Juliette, Lady Huxley ( Marie Juliette Baillot; 6 December 1896 – 28 September 1994) was a Swiss-French sculptor and writer. She provided lifelong support to her husband, British

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 ...

Sir

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

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 (née Cavendish-Bentinck; 16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English Aristocracy (class), aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befri ...

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. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

and his brother, Julian. 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 and writer. An elected council member of the Royal Horticultural Society, he became its vice president in 1991. He edited '' Amateur Gardening'' from 1967 to 19 ...

(1920–1992) and Francis Huxley (1923–2016). Julian Huxley described himself in print as suffering from

manic depression Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that each last from days to weeks, and in some cases months. If the elevated m ...

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

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

. 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, 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. 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 city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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 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 m ...

. She became Lady Huxley on the award of a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a 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. The concept of a knighthood ...

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huxley, Juliette 1896 births 1994 deaths Swiss-French people Swiss women writers Swiss women sculptors

Juliette Juliette is a feminine personal name of French language, French origin. It is a diminutive of Julie (given name), Julie. People * Juliette Adam (1836–1936), née Lamber, French author and feminist * Juliette Atkinson (1873–1944), American ten ...

Wives of knights