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| Albert Aurier | |
|---|---|
| Name | Albert Aurier |
| Birth date | 1865-07-04 |
| Birth place | Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône |
| Death date | 1892-09-04 |
| Death place | Paris, France |
| Occupation | Art critic, poet, symbolist |
| Notable works | "Les Isolés", "Le Symbolisme en peinture" |
Albert Aurier was a French art critic and poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Parisian avant-garde of the late 19th century. He is best known for promoting Vincent van Gogh in France, articulating principles of symbolism in painting and literature, and contributing to journals that shaped discourse among Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and contemporaneous movements. Aurier’s writings linked figures across the artistic networks of Paris, Arles, and The Netherlands while engaging with critics, artists, and poets of his era.
Aurier was born in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, into a milieu shaped by Mediterranean trade routes and cultural exchange, which connected Marseille to Marseilles port, Provence, and broader European networks like Amsterdam and Brussels. He moved to Paris for advanced studies and became part of circles that frequented salons hosted by patrons and critics such as Octave Mirbeau, Édouard Dujardin, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Stéphane Mallarmé. In Parisian institutions and intellectual salons he encountered students and writers linked to École des Beaux-Arts, Académie Julian, Salon des Indépendants, and publications including La Revue indépendante and Le Décadent. His education combined literary study, exposure to artworks in collections like the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay, and debates among proponents of Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, and Camille Pissarro.
Aurier wrote for journals and reviews that defined the late 19th-century Parisian press, contributing to titles such as Mercure de France, Le Moderniste, and La Vogue. He championed painters associated with Paul Cézanne, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, and Gustave Moreau, arguing for an aesthetic aligned with symbolist values articulated by Charles Baudelaire, Théophile Gautier, and Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly. His essays, including "Les Isolés" and "Le Symbolisme en peinture", analyzed exhibitions at venues such as the Salon and Galerie Durand-Ruel while engaging with the work of Odilon Redon, Émile Bernard, Paul Sérusier, and Maurice Denis. Aurier’s prose blended poetic rhetoric reminiscent of Stéphane Mallarmé and critical formalism seen in contemporaries like Philippe Burty and Georges Seurat.
Aurier’s critical voice influenced reception of Post-Impressionism and Symbolism through networks linking critics, dealers, and artists: names that include Ambroise Vollard, Goupil & Cie, Théodore Duret, Octave Mirbeau, and editors at Revue Blanche. He framed debates against conservative juries at the Salon and supported exhibitions at Galerie Goupil and Les XX in Brussels, interfacing with artists from Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, and England such as James McNeill Whistler and Paul Signac. Aurier’s essays were cited by later historians and critics studying Modernism, Primitivism, and the transition from Impressionism to later avant-garde movements exemplified by Fauvism and Cubism. His influence extended to younger writers and artists tied to Revue Blanche, La Vogue, and the circles around Mallarmé and Gautier.
Aurier wrote the influential 1890 article "Le Symbolisme en peinture: Vincent van Gogh" which framed Vincent van Gogh as a seminal figure bridging Dutch painting and the Parisian avant-garde. In this essay Aurier compared van Gogh’s work to that of Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Odilon Redon, situating van Gogh within debates led by critics like Théodore Duret and Joris-Karl Huysmans. Although Aurier never met van Gogh in person, his writings reached collectors and dealers including Ambroise Vollard and supporters such as Theo van Gogh, helping to integrate van Gogh’s paintings into exhibitions and collections across France and Belgium. Aurier’s reading emphasized van Gogh’s spiritual and symbolic aims, aligning him with poets Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Charles Baudelaire.
Aurier’s principal texts appeared in influential periodicals and pamphlets: essays in Mercure de France, Le Moderniste, and La Vogue; the article on Vincent van Gogh; and the collection "Les Isolés". He reviewed exhibitions at institutions such as the Salon des Indépendants and galleries like Galleria Durand-Ruel and Galerie Vollard. His critical lexicon referenced artists and writers including Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard, Henri Matisse, Paul Signac, Maurice Denis, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Théodore Rousseau, Constant Troyon, Jean-François Millet, Jules Bastien-Lepage, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Eugène Delacroix, Ingres, Antoine Watteau, Nadar, Charles Blanc, Adolphe Willette, Paul Adam, Remy de Gourmont, Jules Laforgue, Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Théophile Gautier, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Octave Mirbeau, Théodore Duret, Ambroise Vollard, Goupil & Cie, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Salon des Refusés.
Aurier died in Paris in 1892, his career cut short during the period when Symbolism and Post-Impressionism were reshaping European art. Posthumously his essays continued to circulate among collectors, critics, and historians tied to institutions like the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, and galleries such as Galerie Vollard. His formulation of aesthetic criteria influenced discourses that shaped exhibitions at Salon des Indépendants and Les XX, and informed scholarship on figures including Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Odilon Redon, Maurice Denis, and Paul Cézanne. Aurier is remembered in studies of late 19th-century criticism, his texts cited in monographs, catalogues raisonnés, and museum displays that trace the lineage from Impressionism through Modernism.
Category:French art critics Category:Symbolism (arts)