Template:POTD/2019-05-05
Albert Aurier (1865–1892) was a French poet, art critic and painter, associated with the Symbolist movement. The son of a notary born in Châteauroux, Aurier went to Paris in 1883 to study law, but his attention was soon drawn to art and literature; he then began to contribute to Symbolist periodicals. He reviewed the annual Salon in Le Décadent, later contributed to La Plume and, in 1889, was the managing editor of Le Moderniste Illustré. From its foundation in 1890, he contributed to the Mercure de France, which published the essays on which Aurier's fame was founded: "Les Isolés: Vincent van Gogh" and "Le Symbolisme en peinture: Paul Gauguin". After a trip to Marseille, Aurier died at the age of twenty-seven in Paris from a typhus infection. The next day, friends, writers and artists accompanied his coffin to the funeral train departing for Châteauroux, where his remains were entombed in the family grave.
This picture of Aurier was taken around 1890 and is part of the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.Photograph credit: Unknown; restored by Jebulon