Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt (; 26 May 182216 July 1896) was a French writer, literary critic,

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 catalogu ...

, book publisher and the founder of the

Académie Goncourt The Société littéraire des Goncourt (Goncourt Literary Society), usually called the Académie Goncourt (Goncourt Academy), is a French literary organisation based in Paris. It was founded in 1900 by the French writer and publisher Edmond de G ...

Biography

Goncourt was born in Nancy. His parents, Marc-Pierre Huot de Goncourt and Annette-Cécile de Goncourt (née Guérin) were minor aristocrats who died when he and his brother Jules de Goncourt were young adults. His father was a former cavalry officer and squadron commander in the

Grande Armée ''La Grande Armée'' (; ) was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empi ...

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

, and his grandfather Jean-Antoine Huot de Goncourt had been a deputy in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

of 1789. Edmond attended the pension Goubaux, the Lycée Henri IV, and the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...

. At the Lycée Condorcet, he studied rhetoric and philosophy from 1840 to 1842, followed by the study of law between 1842 and 1844. After their mother's death in 1848, the brothers inherited an income which enabled them to live independently and pursue their artistic interests. Edmond was able to leave a treasury clerkship that had made him so miserable as to contemplate suicide. For much of his life, he collaborated with Jules creating works of art criticism, a notorious journal, and subsequently several

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s. Their most notable novel was '' Germinie Lacerteux'' (1865), inspired by the exploits of the brothers' housekeeper Rose, who stole from them to fund a double life of orgies and sexual encounters. It is considered one of the earliest works of French Realism to deal with the working class. In 1852, Edmond and his brother were indicted for an "outrage against public morality" after they quoted erotic Renaissance poetry in an article. They were ultimately acquitted. He was known to be fascinated with

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

and

Japanese art Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, '' ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime ...

. He also collected rare books. The brothers' house at Auteuil, which they purchased in 1868, was a showcase for their collection of 18th century French and Far Eastern art. Edmond documented the house and its interiors in his 1881 book ''"La Maison d'un Artiste".'' Between 1856 and 1875, the brothers published essays on 18th century art in a collected series called ''"L'Art du XVIIIe siècle"'', which revived appreciation for the Rococo. After the death of Jules in 1870, Edmond continued to write novels alone. He also continued writing the '' Journal des Goncourt'', which he and Jules had begun in 1851, only stopping 12 days before his death in 1896. He completed unfinished works from his collaboration with his brother, including a monograph on Paul Gavarni (1873) and a book called ''"L'Amour au XVIIIe Siècle"'' (1875). He revised, enlarged and reissued ''Les Maîtresses de Louis XV'' (1860) in three volumes between 1878 and 1879: ''La du Barry'', ''Madame de Pompadour'', and ''La Duchesse de Châteauroux et ses soeurs''. His last novel, ''Chérie'' (1884), about a young woman who expresses her artistic sensibility in fashion, can be read as an exploration of impressionistic art. He collected the letters of his late brother in 1885, and between 1887 and 1896 issued 9 volumes of the ''Journal''. Edmond became increasingly jealous of more successful writers like

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

and

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

, which is reflected in scathing entries in the ''Journal''. In 1893 he wrote of Maupassant that his "success with loose society women is an indication of their vulgarity, for never have I seen a man of the world with such a red face, such common features, or such a peasant build." He bequeathed his entire estate for the foundation and maintenance of the

. In honour of his brother and collaborator, Jules de Goncourt (17 December 183020 June 1870), each December since 1903, the Académie awards the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

. It is the most prestigious prize in

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in ...

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...

, given to "the best imaginary

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

work of the year". Edmond de Goncourt died in Champrosay in 1896, and was interred in the

Cimetière de Montmartre The Cemetery of Montmartre (french: link=no, Cimetière de Montmartre) is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimetière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

Works

(by Edmond alone) Nonfiction *''Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d'

Antoine Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised October 10, 1684died July 18, 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, a ...

'' (1875) *''Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, dessiné et gravé de P. P. Prud'hon'' (1876) *''La Maison d'un Artiste'' (1881) *''La Saint-Huberty'' (1884) *''L'Art japonais du XVIIIe siècle, Outamaro. Le peintre des maisons vertes'' (1891) *''La Guimard, d'après les registres des Menus Plaisirs, de la bibliothèque de l'Opéra, etc.'' (1893 *''L'Art japonais du XVIIIe siècle, Hokousai'' (1896) *''Le Grenier'' (1896) Novels *''La Fille Elisa'' (1877) *''Les Frères Zenganno'' (1878) *''La Faustin'' (1882) *''Chérie'' (1884) *

Goncourt Journal The Goncourt Journal was a diary written in collaboration by the brothers Edmond and Jules de Goncourt from 1850 up to Jules' death in 1870, and then by Edmond alone up to a few weeks before his own death in 1896. It forms an unrivalled and entir ...

References

External links

* * * *
Blog dedicated to Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
*
"Goncourt Brothers and the Taste for the 18th Century"
symposium at the

Frick Collection The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and European fine and decorative arts, including works by ...

, featuring art historians Olivier Berggruen and Yuriko Jackall {{DEFAULTSORT:Goncourt, Edmond De 1822 births 1896 deaths 19th-century French historians 19th-century French journalists 19th-century French male writers 19th-century French novelists Burials at Montmartre Cemetery French art critics French art historians French diarists French literary critics French male journalists French male novelists French publishers (people) Edmond Writers from Nancy, France 19th-century diarists