GAUTIER Judith (EN)

Education to Creation

The writer, artist and art critic Judith Gautier (1845-1917) participated in all currents of French literary and artistic thought of the 19th century. This article emphasises her knowledge of the Far East, as well as her key role in spreading European interest in the art, literature and history of China, Japan, India, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Vietnam. For a detailed biography, reference should be made to the studies of Joanna Richardson, Bettina Knapp, and Véronique Chagnon-Burke, which evoke the diversity of her literary production (poetry, prose, theatre) and artistic contributions (sculpture, artistic and musical criticism), as well as her friendships with members of diverse literary schools (the Romantics and the Realists, the Parnassians, the Naturalists and the Symbolists) (Richardson J., 1986, especially the bibliography at the end of the book, pp. 285-293; Knapp B., 2007; Chagnon-Burke V., 2013).

The daughter of the influential man of letters Pierre Jules "Théophile" Gautier (1811-1872) and the singer "Ernesta" Giuseppina Jacomina Grisi (1816-1895), Louise Charlotte Ernestine "Judith", was born on August 24, 1845 in Paris (AD Neuilly-sur-Seine 2E27/57). In the memoirs she published from 1904, Gautier evokes the Bohemian milieu of her childhood where she frequented the great artists and writers who were friends of her parents (Gautier J., 1904; Gautier, J., 1905). She cites her father as the origin of her love for the Orient from the writing of the Roman de la momie (1857), to which she contributed (Gautier J., 1904, p. 245-247). It was during a trip to London with her parents to attend the Universal Exhibition in 1862 that the teenaged Judith Gautier said she had her first direct contact with Asia: two Japanese in "national costume" entered a store where she tried to "chat" with them (Gautier J., 1905, p. 132-134). She was fascinated as much by the details of their clothing as by their discovery of European culture: "It was as if around them, without anything having yet been dispersed, the perfume and the atmosphere of their fabulous country floated". It was a "fatal" and "unforgettable" encounter that revealed to her "a whole incredible world" (Gautier J., 1905, p. 134). Encouraged by her father, Judith Gautier immersed herself in the discovery of Far Eastern literature.

Another chance encounter brought the Gautier family into contact with a Chinese exile, Ding Dunling ([丁墩龄], 1831-1886; Gautier spelled it "Ting-Tun-Ling"), who began to give Chinese lessons to Judith and her sister Estelle (1848-1914) from 1863 [Gautier J., 1905, p. 159-163]. He taught them to pronounce words and to master writing. In order to diversify their studies, he sometimes told them Chinese legends and talked to them about the customs and landscapes of the different regions of the Middle Kingdom. His lessons fascinated the two young girls. Judith Gautier appreciated the change of scenery they offered that allowed her to travel through her imagination. With the support of her tutor, she began to read Chinese books. She had a copy of the Chinese-French dictionary composed by Joseph de Guignes (1721-1800) and published in 1813 (Dictionnaire chinois, français et latin), donated by Count Olivier de Gourjault (1837-1891). This proved to be very useful during her first readings of Chinese books (Gautier J., 1905, p. 203). Later, she frequented the rue de Richelieu library (now the Bibliothèque nationale) with Ding Dunling, where they copied Chinese poems and borrowed other works that would inspire her writings (Gautier J., 1905, p. 204-206).

In 1864, the budding scholar published nine poems translated from the original creations of five Chinese poets titled Variations sur des thèmes chinois in L’Artiste under the name "Judith Walter" (Walter J., 1864, p. 37-38). The following year, eight new translations were published in the same journal (Walter J., 1865, p. 261). In 1867, her first poetic anthology, entitled Le Livre de Jade, was published (Walter J., 1867). In addition to the 17 previously published poems, it contained 54 additional translations. Le Livre de Jade is now considered one of the most influential texts for the reception of Chinese poetry in the West (Yu P., 2015; Yu P, 2007).

