Edmond de Goncourt

For the article about their collaboration, seeGoncourt brothers.

Edmond de Goncourt
Portrait byNadar,c. 1877
Born	(1822-05-26)26 May 1822 Nancy,France
Died	16 July 1896(1896-07-16)(aged 74) Draveil,France
Resting place	Cimetière de Montmartre
Occupation	Writer literary critic art critic book publisher
Signature

Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt(pronounced[ɛdmɔ̃dəɡɔ̃kuʁ];26 May 1822 – 16 July 1896) was a French writer, literary critic,art critic,book publisher and the founder of theAcadémie Goncourt.

Biography

Goncourt was born inNancy.His parents, Marc-Pierre Huot de Goncourt and Annette-Cécile de Goncourt (née Guérin), were minor aristocrats who died when he and his brotherJules de Goncourtwere young adults.His father was a former cavalry officer and squadron commander in theGrande ArméeofNapoleon I,and his grandfather Jean-Antoine Huot de Goncourt had been a deputy in theNational Assemblyof 1789.Edmond attended the pension Goubaux, theLycée Henri IV,and theLycée Condorcet.At the Lycée Condorcet, he studied rhetoric and philosophy from 1840 to 1842, followed by the study of law between 1842 and 1844.

After their mother's death in 1848, the brothers inherited an income which enabled them to live independently and pursue their artistic interests. Edmond was able to leave a treasury clerkship that had made him so miserable as to contemplate suicide.For much of his life, he collaborated with Jules creating works of art criticism, anotorious journal,and subsequently several novels. Their most notable novel wasGerminie Lacerteux(1865), inspired by the exploits of the brothers' housekeeper Rose, who stole from them to fund a double life of orgies and sexual encounters. It is considered one of the earliest works of FrenchRealismto deal with the working class.

Nadar– Edmond and Jules de Goncourt (1822–1896 and 1830–1870) c. 1855

In 1852, Edmond and his brother were indicted for an "outrage against public morality" after they quoted erotic Renaissance poetry in an article.They were ultimately acquitted.

Edmond was known to be fascinated withRococoandJapanese art.He also collected rare books.The brothers' house atAuteuil,which they purchased in 1868, was a showcase for their collection of 18th century French and Far Eastern art. Edmond documented the house and its interiors in his 1881 bookLa Maison d'un Artiste.Between 1856 and 1875, the brothers published essays on 18th century art in a collected series calledL'Art du XVIIIe siècle,which revived appreciation for the Rococo.

After the death of Jules in 1870, Edmond continued to write novels alone. He also continued writing theJournal des Goncourt,which he and Jules had begun in 1851, only stopping 12 days before his death in 1896.He completed unfinished works from his collaboration with his brother, including a monograph onPaul Gavarni(1873) and a book calledL'Amour au XVIIIe Siècle(1875).He revised, enlarged and reissuedLes Maîtresses de Louis XV(1860) in three volumes between 1878 and 1879:La du Barry,Madame de Pompadour,andLa Duchesse de Châteauroux et ses soeurs.His last novel,Chérie(1884), about a young woman who expresses her artistic sensibility in fashion, can be read as an exploration of impressionistic art.He collected the letters of his late brother in 1885, and between 1887 and 1896 issued nine volumes of theJournal.Edmond became increasingly jealous of more successful writers likeGuy de MaupassantandÉmile Zola,which is reflected in scathing entries in theJournal.In 1893 he wrote of Maupassant that his "success with loose society women is an indication of their vulgarity, for never have I seen a man of the world with such a red face, such common features, or such a peasant build."

He bequeathed his entire estate for the foundation and maintenance of theAcadémie Goncourt.In honour of his brother and collaborator, Jules de Goncourt (17 December 1830 – 20 June 1870), each December since 1903, the Académie awards thePrix Goncourt.It is the most prestigious prize in French literature, given to "the best imaginary prose work of the year".

Edmond de Goncourt died inChamprosayin 1896,and was interred in theCimetière de Montmartrein Paris.

Etching on parchment portrait of Goncourt byFélix Bracquemond(1882)

Works

(by Edmond alone)

Nonfiction

• Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, dessiné et gravé d'Antoine Watteau(1875)
• Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, dessiné et gravé deP. P. Prud'hon(1876)
• La Maison d'un Artiste(1881)
• La Saint-Huberty(1884)
• L'Art japonais du XVIIIe siècle, Outamaro. Le peintre des maisons vertes(1891)
• La Guimard, d'après les registres des Menus Plaisirs, de la bibliothèque de l'Opéra, etc.(1893
• L'Art japonais du XVIIIe siècle, Hokousai(1896)
• Le Grenier(1896)

Novels

• La Fille Elisa(1877)
• Les Frères Zemganno(1878)
• La Faustin(1882)
• Chérie(1884)
• Goncourt Journal

External links

• Works by Edmond de Goncourt in eBook formatStandard Ebooks
• Works by Edmond de GoncourtatProject Gutenberg
• Works by Edmond de GoncourtatFaded Page(Canada)
• Works by or about Edmond de GoncourtatInternet Archive
• Blog dedicated to Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
• Newspaper clippings about Edmond de Goncourtin the20th Century Press Archivesof theZBW
• "Goncourt Brothers and the Taste for the 18th Century"symposium at theFrick Collection,featuring art historiansOlivier Berggruenand Yuriko Jackall