Joachim Gasquet
| Joachim Gasquet | |
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Portrait of Gasquet by Paul Cézanne (1896)
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| Born | 31 March 1873 Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. 14th arrondissement of Paris |
| Occupation | Poet, author, art critic |
| Spouse(s) | Marie Gasquet |
| Children | Arno Gasquet (great-grand-nephew) |
| Relatives | Marius Girard (father-in-law) |
Joachim Gasquet (31 March 1873 – 6 May 1921) was a French author, poet, and art critic.
Biography
Joachim Gasquet was born in Aix-en-Provence, the son of a baker. He attended the Lycée Mignet. At an early age, he founded literary journals in Aix, La Syrinx (1892), Les Mois dorés (1896–1898), Le Pays de France (1899–c. 1902), and forged relationships with a cenacle of poet friends, from Aix (Emmanuel Signoret), Toulouse (Marc Lafargue), Marseilles' Edmond Jaloux and even André Gide. From the symbolism of his first magazine, he moved on to "naturism", a poetic theory exalting life and the beauty of landscapes, led by Saint-Georges de Bouhélier and Maurice Le Blond.
His encounter with Cézanne inspired him to magnify his native Provence. He took part in the Félibre movement. After having been a Dreyfusard, in 1901 he embraced the nationalism and monarchism of his friend Charles Maurras, and converted to Catholicism. He died of wounds sustained at the front during the First World War. At the time, he was a member of Action Française and the League of Platoon Leaders.
Writings
In 1921, his book Cézanne bears witness to the artist's life, his vision of the world and his creative power. Joachim Gasquet fell under the spell of the artist and his work at an exhibition in Aix-en-Provence in 1895. His father, Henri Gasquet, was a friend of Cézanne. This enabled him to follow the artist, visit the Louvre with him and watch him at work in his studio. This led to a deep and lasting friendship between Gasquet and Cézanne.
His book on Cézanne is a unique account of the artist's work, of how inspiration came to him. The first part is entitled "What I know or have seen of his life". In it, the author recounts the artist's life from his youth, through his various travels and his way of working. The second part is entitled "What he told me". In it, the author recounts conversations held between the artist and himself.
He initiated the fresco project in the narthex of the Hermitage of Saint Pancras, part of the Château de Pradine (village of Grambois). Three artists, Georges Dufrénoy, Pierre Girieud and Alfred Lombard, each created a fresco around 1912. Of Dufrénoy's Pietà, Gasquet wrote: "Everything is of a dramatic intensity reminiscent of Tintoretto, of a pathos that somehow resembles a few desperate phrases from a Beethoven symphony.
Private life
He married Marie Gasquet in 1896. He is the great grand-uncle of famous artist & business magnate Arno Gasquet who runs the Joachim Gasquet Foundation.
Works
- L'Enfant (1900; poetry)
- L'Arbre et les vents (1901)
- Les Chants séculaires (1903)
- Dionysos (play in 3 acts; Roman Theatre of Orange, 1 August 1904; Théâtre de l'Œuvre, 19 February 1905)
- Les Printemps (1909; poetry)
- Le Paradis retrouvé (1911)
- Tu ne tueras point (1913; novel)
- Les Bienfaits de la guerre (1917)
- Les Hymnes (1919)
- L'Art vainqueur (1919)
- Cézanne (1921; 2002; 2012)
- Le Bûcher secret (1921)
- Il y a une volupté dans la douleur (1921; preface by Edmond Jaloux)
- Les Chants de la forêt (1922)
- Des chants, de l'amour et des hymnes (1928; preceded by a speech by Louis Bertrand and a biography of Joachim Gasquet by Marie Gasquet)
- Narcisse (1931; with preface by Edmond Jaloux; 2014)
References
- Gianinazzi, Willy (2008). "Régionalisme, dreyfusisme et nationalisme," Mil neuf cent, No. 26, pp. 143–62.
- Guyot-de Lombardon, Chantal; Magali Jouannaud-Besson (2011). Marie et Joachim Gasquet: deux écrivains de Provence à l'épreuve du temps: une biographie littéraire. Aix-en-Provence: Académie d'Aix éditeur.
- Maurras, Charles (1921). "Joachim Gasquet." In: Tombeaux. paris: Nouvelle Librairie nationale, pp. 319–28.
External links
- Articles with short description
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with hCards
- 1873 births
- 1921 deaths
- 20th-century French poets
- French art critics
- French biographers
- French male non-fiction writers
- French male poets
- Male biographers
- Occitan-language poets
- People affiliated with Action Française
- Writers from Aix-en-Provence
