Georges Charpentier
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Georges Charpentier (December 22, 1846 - November 15, 1905) was a 19th-century French publisher who became known as a champion of
naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
writers, especially
Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...
,
Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
, and
Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and s ...
. He also promoted
Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
painters and together with his wife,
Marguerite Charpentier Marguerite Charpentier (1 March 1848 – 30 November 1904) was a French salonist and art collector who was one of the earliest champions of the Impressionists, especially Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Biography She was born Marguerite Louise Lemonnier ...
, built a small but significant art collection.


Publishing house

Georges Charpentier was the son of Gervais Charpentier, a French bookseller and publisher. After spending a few years a journalist, he took over his father's publishing house, Bibliothèque Charpentier, in 1872 and began to publish adventurous contemporary authors, especially those known as proponents of naturalism. Besides Zola, Flaubert, and de Maupassant, his firm's author list included
Joris-Karl Huysmans Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel (1884, pub ...
,
Edmond de Goncourt Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt (; 26 May 182216 July 1896) was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt. Biography Goncourt was born in Nancy. His parents, Marc-Pierre Huot ...
, and (continuing from his father's day)
Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
. In 1876 he created the Petite Bibliothèque Charpentier, a line of affordable editions illustrated with etchings that were targeted at bibliophiles. Despite the success of Zola's and Flaubert's books in the mid 1870s, Charpentier's firm ran into financial difficulties. This state of affairs worsened when Charpentier launched a new illustrated newspaper, ''La Vie moderne'' (1879-1883) with
Émile Bergerat Émile Bergerat (29 April 1845 – 13 October 1923) was a French poet, playwright and essayist. He used the pseudonyms l'Homme masqué (the masked man), Caliban and Ariel (the latter two drawn from ''The Tempest'' by William Shakespeare). A ...
as managing editor and
Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...
as one of the illustrators. In 1883–84, Charles Marpon and Ernest Flammarion acquired a three-quarters interest in the firm. As more changes of ownership took place over the next decade, the firm's publications declined in number and authors moved on to other publishers.


Art collection

Charpentier's wife, Marguerite, was a salonist whose Friday salons drew writers, artists, actors, musicians and politicians to their house. The Charpentiers were champions of
Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and began buying Impressionist painting in the mid 1870s. They gave a number of portrait commissions to Renoir, who in the course of the decade painted all of the family members. Renoir's portrait of Georges, ''Portrait of a Man (Monsieur Charpentier)'', painted in 1878, is in the collection of the
Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, ...
.


Praise from contemporaries

:" eorges Charpentier wascreated for the word 'sympathetic', unless the word was invented for him". (Guy de Maupassant) :"He had the audacity to bring us in as other doors closed before us. I speak especially for myself, who was repulsed everywhere". (Émile Zola) :" ehad the courage to welcome the first young authors of the so-called naturalist school, and he was well rewarded since he is the editor of Mr. Zola". ( Jules Lermina)


References


Sources

This page is translated in part from :fr:Georges Charpentier. Sources on that page include: *Robida, Michel. ''Le Salon Charpentier et les Impressionnistes''. Bibliothèque des arts, 1958 (in French) *Becker, Colette. ''Trente années d'amitié : 1872-1902: Lettres de l'éditeur Georges Charpentier à Émile Zola''. Presses universitaires de France, 1980. . (in French) *Meyer, Virginie
"La maison Charpentier de 1875 à 1896 d'un catalogue à l'autre"
in: Annie Charon, Claire Lesage and Ève Netchine, eds.,
Le Livre entre le commerce et l'histoire des idées: Les catalogues de libraires (XVe-XIXe siècle)
', Paris: Publications de l’École nationale des chartes, 2011 (Études et rencontres, 33) *Serrepuy-Meyer, Virginie. "Georges Charpentier (1846-1905): Éditeur de romans, roman d’un éditeur". Dissertation, École des chartes, 2005. (in French) *Serrepuy-Meyer, Virginie. "Georges Charpentier, le plus parisien des éditeurs". In ''Histoire et civilisation du livre''. Genève: Droz, 2009. (in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Charpentier, Georges 1846 births 1905 deaths 19th-century French publishers (people) French art collectors