Henry Fouquier

Jacques François Henry Fouquier (1 September 1838 – 25 December 1901) was a French journalist, writer, playwright and politician. He wrote for many newspapers and journals, often pseudonymously but with a style recognisably his own. He was best known as the chief theatre critic of Le Figaro.

Life and career

Early years

Henry Fouquier was born in Marseille, the son of a notary. He studied medicine and law but was drawn to neither calling. He was brought up to have liberal values, and throughout his life was proud of his native city, but according to one obituarist the bourgeois spirit of his surroundings did not appeal to him. At the age of 22 he began travelling and spent several years in Spain, Italy and later Switzerland, where he entered the Geneva Institute, studying Italian painting.

Attracted by journalism he moved to Paris in 1861, where he wrote for several newspapers, such as the Courrier du Dimanche, La Presse and L'Avenir National. This was at the height of the Second Empire, under which press freedom was strictly curtailed. Liberal journalists like Fouquier had to exercise great ingenuity and wit to get their views across to their readers without falling foul of the authorities. As a colleague put it, "We did not have licence to say anything, or almost anything, yet we said everything, or almost everything – but it took talent". Later, when Feydeau was established as a playwright, Fouquier found himself reviewing his stepson's plays from time to time, and despite criticising aspects of some of them he was generally able to agree with his fellow reviewers about their merits.

Despite his success as a journalist, Fouquier hankered after a political career. He unsuccessfully sought election in Bouches-du-Rhône to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the French parliament, but in 1889 he was elected for the Basses-Alpes département. He was a poor orator, made little impression in the Chamber and willingly stood down after one term and returned to journalism. After the death of Auguste Vitu in 1891 he became chief theatre critic of Le Figaro. the run of which at the Théâtre de l'Odéon was 38 performances (one of the longer runs at a house where short runs were the norm.) He was twice a candidate for membership of the Académie française, and was professor of journalism at the École libre des sciences politiques.

Fouquier died on Christmas Day 1901 in a nursing home in Neuilly-sur-Seine after a short illness and an unsuccessful operation, and was buried in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.

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