Alika Lindbergh (born Monique Dubois, 23 December 1929), commonly known by her former name Monique Watteau, is a Belgian

fantasy fiction Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

writer and artist.

Early life

Watteau was born Monique Dubois in

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

on 23 December 1929. Her father was Hubert Dubois, a playwright and poet with ties to

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

. Watteau studied painting and drawing at the Académie royale des beaux-arts de Liège, and then went on to the Royal Conservatory of Liège to study theatre. At twenty, she left Belgium for

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 ...

, where she met the Belgian scientist

Bernard Heuvelmans Bernard Heuvelmans (10 October 1916 – 22 August 2001) was a Demographics of Belgium, Belgian-France, French scientist, explorer, researcher, and writer probably best known, along with Scottish-American biologist Ivan T. Sanderson, as a foun ...

, famous for his work in

cryptozoology Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...

. In 1951, she appeared under the name Monique Watteau in

Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; ; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist and screenwriter whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ...

's film . She also worked as a photography

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

Career

Watteau's first novel, ''La colère végétale'', was published in 1954. Critics praised it as a striking literary debut; Albert-Marie Schmidt wrote that Watteau had created "a new kind of fantasy" (''un nouveau fantastique''). Watteau was reportedly considered for the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...

and the

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...

, but she was removed from the running of the latter prize in 1954 when the jury discovered that she had posed for nude photographs. Her following novels, ''La nuit aux yeux de bête'' (1956), ''L'ange à fourrure'' (1958), and ''Je suis le ténébreux'' (1962), cemented her reputation as one of the foremost

Francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

fantasy writers of the twentieth century. Her work is marked by its sensuality of expression and its

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

Taoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...

, and Surrealist themes. The writer described Watteau's novels as prime examples of

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

in twentieth-century fantasy. Her first three novels were written under the name Monique Watteau; her fourth gave her name as Monique-Alika Watteau. After its publication, she abandoned the name Monique altogether, going by Alika Watteau and later Alika Lindbergh. After publishing four novels, she turned to painting as a career. Her output as a painter includes a notable corpus of cryptozoological art, including her work as the primary illustrator of Bernard Heuvelmans's books. When the cartoonist

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé ( ; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian comic strip artist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of T ...

, researching ''

Tintin in Tibet ''Tintin in Tibet'' () is the twentieth volume of ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. It was serialised weekly from September 1958 to November 1959 in ''Tintin (magazine), Tintin'' magazine and publis ...

'', asked Heuvelmans for details on the

yeti The Yeti ()"Yeti"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. is an ape-like creature purported t ...

, Watteau supplied a "graphic reconstitution" of the creature for Hergé's reference. In the 1970s, Watteau published two new books, ''Nous sommes deux dans l'Arche'' et ''Quand les singes hurleurs se tairont''. She published an autobiographical work, ''Le testament d'une fée'', in 2002. Watteau also worked as an

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

activist. In the early 1990s, she was the president of the Cercle national pour la défense de la vie, de la nature, et de l'animal (CNDVNA), a conservation

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an impor ...

within the French National Front.

Personal life

Heuvelmans was Watteau's first husband; they divorced in 1961, but remained friends and collaborators. According to her autobiography, Watteau was romantically involved with actor

Yul Brynner Yuliy Borisovich Briner (; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner (), was a Russian-born actor. He was known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical ''The King and I'' (19 ...

from 1961 to 1967. It was after this affair that she changed her first name to Alika, which she and Brynner had used as her '' nom d'amour''. She married zoologist Scott Lindbergh, son of aviator

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

, in 1968. In 1972, Lindbergh and Watteau established a grant-funded primate research center on an 82-acre estate in the

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...

valley in France, where they raised and studied dozens of South American monkeys. Watteau and Lindbergh separated in 1983. During Watteau's marriage to Lindbergh, the couple arranged for Heuvelmans, then in poverty, to live in a small house on the grounds of the Dordogne estate. Watteau attended to Heuvelmans during his final years, and was with him at his death in 2001. In accordance with his last wishes, Watteau was in charge of his private funeral in

Le Vésinet Le Vésinet () is a suburban Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. It is a part of the affluent outer suburbs of western Paris, from ...

