Gabriel-Albert Aurier (5 May 1865 – 5 October 1892) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

poet,

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

and

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, associated with the

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

movement.

Career

The son of a notary born in Châteauroux,

Indre Indre (; oc, Endre) is a landlocked department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administ ...

, Aurier went to Paris in 1883 to study law, but his attention was soon drawn to art and literature; he then began to contribute to Symbolist periodicals. He reviewed the annual Salon in ''Le Décadent'', later contributed to '' La Plume'' and, in 1889, was the managing editor of ''

Le Moderniste Illustré ''Le Moderniste Illustré'' was a short-lived French illustrated weekly published in Paris on Saturdays from 6 April to 28 September 1889. A total of 23 issues were produced on modernist art and literature. The editor-in-chief was André Henry and ...

''. From its foundation in 1890, he contributed to the '' Mercure de France'', which published the essays on which Aurier's fame was founded: "" and "". After a trip to Marseille, Aurier died at the age of twenty-seven in Paris, on 5 October 1892, from a typhus infection. The next day, friends, writers and artists accompanied his coffin on the funeral train departing from the Gare d'Orsay for Châteauroux, where his remains were entombed in the family grave. Six months after his death, in April 1893, his friends published his collected writings (Œuvres posthumes), edited by the Mercure de France.

Art collecting

Most of the Van Gogh paintings from Aurier's collection were acquired by Helene Kröller-Müller, and are now in the collections of the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (The Netherlands). Works by other artists from Aurier's estate - Émile Bernard, A. Fourmon, by unknown artists and Aurier himself - were first on public view in Paris, in 1960.See the items from the Williame Collection, Châteauroux, lent to the exhibition ''Les Amis de Van Gogh'', Institut Néerlandais, Paris, 9 November - 17 December 1960.

Selected art criticism

* ''Les Isolés: Vincent van Gogh''
Mercure de France, January 1890, pp. 24-29

/small> * ''Le Symbolisme en peinture: Paul Gauguin''
Mercure de France, March 1891, pp. 155-165
* ''Les Symbolistes'', Revue encyclopédique 2, 1 April 1892, pp. 474–486, illustrated Gabriel Albert Aubrier - Les isolés - first page Article on Vincent van Gogh - Mercure de France, January 1890.jpg, Gabriel Albert Aurier: ''Les isolés'', article praising Vincent van Gogh, Mercure de France, January 1890. Vincent van Gogh - Letter to Albert Aurier - 9 or 10 February, 1890 - Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.jpg, Vincent van Gogh: Letter to Albert Aurier, 8 or 9 February 1890.

References and sources

;References ;Sources * * 1865 births 1892 deaths People from Châteauroux Symbolist poets French art critics French artists French art collectors 19th-century French journalists French male journalists French male poets 19th-century French poets 19th-century French male writers {{France-poet-stub