19/1/05 – Pradier, Juliette Drouet et Claire (Dr Simon A. Hart).
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.
19/1/05 – Réponse D. Siler.
I appreciated very much your e-mail 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 – possibly four – other children to worry about (see my article on Jacques-Henri Bouvier, dit James, typographe, peintre, poète et...fils de James Pradier).
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.