Albert Patin de La Fizelière explained

Albert de La Fizelière
Pseudonym:
  • A. D. L. F.
  • A. André
  • Henri Egerton
  • L.-G. de Marsay
  • Ludovic de Marsay
  • Ludovic G. de Marsay
  • Le Capitaine Pompilius
Birth Name:Albert-André Patin de La Fizelière
Birth Date:1819 8, df=yes
Birth Place:Marly (Moselle), France
Death Place:Paris
Occupation:Writer
Nationality:French
Notableworks:Charles Baudelaire (1868)
(joint author)
Spouse:Sara Bouclier (18391913; m. 1854)

Albert-André Patin de La Fizelière (7August 181911February 1878), also known by his pen name Ludovic de Marsay, was a French littérateur, writer on electoral and constitutional law, art critic, and historian, known for his friendship with Champfleury and for his ties to the Café Guerbois circle. He was described by Edmond Antoine Poinsot (Georges d'Heylli; 18331902) as one "of the small number of our learned men who are both spiritual and without pedantry".[1] He was a friend of Baudelaire and published the first bibliography of the latter a year after his death.

To the general public he is known for his dictum that "the public generally prefers a gibe to a word and a buffoon to a comedian" (le public préfère généralement le lazzi au mot et la queue-rouge au comédien), which had been anthologized in dictionaries of French quotations from 1840 onwards.[2]

Life and works

His earliest publication in book form seems to have been an elaboration of the popular historical work, Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire de France... of Charles-Jean-François Hénault (16851770), which was issued in 1842 as "updated to the present times" by "Ludovic G. de Marsay".[3] He was the editor of the art magazine Bulletin de l'Ami des arts (published 18431845), of the Journal de l'album des théâtres, of La Petite Revue (published 18631870?; since 1867 as La Petite Revue anecdotique), and of the weekly foreigners' guide to Paris, the Gazette parisienne.[4] Many of his art reviews that appeared in the magazine L'Artiste were subsequently reprinted as independent brochures. La Fizelière was the founder of the magazine Notre Histoire in 1848.

He was an admirer of the work of Charles Nodier, whose obituary he published in the Bulletin de l'Ami des arts of 30 January 1844, having been instrumental in bringing his Franciscus Columna to print posthumously in the same year.[5] Some years later he would publish Nodier's correspondence with Alphonse Martainville.[6]

In 1855 (in some reports, at the end of 1854) La Fizelière married the fifteen-year-old Sara Bouclier (18391913), whose beauty, grace and spirit had already attracted an entourage of suitors before her marriage to La Fizelière, and who would go on to become at his side a translator of English literature into the French language.[7] Her portrait (an oil painting on canvas) executed by Charles-Émile-Callande de Champmartin in 1845 when Sara Bouclier was 6-years' old (looking considerably more mature) and preserved today at the Musée national du château de Compiègne, is an ample testimony to her assets, both physical and intellectual.[8]

In the latter part of his life he edited the 12-volume Œuvres diverses of Jules Janin.[9]

He edited and published literary monuments of the regional dialects of France, such as the hitherto unpublished 17th-century Dialogue de Thoinette et d'Alizon in the Lorrain dialect (1856),[10] and several pieces in the Franco­phone dialect of Metzgau (the so-called patois messin).[11]

His publications in the field of art history include an essay on Vivant Denon,[12] and another on Antoine Chintreuil.[13]

La Fizelière's caricature was drawn by the famous artist Nadar towards the middle of the century, in which La Fizelière is called "Lafiselière" (preserved in the manuscript collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France).[14] Four months after his death his personal library was dispersed in a public sale,[15] while his manuscripts and his art collection went on sale five months later.[16] [17] [18]

Works

1840s

1850s

1860s

1870s

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Georges d'Heylli, Dictionnaire des pseudonymes, 2nd ed., Paris, E. Dentu, 1868, p. 100.
  2. Lorédan Larchey, Les Excentricités du langage, 4th ed., augm., Paris, E. Dentu, 1862, p. 268.
  3. [Charles-Jean-François Hénault]
  4. Gazette parisienne, ancien journal "l'Été", commerce, industrie, sciences, littérature, beaux-arts, théâtres, sport, modes, etc., paraissant tous les dimanches; programme des chemins de fer, des voitures publiques et des bateaux à vapeur. Guide général de l'étranger dans Paris. (1re année, 5 novembre31 décembre 1854. Rédacteur : Albert de La Fizelière.)
  5. [Charles Nodier]
  6. [Charles Nodier]
  7. [Paul Lacroix]
  8. http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/image/joconde/0341/m500904_06-502789_p.jpg Charles-Émile-Callande de Champmartin, "Sara Bouclier" (1845) (see online).
  9. [Jules Janin]
  10. Dialogue de Thoinette et d'Alizon: pièce inédite en patois lorrain du dix-septième siècle publiée et annotée par M. Albert de La Fizelière, Paris, Imp. de S. Raçon, 1856.
  11. Albert de La Fizelière, Lo Rondot don Jozon, chanson messine réquiaye pet M. Albert de La Fizelière et Maly devant Metz, Paris, Impr. de Firmin-Didot frères, 1853.
  12. Dominique Vivant Denon, L'Oeuvre originale de Vivant Denon...: Collection de 317 eaux-fortes dessinées et gravées par ce célèbre artiste... avec une notice très détaillée sur sa vie intime, ses relations et son oeuvre par M. Albert de La Fizelière, Paris, A. Barraud, 1873.
  13. Albert de La Fizelière, La Vie et l'oeuvre de Chintreuil, Paris, Cadart, 1874.
  14. [Bibliothèque nationale de France]
  15. Cf. Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. Albert de La Fizelière... dont la vente aux enchères aura lieu le lundi 10 juin 1878 et les six jours suivants..., Paris, Vve A. Aubry, 1878.
  16. Cf. Lettres autographes: Paris, Hôtel Drouot, salle 4, 8 novembre 1878, Me Escribe : Com.-pris., Paris [?], Etienne Charavay, [1878 ?].
  17. Cf. Dessins, aquarelles, gouaches anciens et modernes, lettres autographes composant la collection de feu M. Albert de La Fizelière,... vente 8 November 1878... [experts] George, Charavay, Paris, Ves Renou, Maulde et Cock, 1878.
  18. Cf. Estampes anciennes et modernes, eaux-fortes, lithographies..., portraits, vignettes, illustrations, collection de M. Albert de La Fizelière... : catalogue... vente 9 November 1878... [expert] Vignères, Paris, Ves Renou, Maulde et Cock, 1878.