The following year, Judith Gautier published her first novel, Le Dragon impérial, a legendary work on China, which first appeared in 33 instalments in La Liberté (March 23 – May 27, 1868) and then in book form with Lemerre in 1869. The novel appears under the name "Judith Mendès" because she married the poet Catulle Abraham Mendès (1841-1901) on April 17, 1866 in Neuilly-sur-Seine (AD Neuilly-sur-Seine 2E27/57) after having refused the marriage proposal of Mohsin Khan, M'uin ul Mulk, Ambassador of Persia the previous year (dates unknown; Gautier J., 1905, p. 331-334; Richardson J., 2013, p. 27). The marriage with Catulle Mendès immediately proved unhappy, and Judith obtained a legal separation on July 13, 1878 and a divorce on December 28, 1896 (Richardson J., 1986, p. 54-55, 108-112, 134; AD Neuilly-sur-Seine 2E27/57).

At the Legations of China and Japan in France

While learning Chinese and reading it formed an indirect link between Judith Gautier and the Eastern world, which she never visited, her exchanges with envoys and Asian travellers in Paris, as well as her participation in intercultural events, offered various direct opportunities to learn about these distant countries. Thanks to her father's background and through her French friends, Judith Gautier got to know the Asian envoys and maintained good relations with them. Her name often appeared in the written accounts of Chinese travellers whose notes provide important documentation of the young woman’s continued education outside of the formal Chinese lessons she received at home (Shi Y., 2020). Judith Gautier frequently visited the Chinese legation in France and attended many of the activities the envoys organised in Paris. We see this participation in cultural activities in the numerous "Notes sur la Chine" that she published in the Journal officiel under the pseudonym "F. Chaulnes" from July 31, 1875 to September 22, 1876 (Chaulnes F., 1875-1876). In these notes, she dealt with subjects such as medicine, marriage practices, poetry, funeral ceremonies and music, and brought the stories she heard from Chinese diplomats to the general public. In 1905, she participated in the celebration ceremony for the Chinese New Year, organised at the Chinese legation in Paris (Gautier J., 1919, p. 153) and, in 1906, in an evening to welcome Prince Zaize ([载泽], 1868-1929).

Judith Gautier thus became an important witness to high-level diplomatic and cultural exchanges between France and China. During her meetings with the first Chinese diplomats, notably with Zeng Jize ([曾纪泽], 1839-1890), she bore the title of visitor or guest. However, as her relationships with members of the Chinese legation in France developed, she forged friendly ties, such as with Liu Shixun ([刘式训], 1869-1929), and even close friends, such as Yu Geng ([裕庚], ?-1905) and Sun Baoqi ([孙宝琦], 1867-1931) [Shi Y., 2020]. As they were all poets and writers, their exchanges inspired new literary creations.

She also frequented the Japanese legation, notably through her friends Saionzi Kinmochi ([西園寺公望], 1849-1940), future Prime Minister of the country, whom she met shortly after the young student's arrival in Paris in 1871, and especially Saburō Komyōji (“Mitsouda Komiosi” [光妙寺三郎], 1847-1893) who was attached to the legation (Gautier J., 1912, p. 59). Saionzi and Saburō contributed to the novel that Gautier called L'Usurpateur (Mendès J., 1875), which was republished from 1883 under the title La Sœur du soleil (Emery E., 2022). This historical novel recounts life at the Japanese imperial court in detail while bringing alive the best-known episodes of the Siege of Osaka (1615). She collaborated again with her Japanese friends on Les Poèmes de la libellule (Gautier J., 1885) which, with illustrations by Yamamoto Hosui ([山本芳翠], 1850-1906) introduced Japanese "waka" poetry to Europeans, a discovery that turned out to be crucial for the Symbolist movement in particular (Hokenson J., 2004). Gautier continued to participate in the cultural activities offered by the legation, such as a tea ceremony at the beginning of the 20th century, mentioned in a chapter of the book Le Japon (Gautier J., 1912, p. 59-68).

