Théophile Gautier

Théophile Gautier was a French poet, novelist and critic who trained as a painter and led the young Romantics at the riotous 1830 premiere of Hernani, wearing a scarlet waistcoat that scandalised Paris. He coined art for art's sake, wrote the ballet Giselle, and produced supernatural tales that Baudelaire and Wilde both revered; he supported himself by journalism he detested.