Arsène Houssaye
Arsène Houssaye (28 March 1815 – 26 February 1896) was a French novelist, poet and man of letters. His 1879 book Des destinées de l'âme is notable for having been bound in human skin.
Biography
Houssaye was born in Bruyères (Aisne), near Laon; his original surname was Housset.[1]
In 1832 he found his way to Paris, and in 1836 he published two novels, La Couronne de bleuets and La Pécheresse. He had many friends in Paris, among them Jules Janin and Théophile Gautier, and he wrote in collaboration with Jules Sandeau. He produced art criticism in L'Histoire de la peinture flamande et hollandaise (1846); semi-historical sketches in Mlle de la Vallière et Mme de Montespan (1860) and Galerie de portraits du XVIII siècle (1844); literary criticism in Le Roi Voltaire (1858) and his famous satirical Histoire du quarante et unième fauteuil de l'Académie française, dealing with notables who failed of election to the French Academy[2] (1855); drama in his Comédiennes (1857); poetry in his Symphonie de vingt ans (1867), Cent et un sonnets (1873), etc.; and novels, Les Filles d'Eve (1852) and many others.[1] He was long editor of L'Artiste and for some years was editor and proprietor of La Presse.[citation needed]
In 1849, through the influence of the actress Rachel, he was entrusted with the administration of the Theâtre Français, a position he filled with unfailing tact and success until 1859, when he was made inspector general of fine art.[1][3]
In 1863, when excavating the site of the chapel of Saint-Florentin at the Chateau d'Amboise in the Loire Valley, he found a partially-complete skeleton and stone fragments bearing the inscription 'EO [...] DUS VINC'. The unusually large skull led Houssaye to conclude he had located the remains of Leonardo, which were re-interred in the chapel of Saint-Hubert at the same chateau.[4] Reflecting doubts about the attribution, a plaque above the tomb states that the remains are only "presumed" to be those of Leonardo. In 2016, it was announced that DNA tests were to be conducted to investigate the veracity of the attribution, with results expected in 2019.[5]
His Confessions, souvenirs d'un demi-siècle appeared in 1885–91. See also J. Lemaître, Arsène Houssaye (1897), with a bibliography.[1]
He died in Paris. His son Henry was a noted historian.
References
- ^ a b c d public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Houssaye, Arsène". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 827–828. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ New International Encyclopedia. 1905. .
- ^ Belyaev 2018, p. 90.
- ^ Nicholl, Charles (2005). Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind (1st ed.). Penguin. p. 502. ISBN 9780140296815.
- ^ Knapton, Sarah (5 May 2016). "Leonardo da Vinci paintings analysed for DNA to solve grave mystery". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
Source
- Belyaev, N. S. (2018). Honorary Free Associates of the Imperial Academy of Arts. Brief biographical guide (PDF). St Petersburg: Russian Academy of Sciences. p. 90. ISBN 978-5-336-00234-8.
External links
- Quotations related to Arsène Houssaye at Wikiquote
- Media related to Arsène Houssaye at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by Arsène Houssaye at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Arsène Houssaye at Internet Archive
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the New International Encyclopedia
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- All articles with unsourced statements
- Articles with unsourced statements from December 2017
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Articles with Project Gutenberg links
- Articles with Internet Archive links
- Articles with FAST identifiers
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with BIBSYS identifiers
- Articles with BNE identifiers
- Articles with BNF identifiers
- Articles with BNFdata identifiers
- Articles with CANTICN identifiers
- Articles with GND identifiers
- Articles with ICCU identifiers
- Articles with J9U identifiers
- Articles with KBR identifiers
- Articles with LCCN identifiers
- Articles with Libris identifiers
- Articles with NKC identifiers
- Articles with NLA identifiers
- Articles with NLG identifiers
- Articles with NTA identifiers
- Articles with PLWABN identifiers
- Articles with PortugalA identifiers
- Articles with VcBA identifiers
- Articles with CINII identifiers
- Articles with ULAN identifiers
- Articles with DTBIO identifiers
- Articles with Trove identifiers
- Articles with RISM identifiers
- Articles with SNAC-ID identifiers
- Articles with SUDOC identifiers
- 1815 births
- 1896 deaths
- People from Aisne
- French poets
- Administrators of the Comédie-Française
- Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
- 19th-century French novelists
- French male poets
- French male novelists
- 19th-century poets
- 19th-century French male writers