There was no longer a legation for the Nguyễn dynasty after the French invasion of Tonkin in 1885, but Gautier met Hàm Nghi (咸宜帝), born Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Lịch (1872-1944) from 1900. She fell in love with the "Emperor of Annam", but the feelings were not mutual, which did not however prevent the development of a long and lasting friendship (Richardson J., 1986, p. 203-205; Dabat A, 2020, pp. 325-326). She visited him in his Algerian exile (her only trip outside of Europe), and his family visited her regularly in France (Richardson J., 1986, p. 203-205, 245, 260; Dabat A., 2020). Although this exiled prince refused to talk about his experiences in Vietnam, his unjust treatment at the hands of the French served as an inspiration for Gautier's writings as well as his artistic works: she produced busts and medallions of the emperor and his family, and the two artists exhibited their sculptures and drawings at the Galerie Devambez in 1909 (Dabat A., 2020, p. 332-338).

A Work Informed by the Arts of the Far East

Judith Gautier is known today as a poet, novelist, playwright and artist, but in her time she was also appreciated as an art critic and columnist specialising in the arts of the Far East. As of 1864, she collaborated with leading newspapers and reviews (L'Artiste, Le Moniteur Universel, Journal Officiel) where she published studies on the arts of China, Japan, Siam and India under the pseudonyms "Judith Walter", "F. Chaulnes", and "Judith Mendès". Many examples can be found in the bibliography: articles on woodcarving, enamels, jades, ivories and Chinese costumes as well as on Japanese painting (Chaulnes F., 1878). His appreciation of the Chinese collection of the soldier Jean-Louis de Négroni (dates unknown) in 1864, for example, condemns the "looting" of the "Palace of the Son of Heaven" while emphasising the beauty of jade, rock crystal objects and fabrics that appeared in this French collection brought back from China (Walter J., 1864, p. 188-89). Similarly, her long reviews of the Universal Exhibitions of 1867 and 1878 for Le Moniteur universelle introduced the general public to the painting and sculpture of these countries (Walter J., 1867; Chaulnes F., 1878) while his writings on Chinese music are based on serious research (Shi Y., 2020).

But from the 1880s, Gautier seemed to get carried away by the commercial vogue for the stories of "princesses" (Viegnes M., 2011). Influenced as much by her friendships with Victor Hugo (1802-1885) and Richard Wagner (1813-1883) – both fond of mythology – as by new business opportunities, she published more and more texts imbued with "exoticism" from the Far East. She republished her old press articles in anthologies with mysterious new titles to hook the public: Peuples étranges (Gautier J., 1879) –in which she evokes Chinese, Japanese and Cochinchinese traditions – Les Musiques bizarres à l’Exposition de 1900 –where she describes Chinese, Javanese, Indochinese, Japanese, Egyptian and Malagasy performances (Gautier J., 1900). Les Princesses d’amour (Gautier J., 1900) evokes the world of Japanese courtesans so well known in France thanks to the ukiyo-e prints that became fashionable in Paris from the exhibition of Japanese prints at the École des beaux-arts in 1891. Her illustrated children's books En Chine (Merveilleuses Histoires) and Le Japon (Merveilleuses Histoires) juxtapose historical, linguistic, cultural, and religious elements with chapters on art, music, fashion and literature (Gautier J., 1911; Gautier J., 1912).

It is above all in the theatre that Gautier demonstrated her knowledge of Asian art and music: letters sent to the musée Guimet show how much she sought to bring authentic works of art on stage, whether costumes or musical instruments that she borrowed or copied (MNAAG, letter from Gautier to the musée Guimet on November 7, 1897). But the many "Chinese", “Japanese", or "Annamite" plays that she put on at the Odéon theatre, at the Vaudeville, and in private residences from 1880 to 1918 must have complicated the vision of the Far East for Parisians. If the artwork and costumes on stage were more or less authentic, what about the scripts adapted from Chinese or Japanese stories and performed in French by Europeans dressed as "Orientals"? La Marchande de sourires, a so-called "Chinese" play that she adapted for the Odéon in 1888 by transposing the plot to Japan, provides a good example of the confusion caused by this kind of mixture. The costumes and scenes, photographed by the Atelier Nadar and kept at the Bibliothèque nationale, allow us to assess the effects that this kind of spectacle might have produced (Atelier Nadar, 1888).