List of works

The following list comprises the original publications of Watteau's works. Because Watteau used multiple names, each entry includes the name under which the work was published.

As writer

*Monique Watteau, ''La colère végétale'' (Paris: Plon, 1954) *Monique Watteau, ''La nuit aux yeux de bête'' (Paris: Plon, 1956) *Monique Watteau, ''L'ange à fourrure'' (Paris: Plon, 1958) *Monique-Alika Watteau, ''Je suis le ténébreux'' (Paris: Julliard, 1962) *Alika Lindbergh, ''Nous sommes deux dans l'arche'' (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1975) *Alika Lindbergh, ''Quand les singes hurleurs se tairont'' (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1976) *Alika Lindbergh, ''Le testament d'une fée'' (Paris: E-dite, 2002) *Alika Lindbergh, "Préface," in Bernard Marck, ''Lindbergh, l'ange noir'' (Paris: L'Archipel, 2006) *Alika Lindbergh, "Préface," in Jean-Jacques Barloy, ''Bernard Heuvelmans, un rebelle de la science'' (Paris: Oeil du sphinx, 2007)

As illustrator

*Hubert Dubois, ''Le danseur du sacre: poèmes'', frontispiece by Monique Watteau (Brussels: Éditions des artistes, 1953) *André Romus, ''Voix dans le labyrinthe'', frontispiece by Monique Watteau (Paris: Éditions James, P.J. Oswald, 1954) *Bernard Heuvelmans, '' Sur la piste des bêtes ignorées'', illustrations by Monique Watteau (Paris: Plon, 1955) *Bernard Heuvelmans, ''Dans le sillage des monstres marins'', Vol. I, ''Le kraken et le poulpe colossal'', illustrations by Monique Watteau (Paris: Plon, 1958) *

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...

, '' Le hibou et la poussiquette'', translated by Francis Steegmuller, illustrated by Monique-Alika Watteau (London: Hart-Davis, 1961) *Bernard Heuvelmans, ''Le grand serpent-de-mer: le problème zoologique et sa solution: histoire des bêtes ignorées de la mer'', illustrated by Alika Watteau (Paris: Plon, 1965) *Albert Jeannin, ''En vacances avec l'oncle Antoine'', four volumes, illustrated by Alika Watteau (Lausanne: Rencontre, 1967) *Bernard Heuvelmans, ''Les derniers dragons d'Afrique'', illustrated by Alika Lindbergh (Paris: Plon, 1978) *Bernard Heuvelmans, ''Les bêtes humaines d'Afrique'', illustrated by Alika Lindbergh (Paris: Plon, 1980) *Jean-Léo, ''Histoire illustrée du cirque à Bruxelles: saltimbanques et gens du voyage depuis le dix-septième siècle'', illustrations by Alika Lindbergh and others (Brussels: Archives générales du Royaume, 1998)

Other works

* Ian Cameron, '' Le cimetière des cachalots'', translated from the English by Alika Watteau (Paris: Laffont, 1966) *Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, ''L'agonie des bébés phoques'', contributions by Alika Lindbergh and others (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1978) *''Regards croisés: collectif d'artistes peintres animaliers: Zsuzsa Farkas, Alika Lindbergh, István Nemes'', catalogue for a Musée Cantonal de Zoologie exhibition of paintings by Lindbergh and others, 17 March to 19 May 2002 (Lausanne: Musée cantonal de zoologie, 2002)

References

External links

* *
Alika Lindbergh
at LC Authorities, with 3 records {{DEFAULTSORT:Watteau, Monique 1929 births Living people 20th-century Belgian novelists Belgian writers in French 20th-century Belgian illustrators 21st-century Belgian illustrators Women science fiction and fantasy writers Belgian science fiction writers Belgian fantasy writers Belgian science fiction artists Belgian fantasy artists Writers from Liège Belgian women novelists 21st-century Belgian novelists 20th-century Belgian women writers 21st-century Belgian women writers Artists from Liège