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

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

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 a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, associated with the

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

movement.

Career

The son of a notary born in

Châteauroux Châteauroux ( ; ; ) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate Châteauroux te ...

Indre Indre (); is a 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 administrative region of Cent ...

, 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''. From its foundation in 1890, he contributed to the ''

Mercure de France The () was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was publis ...

'', 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 The Gare d'Orsay () is a former Paris railway station and hotel, built in 1900 to designs by Victor Laloux, Lucien Magne and Émile Bénard; it served as a terminus for the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans (Paris–Orléans railway). It w ...

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 Helene Emma Laura Juliane Kröller-Müller (; ; 11 February 1869 – 14 December 1939) was a German art collector. She was one of the first European women to put together a major art collection. She is credited with being one of the first coll ...

, and are now in the collections of the

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of ...

, Otterlo (The Netherlands). Works by other artists from Aurier's estate -

Émile Bernard Émile Henri Bernard (; 28 April 1868 – 16 April 1941) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and writer, who had artistic friendships with Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Eugène Boch, and at a later time, Paul Cézanne. Most of his no ...

, 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 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aurier, Albert 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