And what about the stereotypes disseminated by the interchangeable "oriental" titles of these plays? Le Ramier blanc (Chinese play) performed at the Hôtel de Poilly in 1880 (Richardson J., 1986, p. 139); La Tunique merveilleuse (Chinese piece) at the Odéon in 1899 (Gautier J., 1904); Princesses d’amour (adapted from his eponymous collection of “Japanese” tales at the Vaudeville in 1908; Richardson J., 1986, p. 288); L’Avare chinoise (Chinese play) at the Odéon in 1908 (Gautier J., 1919); Embûche fleurie at the Michel theater in 1911 (Richardson J., 1986, p. 233, 281); La Fille du Ciel ("Chinese drama" co-written with Pierre Loti, 1850-1923; Gautier J., 1911); L’Apsara (Hindu play; Richardson J., 1986, p. 288); Les Portes rouges (“Annamite Play”; Richardson J., 1986, p. 279). The five volumes of Japon et la Chine dans les œuvres de Judith Gautier, a collection directed by Brigitte Koyama-Richard, provides an anthology of Gautier’s most important texts without claiming to be exhaustive. Her Œuvres complètes, a collection curated by Yvan Daniel at Classiques Garnier, is in progress; Daniel and his collaborators will perhaps put more emphasis on his important theatrical work and the influence that his shows would have had on Western audiences.

Dream World

Judith Gautier's career can be characterised by her "free spirit", as she put it when she was elected to the Académie Goncourt in 1910 (Gautier J., Le Temps, 1910). She sought autonomy, a distinctive identity. If she was first recognised for publications inspired by Chinese or Japanese poetry or for chronicles devoted to the history or culture of the countries of the Far East, she gradually abandoned ethnography and history to produce free translations or rewritings of Chinese, Japanese or Indian texts. As with her plays, the titles of some of her later prose works convey a sense of the exotic "scent" she diffused around the cultures she first sought to make familiar. In Fleurs d'Orient: Nouvelles Historiques (Gautier J., 1893), for example, Egyptian, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese tales are mixed together, as is also the case in Khou-n-ato-nou (fragments of a papyrus) and various short stories (Gautier J., 1898) or Le Paravent de soie et de l’or (Gautier J., 1904).

One should not necessarily interpret the profusion of princesses and mythological figures that populate Gautier's writings from the 1880s onwards as a reflection of her knowledge of real cultural practices: separated and then divorced from her husband and always short of money, she took advantage of a new demand for appropriate reading materials for children generated by the educational reforms of the Third Republic. She made a living by adapting the legendary stories she had heard, sparking her readers' imaginations regarding travel and geography, thus unwittingly contributing to the colonial expansion of which she disapproved. Suzanne Meyer-Zundel (1882-1971), with whom she lived, was passionate about European and Asian legends, as her friends Hugo and Wagner had previously been. This friendship with the young Meyer-Zundel likely encouraged Judith Gautier’s mythological production. Meyer-Zundel shared her friend’s enthusiasm for Chinese and Japanese art: she installed her own small collection of Japanese and Chinese furniture in their Paris apartment (Etude KL, 1918).

