Jules Goncourt

…Journal no doubt belonged to Jules, whose fatal stroke presumably was preceded by syphilis.

The journals of Edmond and Jules Goncourt are an indispensable record of the events of the day, but the brothers omitted any mention of Courbet’s paintings in their first Salon review, because his Realism—“matter glorified”—offended them. Similarly, critic Clément de Ris refused to discuss Courbet’s hugely influential Burial at Ornans,…

…than the Journal of the Goncourts, who were the inventors of a mannered “art prose,” of contemporary lives, characters, and gossip.

In 1856 the Goncourt brothers published “Philosophie de Watteau,” in which they compared him to Rubens. Marcel Proust, at the end of the century, was among those who best sensed Watteau’s greatness. Eventually the esteem Watteau enjoyed in the circle of art lovers, poets, and novelists extended to…