GAUTIER, THÉOPHILE

   a distinguished French poet, novelist, and critic, born at Tarbes; began life as a painter, but turning to literature soon attracted the attention of Sainte-Beuve by some studies in the old French authors; by-and-by he came under the influence of Victor Hugo, and in 1830 started his career as a poet by the publication of "Albertus," five years after which appeared his famous novel "Mademoiselle de Maupin"; for many years he was engaged in the work of art criticism for the Paris newspapers, and those of his critiques dealing with the drama have been republished, and fill six vols.; both as poet and novelist his works have been numerous, and several delightful books of travel in Spain, Turkey, Algeria, &c., have come from his pen; as a literary artist Gautier has few equals to-day in France, but his work is marred by a lax and paradoxical philosophy of life, which has, by his more enthusiastic admirers, been elevated into a "cult" (1811-1872).