Founder of the Mercure de France in 1889, he lost his post at the Bibliothèque nationale two years later for “Le Joujou patriotique”, an article mocking revanchist nationalism. Lupus was eating away at his face: withdrawn from the world, he fixed in Le Livre des masques the portrait of a whole literary generation.
The story
Born on 4 April 1858 at Bazoches-au-Houlme, in Normandy, Remy de Gourmont took a post at the Bibliothèque nationale and wrote. In 1889 he was among the founders of the Mercure de France, which became the central review of Symbolism.
In 1891 his article “Le Joujou patriotique”, the patriotic toy, mocked the nationalism that dreamed of revenge on Germany, and it cost him his post: he was dismissed from the Bibliothèque nationale. From then on he lived by his pen.
Lupus vulgaris — tuberculosis of the skin — ate away his face. He withdrew from the world, received few people, walked at night, and wrote all the more: Le Livre des masques (1896) fixed the portrait of a whole literary generation.
His correspondence with the Amazon, Natalie Clifford Barney, and the admiration of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot made him, after his death, a touchstone of modern criticism.
He died in Paris on 27 September 1915, in the middle of the war, and lies in Division 10, chemin Denon, fourth row — in the grave of the sculptor Auguste Clésinger, with Berthe de Courrière, who was the model of the one and the companion of the other.
The grave
The writer rests in the grave of the sculptor Auguste Clésinger (1814-1883), author of the Woman Bitten by a Snake and of Chopin's monument. The link runs through Berthe de Courrière, the sculptor's model and legatee, Gourmont's friend for twenty-five years, who had him admitted there: “Rémy de GOURMONT 1858-1915”. Three lives in a tomb that bears none of their names first.
On site, do not miss
The grave is not his: it is that of the sculptor Auguste Clésinger. Look for the three names — the sculptor, his model Berthe de Courrière, and the writer who was her friend.
Visitors' questions
Where is Remy de Gourmont's grave?
In Division 10, chemin Denon, fourth row, in the grave of the sculptor Auguste Clésinger. He rests there with Berthe de Courrière, the sculptor's model and the writer's close friend: three destinies in a single tomb.
Auguste ClésingerWhy was Remy de Gourmont dismissed?
For an article. “Le Joujou patriotique” — the patriotic plaything — published in 1891, mocked the revanchist nationalism of the years after 1870; the Bibliothèque nationale turned him out of his post. He lived by his pen from then on, and never retracted a word.
Henri BarbusseWhat was the Symbolism he wrote about as a critic?
A movement of the late nineteenth century that preferred suggestion to description. Le Livre des masques (1896), in which Gourmont drew portraits of his contemporaries, remains its best guide — and Gourmont the most widely read critic of his generation.
Villiers de l’Isle-AdamWhat did Remy de Gourmont suffer from?
From lupus vulgaris — tuberculosis of the skin — which disfigured his face from the 1890s onwards. He withdrew from the world, going out mostly at night, and made writing his only public place until his death in 1915 — he rests in Division 10 of Père-Lachaise.
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