Gustave Geffroy

Born in Paris in 1855, Gustave Geffroy became known as a journalist, art critic, historian, and novelist. He is remembered especially for his writing on modern French art and for being one of the ten founding members of the Académie Goncourt in 1900.

Geffroy was an early and enthusiastic defender of artists including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne. His support for Cézanne was so valued that the painter created a famous portrait of him in the mid-1890s, a sign of how closely Geffroy was connected to the artistic life of his time.

Alongside criticism, he also wrote novels and historical works, helping shape how later readers understood late 19th-century French culture. He died in Paris in 1926, but his reputation endures through his art writing and his role in the literary world of modern France.