Jules François Felix Fleury-Husson (17 September 1821, in

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The Ancient Diocese of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held s ...

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; ) is a French departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne (river), Aisne. In 2020, it had a population of 529,374. Geography The department borders No ...

– 6 December 1889, in

Sèvres Sèvres (, ) is a French Communes of France, commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. It is located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of the Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a populatio ...

), who wrote under the name Champfleury (), was a French

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 novelist, a prominent supporter of the Realist movement in painting and fiction. In 1843 Fleury-Husson moved to Paris. He met

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

and the next year started writing art criticism under the pen-name "Champfleury" for the journal ''

L'Artiste ''L’Artiste'' was a weekly illustrated review published in Paris from 1831 to 1904, supplying "the richest single source of contemporary commentary on artists, exhibitions and trends from the Romanticism, Romantic era to the end of the ninetee ...

''. He was one of the first to promote the work of

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the ...

, in an article appearing in an issue of '' Le Pamphlet'' in 1848. In 1856, during a time when the Spanish school was still largely ignored, he advocated the work of

El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...

. He wrote about the Le Nain brothers and

Maurice Quentin de La Tour Maurice Quentin de La Tour (; 5 September 1704 – 17 February 1788) was a French painter who worked primarily with pastels in the Rococo style. Among his most famous subjects were Voltaire, Rousseau, Louis XV and the Madame de Pompadour. Biogra ...

. He also had a brief affair in 1851 with Eveline Hańska, the widow of his friend

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...

.Robb, Graham. Balzac: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton &x Company, 1994. . p. 414. He edited the periodical '' Le réalisme'' in 1856 and 1857. His novels, of which the best-known is '' Les bourgeois de Molinchart'' (1854), were among the earliest Realist works. In 1869 his book ''Les Chats'', a series of essays about cats including portrayals of cats by prominent artists of the time, was published by Librairie de la Société Botanique de France, edited by J. Rothschild. From 1872 until his death in 1889 he was Chief of Collections at the Sèvres porcelain factory. The character of Marcel in

Henri Murger Louis-Henri Murger (27 March 1822 – 28 January 1861), also known as Henri Murger and Henry Murger, was a French novelist and poet. He is chiefly distinguished as the author of the 1847-1849 book '' Scènes de la vie de bohème'' (''Scenes ...

's '' Scènes de la vie de bohème'', and thus the corresponding character Marcello in

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

based on it, was partially based on Champfleury. Champfleury was a friend of Murger and they had roomed together for a time.

Selected publications

* Troubat, ''Souvenirs sur Champfleury et le Réalisme'' (Paris, 1905) * Champfleury, ''The Faience Violin'' (New York, 1895)

References

Biography * Lo Feudo, Michela
« Du journalisme à l’art populaire. Biographie intellectuelle de Jules Champfleury, polygraphe du XIX^e siècle »
in ''BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology'', Paris.

External links

* * * "Champfleury, Jules (1821-1889)" i
Bérose Encyclopaedia

Finding aid to Jules Champfleury papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
*Resources related to research
BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology
Paris. (ISSN 2648-2770) 1821 births 1889 deaths People from Laon French art critics 19th-century French journalists French male journalists 19th-century French novelists French male novelists 19th-century French male writers {{France-novelist-19thC-stub