Camille Doucet correspondence

Collection of circa 11,000 letters addressed to Camille Doucet (1812-1895), director of the Superintendance générale des théâtres de France and member of the Académie française, from upwards of 1150 correspondents. It offers rich documentation of the French arts and letters in the second half of the 19th century and, in particular, of Doucet’s influence over French theater in his capacity as head of the administration of theaters in the imperial government of Napoleon III between 1853 and 1870, and later through the Academie française. Many letters discuss new theater productions, recommendations for performers, the work of censors, and various favors. Other letters concern the business and membership of the Académie française, as well as artistic patronage, cultural life, and social events. Correspondents include members of the Académie française, members of the Bonaparte family, writers, actors, theater directors, composers, painters, aristocrats, politicians, military leaders, scientists, and patrons of the arts.

There is voluminous correspondence, bound in albums, from Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte, Comédie-Française director Jules Claretie, François Coppée, Alexandre Dumas père and fils, Ludovic Halévy, Arsène and Henry Houssaye, Ernest Legouvé, and Victorien Sardou. Other individuals represented in the collection include George Sand, Émile Zola, Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, and Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale. Enclosed in a small number of letters are clippings and other printed material, manuscript poems, and manuscript music scores, including by Massenet.

Also included are a small number of outgoing letters by Camille Doucet, letters addressed to Doucet’s widow Emma Adelon, and letters to his daughter Antoinette Doucet and her husband, politician René Joseph Brice (1839-1921).