The Collection

Judith Gautier's collection, like that of many artists, was made up of gifts from American, European, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Persian friends. We can cite, for example, a gold ring with a large diamond offered by the Shah of Persia Nassar Eddin (1831-1896; Étude KL, 1918); a zither from Hàm Nghi; or a fan offered by Chinese Prince Zaize. This fan is illustrated with a poem written by “Soueng-Pao-Ki” (Sun Baoqi [孙宝琦], 1867-1931) to whom Gautier dedicated a poem (Shi Y., 2020). Robert de Montesquiou, Baron du Fezensac (1855-1921) gave her a Japanese parasol (BnF N.a.fr. 15248, fo 41-42), which she exhibited at the Pré des Oiseaux, her Breton resort.
The villa Le Pré des Oiseaux, located on Saint-Énogat beach in Dinard, was acquired by Gautier and her husband, Catulle Mendès, in 1877. Mendès ceded it to her during the legal proceedings separate on July 13, 1878, before divorce was an option (KL study, 1917). She welcomed many artist friends to this summer home and they thanked their hostess for her hospitality by giving her gifts. John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) left her a beautiful portrait today in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Art (USA) and Yamamoto Hosui ([山本 芳翠], 1850-1906), who stayed in the villa in 1883, produced murals still preserved in a small pavilion in the garden (Takashina E, 2004; Bretania.brzh, 2021). It was he who illustrated Les Poèmes de la libellule in 1885. This Japanese painter, who arrived to study with Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) during the 1878 Exhibition, was one of the most important Asian “intermediaries”; his contributions to French graphic arts and to French and Japanese painting, as shown by Takashina (Takashina E, 2003-2004) greatly influenced artists from both countries. Yamamoto opened an art school, the "Seikokan", upon his return to Tokyo in 1887. His oil portrait of Gautier is believed to be the first of a European in Japan (Kanazawa K. 1990, p. 77)
Other elements of Judith Gautier's Asian collection are more difficult to assess. We know that she was attached to her Japanese works, which travelled with her: Suzanne Meyer-Zundel, Gautier's companion and heiress, remembers the care with which they "unhooked" the Japanese "kakemonos" and stored the "precious bibelots” at the end of each season in order to transport them back to Paris (Meyer-Zundel S., 1969, p. 39). Unfortunately, the inventory of the Parisian apartment made after Gautier's death in March 1918 –at a time when the war had kept her away from Paris for four years (Meyer-Zundel S., 1969, p. 194) –provides few details of a collection accumulated over forty years. No inventory was made of the Pré des Oiseaux villa, bequeathed with its furniture and objects to Meyer-Zundel (KL study, 1918).
Among the objects inventoried in Paris in the apartment on the fifth floor of 30, rue Washington, we recognise Théophile Gautier's bed ("a twisted column bed in carved oak and bedding" valued at 150 francs), but the assessments concerning (for example) a lot of "fifteen pieces of paintings and watercolours", "a copper dish, a basket, a copper Samovar" and "a copper earthenware vase", all priced at 100 francs, are frustrating when we know that Judith Gautier owned paintings by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), Paul Baudry (1828-1886), René Gérin (1862-1895; a scene from Tannhaüser), Singer Sargent, a medallion by Claudius Popelin (1825-1892), autographed portraits of Franz Liszt (1811-1886), Wagner, and Hugo (Guillemot M, 1888; Meyer-Zundel S., 1969, p. 22). Would the "six China vases and small shelf objects, a gallery of hearth, a chest, a candelabra, a wall lamp, a Japanese ivory" have had a greater aesthetic or heritage value than the 250 francs registered by the auctioneer? What about the "100 bound and paperback volumes" (10 francs) and the "200 paperback volumes including the Larousse" appraised along with the mahogany showcase and a locker (500 francs)? As a member of the Goncourt Academy and friend of three generations of writers and artists, Judith Gautier owned rare first editions and artists' books.
The memoirs left by many visitors to this small apartment over a period of 30 years would help us better understand the collection if they were not almost all predetermined by Gautier’s "orientalising" writings. Henri de Régnier, for example, emphasised her "Middle Eastern" aspects in 1892: “And this bizarre drawing-room, which seems like the boudoir of a circus caravan, where a wedge of orange offered by Judith, with the demeanour of an Eastern Jew, takes on an exotic air? And Judith herself is quite unique! It is as though a fairy from the thousand and one nights were captive in this body” (quoted by Laisney V., 2020, p. 62). The scholars who have collected such literary portraits (Richardson J., 1986; Laisney V., 2020; BnF recueil factice, s.d.) allow