Désirée Pacault (29 January 1798 – 25 January 1881) was a French poet, composer, journalist and writer.

Désirée Pacault
Born(1798-01-29)29 January 1798
Died25 January 1881(1881-01-25) (aged 82)
NationalityFrench
Occupations
  • Poet
  • composer
  • journalist
  • author

Biography

edit

Pacault was the daughter of a rhetoric professor,[1] Désirée Pacault was born in Beaune on the 11th pluviôse of the Year 6.[2]

Based at the Hôtel d'Aligre, at 123 rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, in 1825 she sold the book Le Participe français mis à la portée de tous les âges, written by the schoolteacher A. Riby.[3] and reissued in 1829[4] She obtained a bookseller's patent on 18 July 1828 and published in 1831 the prospectus Écho littéraire, album poétique.[5]

Member in 1831 of the Athénée des arts, sciences et belles lettres de Paris, in 1832 of the Société d'enseignement universel, she intervened on 29 October 1832 during a literary evening of the Athénée des arts to read one of her texts entitled "L'Inspiration".[6]

In 1837, she wrote a poem in honour of the marriage of Duke of Orléans and Hélène of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.[7] In December, she replaced Théodore Poupin as editor-in-chief of La Capricieuse, journal des modes parisiennes, where she gave more space to reviews of shows.[8] In 1838, she was a literary critic for the magazine La France littéraire.

Member in 1839 of the academies of sciences in Vienna and of letters in Florence,[9] in 1840 of the Academy of Sciences of Siena (first female member), in 1846 of the Society of Artist Musicians of Paris,[2] she obtained in 1842 a silver medal from the Society Racinienne[10] for a cantata in honour of Racine.[11] Freemason, she set some of her poems to music, such as "C'était les ciels", which she dedicated to the lodge Les Amis fidèles de l'Orient de Paris.[12] · [13] She also composed art songs ("mélodies" on poems by Alphonse de Lamartine and Jean Reboul.[2]

An ode to Luís de Camões that she wrote, set to music by George O'Kelly, was sung at a literary and artistic festival organized in Paris on 10 June 1880, for the three-hundredth anniversary of the death of the Portuguese poet.[14][15]

She died in Paris on 25 January 1881, at 47 Rue des acacias in the 17th arrondissement.[2]

References

edit
  1. ^ Sahyouni, Dina (2022-09-16). "The little prisoner bird by Désirée Pacault". Le Pan poétique des Muses (in French). Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  2. ^ a b c d "Désirée Pacault, artist from Beaune". Municipal Archives of Beaune (in French). 2020-06-23. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  3. ^ Arbour, Roméo (2003). Dictionary of women booksellers in France, 1470-1870 (in French). Librairie Droz. p. 411. ISBN 978-2-600-00827-3. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  4. ^ Bibliographie de la France (in French). Cercle de la librairie. 1829. p. 25. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  5. ^ Bibliographie de la France (in French). 1831. p. 658. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  6. ^ "La France littéraire" (in French). Pinard. 1832. p. 236. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  7. ^ "Épithalamion de mademoiselle Pacault". 1837-06-01.
  8. ^ Watelet, Jean (1999). The illustrated press in France, 1814-1914: thesis for the State Doctorate in Political Science, Regime 1974 (in French). Presses universitaires du Septentrion. ISBN 978-2-284-00901-6. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  9. ^ Le Globe: general archives of non-political secret societies (in French). Le Globe. 1839. p. 18. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  10. ^ "Racinian Society". 1842-07-10. p. 8.
  11. ^ Racinian Society. Literary and artistic congress (in French). Meaux: Imprimerie A. Carro. 1844. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  12. ^ "Pacault". mvmm.org. Retrieved 2023-10-14.
  13. ^ Le Globe: general archives of non-political secret societies. Le Globe. 1839. p. 432. Retrieved 2024-08-26.
  14. ^ "Lettres, sciences et beaux-arts". La France : Politique, scientifique et littéraire. 1880-06-08. p. 3.
  15. ^ Nouvelles. 1880-06-12. p. 397. Retrieved 2024-08-26.