Juliette Huxley, Lady Huxley (1896–1994), born Marie Juliette Baillot, was a

Swiss-French Swiss French (french: français de Suisse or ') is the variety of French spoken in the French-speaking area of Switzerland known as Romandy. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, the others being German, Italian, and Ro ...

sculptor and writer. She provided lifelong support to her husband, British naturalist

Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthesis. ...

Biography

Baillot was born in Auvernier, Switzerland, on 6 December 1896 to Alphonse Baillot, a lawyer, and Mélanie Antonia Ortlieb. Around 1915 she began working as a tutor to the daughter of

Lady Ottoline Morrell Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers including Aldous Huxley, Siegfr ...

Garsington Garsington is a village and civil parish about southeast of Oxford in Oxfordshire. "A History of the County of Oxfordshire" provides a detailed history of the parish from 1082. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,689. The v ...

. It was there in 1916 that she met

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

and his brother

. She and Julian were married in 1919 and had two sons,

Anthony Huxley Anthony Julian Huxley (2 December 1920 – 26 December 1992) was a British botanist. He edited ''Amateur Gardening'' from 1967 to 1971, and was vice-president of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1991. He was the son of Julian Huxley. He was ...

(1920–1992) and

Francis Huxley Francis Huxley (28 August 1923 – 29 October 2016) was a British botanist, anthropologist and author. He is a son of Julian Huxley. His brother was Anthony Julian Huxley. His uncle was Aldous Huxley. He was one of the founders of Survival Inter ...

(1923–2016). Julian Huxley described himself in print as suffering from

manic depression Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

, and Juliette's autobiography suggests that Julian Huxley suffered from a

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

. He relied on her to provide moral and practical support throughout his life. In 1930 her husband told her that he wanted to have an

open marriage Open marriage is a form of non-monogamy in which the partners of a dyadic marriage agree that each may engage in extramarital sexual relationships, without this being regarded by them as infidelity, and consider or establish an open relatio ...

, and he went on to have a number of affairs. In 1936 he had a relationship, of which Juliette was aware, with poet

May Sarton May Sarton was the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), a Belgian-American poet, novelist and memoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of ‘lesbi ...

. Sarton went on to have a brief physical relationship with Juliette, which became over time what Sarton later described as a romance and as a true union of souls. Julian was not aware of this relationship, and Juliette broke it off during a week they spent together in

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. S ...

in 1948 because of Sarton's threat to tell him. After his death they resumed their correspondence. Sarton's letters to and from Juliette, whom she described as the ''incomparable one'', were published in 1999. Juliette accompanied her husband throughout his career and travelled extensively. In 1963 she published ''Wild Lives of Africa'' based on these travels. In 1986 she published her autobiography ''Leaves of the Tulip Tree.'' Juliette learned to sculpt from Alan Best, whom she had hired to teach her son when he was immobilised following a bicycle accident, and she later had an apprenticeship with

John Skeaping John Rattenbury Skeaping, RA (9 June 1901 – 5 March 1980) was an English sculptor and equine painter and sculptor. He designed animal figures for Wedgwood, and his life-size statue of Secretariat is exhibited at the National Museum of R ...

at the

Central School A central school was a selective secondary education school with a focus on technical and commercial skills in the English education system. It was positioned between the more academic grammar schools and the ordinary elementary schools where ...

. She became Lady Huxley on the award of a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

to her husband in 1958.

References

External links

Juliette Huxley papers at Rice University

Photographs of Juliette Baillot by Ottoline Morell at the National Portrait Gallery
{{authority control 1896 births 1994 deaths Swiss-French people Swiss women writers Swiss women sculptors Juliette