probably knew personally, was printed immediately in response to news of Gauttier's death, which is recorded in the caption.

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[A. Collette?], Théophile Gautier. from Le Journal [Illustré?], Vol. 9, No. 44, 1872. Etching.
This memorial portrait, whose framing tableau recalls those popularized by his old friend Nanteuil, was probably produced in response to Gautier's death in October of this year.

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