Albert Wolff (journalist)


Albert Abraham Wolff, was a French writer, dramatist, journalist, and art critic who was born in Germany.

Biography

Wolff graduated from a trade school after teaching in Paris. This was followed by a degree in Bonn before he settled in Paris in 1857. There he worked as a secretary for Alexandre Dumas. From 1859 he was editor of Le Charivari under the pseudonym Charles Brassac. He moved to Le Figaro where he became a leading art critic and was later promoted to editor of the newspaper. His discussions of the Paris Salon had a great impact of the success of contemporary artists. Wolff supported academic painting, with Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier as one of his favourite artists. Moreover he was intensively connected with contemporary French artists, a. o. the painters of the Barbizon School who he visited and interviewed frequently. In his publication of 1886: 'Notes upon certain Masters of the XIX century' Wolff described the French painters whose pictures were exhibited on the exhibition 'Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvres: the Choiche of the French Private Galleries', in Paris, 1883. Wolff opposed Impressionism, although occasionally he praised individual works from this school. He also published detailed observations of Paris in several books and wrote several novels and stage plays. Politically, he opposed antisemitism.
He is buried in cimetière du Père-Lachaise.

Works

;Theatre
;Varia