Gustave Dutailly

Gustave Dutailly (2 August 1846, in Meuvy (Haute-Marne) – 4 February 1906) was a French botanist, politician and art collector.

He studied plant physiology in Paris, and in the meantime made contributions to the Dictionnaire de botanique. In 1870, he became a member of the Société linnéenne de Paris, and in 1875 a member of the Société botanique de France. In 1880, he was appointed a professor of botany to the faculty of sciences at Lyon. In Lyon, he also served as director of the Parc de la Tête d'Or. From 1882, he was a member of the Société d'anthropologie de Lyon.

A passionate collector of poster art, during his lifetime he amassed a collection of 5000 posters composed by artists that included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Chéret, Pierre Bonnard, Leonetto Cappiello, Eugène Grasset, Adolphe Léon Willette and Jules-Alexandre Grün. At the time of his death, his art collection as well as a library of 3500 volumes were bequeathed to the city of Chaumont.

Politically, he served three times in the National Assembly for the far-left, being elected 1881, 1885 and 1898. in 1872. Also the genus of Dutailliopsis by American botanist T.G.Hartley in 1997.