us to identify the many contradictions inherent in what are essentially beautiful prose paintings, not to be taken at face value. Because Judith Gautier "embodies the Orient" for her contemporaries (Horschani I, 2020, p. 163), their literary portraits create a smoke of orientalist incense to conceal the true contents of this modest Parisian apartment. This kind of poetic "mystery" (Gautier as the oracle of a "temple of memories", Laisney V., 2020, p. 53-60) made this small attic apartment more interesting for readers. "A hanging garden, under the sky of "modern Babylon", a "Carthaginian terrace", as Régnier evoked the apartment in 1930 (quoted in Laisney V., 2020, p. 71), does much more honour to Judith Gautier than Léo Larguier's realistic description of her in 1929: "A fat lady in a cream silk bathrobe" watering the plants on her balcony (Laisney V., 2020, p. 70).
Despite numerous references to an apartment stuffed with knick-knacks, a photograph of the apartment (the one that accompanies this notice) bears no resemblance to a "circus caravan" (BnF, recueil factice, fo 11). Gautier lounges on the sofa accompanied (according to the photo caption) by Bibelot, the "Japanese" dog who wears a small silk jacket, and Satan, the black cat. This photo was been taken before 1904, the publication date of Le Collier des jours (Gautier J., 1904).
Moreover, the salon was not over-encumbered for this period. This photo allows us to examine Judith Gautier’s familiar objects, including a series of Japanese paintings hanging on the wall and Japanese vases and fabrics with Indian motifs. Later visitors –particularly in the years before World War I – would likely have described objects belonging to Suzanne Meyer-Zundel, who had become Gautier's roommate so discretely that even notaries were caught off guard. During the 1918 inventory, they were surprised by the sudden appearance of Meyer-Zundel, who identified the Asian art objects that belonged to her: "A Chinese panel in red lacquered wood with a gilded frame", "a Chinese vase in cloisonné, a Japanese bronze incense burner, a cloisonné bronze peacock", "two Chinese torches" (KL study, 1918).
The documents we have today do not allow us to speak systematically of the "collection" of Judith Gautier, especially since she did not have the financial means that might have allowed her to buy rare art objects to bequeath to museums. On the other hand, she was well aware of the heritage value of her "chest full of autographs", in particular her correspondence with Richard Wagner’s family: she requested in her will that her executor deposit Wagner's letters in a library (Meyer-Zundel S., 1969, p. 219-228). The correspondence now resides in the Bibliothèque nationale. Meyer-Zundel also recognised the cultural value of letters, memoirs, and objects belonging to Judith Gautier's family and friends; for this reason, she protected these objects, going so far as to maintain the apartment on rue Washington (which Gautier rented) and the villa at Le Pré des Oiseaux until her own death in 1971, a full 54 years after Gautier's death. Before the Second World War, the villa in Dinard served as a small museum dedicated to the memory of Gautier. During the war, Meyer-Zundel defended the collection: when the house was requisitioned by the Germans she obliged them to leave. They were apparently impressed by this elderly Frenchwoman who defended with so much energy the mementos of their compatriot Wagner (Descaves P., 1947, p. 6).
If Judith Gautier was able to collect so many literary and artistic "treasures", it was thanks to a sociability that made her, in some sense, a collector and cultivator of artists and diplomats. Her interest in the culture of others contributed enormously to the advancement of cultural exchanges between France and the Far East. She created a Parisian space where people from different cultures could meet in intimacy. Gautier helped and encouraged young French people to learn or practice Chinese, as was the case for the future diplomat and translator George Soulié de Morant (1878-1955; Meyer-Zundel S., 1969, p. 49) or Jules Jacquemart (1837-1880; see d'Abrigeon P., 2018-2019, p. 87) while helping foreigners like Ezra Pound (1885-1972) or Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Siamese visitors get to know the French better. This is why Remy de Gourmont calls her salon an "Asian academy" and visitors of all nationalities were amazed by the number of people from various backgrounds – ambassadors, artists or ethnologists – with whom they rubbed shoulders in her home (Gourmont R., 1922). It therefore seems quite fitting that it was the emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, exiled in Algeria, who sent the Chinese inscription appearing on Gautier's tomb at Saint-Énogat in Brittany: 日来天, translated by Meyer-Zundel as "la lumière du ciel arrive": "heavenly light arrives" (Meyer-Zundel S., 1969, p. 218).