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Simon A. Hart (19/1/ 2005)
May I say, firstly, that I was delighted to find your site
and the material it contains. I have a particular interest in
this artist. My grandmother's maiden name was Pradier
(although I have not been able to establish any direct family
connection even though her family did live in Paris until
1870) and, for many years, I have been researching Juliette
Drouet (whom I will call Julie to avoid complication). This
had led me quite naturally to some investigations into her
relationship with Pradier.
In brief I would say that my impression is that, by and
large, biographical material on Pradier has not done justice
to his character. You are, of course, aware that he gave some
support to his (and Julie's) daughter, Claire, in her
schools, firstly with Mme Watteville in Paris and then at
Saumur, and then with Mme Marre and Mlle Hureau at Saint-Mandé.
Did you know, however, that he also provided financial
support (at least until 1834 or 1835) for Julie's cousin, Eugénie,
at the same school? Eugénie was the daughter of Francoise
Drouet (Julie's adoptive aunt) who was born shortly before
Julie entered the convent school in 1816 (note too that uncle
Drouet, who had, by then, separated from his wife, was not
Eugénie's father).
My point, here, is that Pradier had no formal relationship
with Eugénie and his contribution to her expenses can only
be seen as a favour – more than a favour – to Julie
who, by the end of this period, was fairly firmly established
in her relationship with Victor Hugo. This does not seem to
me to be the action of the mean and selfish man that Pradier
is usually described as being. The financial difficulties
which prevented him from contributing to Claire's school fees
appear to have been very real and seem to have arisen, very
largely, from the expenses he incurred in trying to satisfy
the aspirations of his wife, Louise. In any event, he knew by
then that Claire's expenses were also being met by Victor
Hugo.
I believe, too, that he has been generally maligned on other
accounts. From my researches it seems quite clear that his
breach with Julie, after the birth of Claire, was very much
her idea. Advised by Pastor Marron, Pradier certainly
considered marriage but she seems to have craved a more
exciting lifestyle than Pradier was prepared to offer. He was
very preoccupied with his work and his career at this point
and Julie took up with a new set of friends of whom he
strongly disapproved. The culmination of this was an affair
with a married doctor, Scipion Pinel, which resulted in
massive debts and led eventually to the debtor's court.
At this point (in 1828) Pradier formally acknowledged his
paternity of Claire, to protect her, placed her with a wet
nurse and arranged for Julie to go, firstly to Frankfort to
collect money, and then on to Brussels to start her acting
career. Conscience (or misplaced generosity) got the better
of her: she gave the money to Pinel and Pradier had to
provide further funds. Again, these do not seem to me to be
the actions of a tight-fisted man. His letters to Julie
throughout this period show that he was still very attached
to her in an avuncular sort of way. Indeed, at no point did
his feelings change although, after her association with
Victor Hugo became established, the letters are fewer and the
tone is both more formal and more circumspect. This is
scarcely surprising as Hugo was, by then, a very influential
man and Pradier was seeking his support to obtain official
commissions (in this he was partly successful, viz. his work
on the Arc de Triomph and, I would suggest, the commission
for Napoleon's tomb).
On one point I do find it harder to justify Pradier's
behaviour, and that was in respect of his treatment of Claire
in 1845/6. By then Pradier's marriage was in deep trouble. He
placed his daughter, Charlotte, with Claire at Saint-Mandé for
this reason. Preoccupied with his marriage difficulties and,
because of Louise's behaviour, concerned for his public
reputation, Pradier does not appear to have understood how
fragile Claire's constitution really was. Without doubt his
harsh criticism of her was the catalyst for the collapse of
her self-esteem and her health. Pradier was clearly unable to
cope with Claire's decline and, as a result, neglected both
his daughter and Julie when they were staying at Auteuil. His
failure to complete the project for her monument, promised to
Julie, was also a fault.
I hope this is of interest to you. You gather that I have a
considerable amount of material relating to Pradier and Julie
and would be happy to provide more details if you require
them. I would add that I have had some ideas for a
"life" of Pradier, but that this would probably be
beyond my resources at the present.
I will watch your site for further developments, as indicated,
with great interest.
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Douglas Siler (21/1/2005)
I appreciated very much your comments and thank you for your kind
words about my site.
In the course of my work on Pradier I have done considerable
research myself on Juliette Drouet over the past 30 years.
All too often Pradier has been caricatured by her
biographers, especially the early ones such as Souchon and
Guimbaud, who see him only through her letters to Victor Hugo
and pay scant attention to his art or to other aspects of his
biography. For them, he seems to have existed only through
her eyes and they tend to forget or to ignore the fact that,
in addition to Claire, he had three other children to worry about (and possibly even a fourth one, about whom I will have more
to say later on).
From what you write, I get the impression that you are
unaware of my edition of Pradier's Correspondance,
which touches on many of the points you raise. It includes a
large amount of material on Juliette, her niece Eugénie,
Claire, Victor Hugo, etc., etc., including all known letters
exchanged by Pradier and Juliette along with numerous
extracts from the thousands of letters she wrote to Victor
Hugo (of which more than 16,000 are at the BNF in Paris). If
you haven't seen it and do not have access to in in a
library, it can be ordered from my editor, the Librairie Droz, in Geneva.
Three volumes are in print, covering the years 1790 through
1846, and the last two, in preparation, will extend to
Pradier's death in 1852.
You are undoubtedly familiar with the two most recent
biographies devoted to Juliette, one by Henri Troyat (Juliette
Drouet, Flammarion, 1997) and the other by Gérard
Pouchain and Robert Sabourin (Julilette Drouet ou « la
dépaysée », Fayard, 1992). The latter is the
best documented and has, in fact, been plagiarized by Troyat.
I corresponded for many years about Juliette, Claire, Hugo
and Pradier with the French historian Jean Savant, whose
5-part work on La Vie sentimentale de Victor Hugo (chez
l'auteur, 1985) includes a volume entitled Juliette ou le
supplice de la chasteté and another entitled Les
amants de Juliette. L'histoire de ses dettes & les
personnages de sa vie. This work is a very rich source
of information on Juliette's life and is based on years of
research in the French archives. Unfortunately, it is not
easy to find and I fear that its author is long deceased.
I might also mention, in case you don't know it, Le roman
de Claire by Geneviève Bareiss (1992), based in part on
material which I provided to the author. It includes a series
of letters from Claire to Juliette which were purchased, at
my instigation, by the University Library in Geneva from
Juliette's sole surviving descendant, Dr. Louis Koch, whom I
had the honor of meeting some years ago at his home in
Germany. I believe that most of the documents he owned have
since been dispersed. Another fairly recent biography of
Claire by Claudette Combes (editor Guy Trédaniel, 1994) is a
pure plagiarism of my edition of Pradier's Correspondance.
I believe I have seen just about everything that has been
written on Pradier and Juliette, as well as an abundance of
original documents, but I would be very keen to hear more
about the material you have. Once again, thank you for your
letter and for your interest in my site.
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