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Gustave Geffroy
1855–1926
A sharp-eyed French critic, novelist, and journalist who helped early readers make sense of Impressionism, he was also a close supporter of artists including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne. His writing connects the art world of late 19th-century Paris with the wider social life of his time.
2 Audiobooks
In Midden-Bretagne
by Gustave Geffroy
In Zuid-Bretagne
by Gustave Geffroy
About the author
Born in Paris on June 1, 1855, Gustave Geffroy became a French journalist, art critic, historian, and novelist. He wrote for La Justice from 1880 and built a reputation as an engaged observer of both politics and culture.
He is especially remembered as one of the earliest historians of Impressionism. His Histoire de l'impressionnisme appeared in 1892, and he championed painters such as Claude Monet, whom he met in Belle-Île-en-Mer in 1886. Through Monet, he also came to know Paul Cézanne, who painted his portrait in the 1890s.
Geffroy was one of the ten founding members of the Académie Goncourt in 1900. In 1908, Georges Clemenceau appointed him director of the Gobelins tapestry factory, a post he held until his death in Paris on April 4, 1926. Alongside his art writing, he published novels, historical works, and wide-ranging studies of artists and museums.