born Aug. 31, 1811, Tarbes, France
died Oct. 23, 1872, Neuilly-sur-Seine
French poet, novelist, critic, and journalist.
He lived most of his life in Paris, where he initially studied painting. He insisted on the sovereignty of the beautiful in such works as the novel Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835). He developed a poetic technique for recording his exact impressions of works of art, as in the formally perfect poems of Émaux et camées (1852). Travel inspired some of his best poetry, in España (1845), and finest prose, in Voyage en Espagne (1845). He also wrote copious art and drama criticism. His works inspired such poets as Charles Baudelaire , whose Fleurs du Mal was dedicated to him, and his prodigious and varied output influenced literary sensibilities for decades.