See H. A. Ingram, The Life and Character of Stephen Girard (Philadelphia, 1884), and George P. Rupp, “Stephen Girard—Merchant and Mariner,” in 1848–1898: Semi-Centennial of Girard College (Philadelphia, 1898).
GIRARDIN, DELPHINE DE (1804–1855), French author,
was born at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 26th of January 1804. Her
mother, the well-known Madame Sophie Gay, brought her up
in the midst of a brilliant literary society. She published two
volumes of miscellaneous pieces, Essais poétiques (1824) and
Nouveaux Essais poétiques (1825). A visit to Italy in 1827,
during which she was enthusiastically welcomed by the literati
of Rome and even crowned in the capitol, was productive of
various poems, of which the most ambitious was Napoline (1833).
Her marriage in 1831 to Émile de Girardin (see below) opened
up a new literary career. The contemporary sketches which
she contributed from 1836 to 1839 to the feuilleton of La Presse,
under the nom de plume of Charles de Launay, were collected
under the title of Lettres parisiennes (1843), and obtained a
brilliant success. Contes d’une vieille fille à ses neveux (1832),
La Canne de Monsieur de Balzac (1836) and Il ne faut pas jouer
avec la douleur (1853) are among the best-known of her romances;
and her dramatic pieces in prose and verse include L’École des
journalistes (1840), Judith (1843), Cléopâtre (1847), Lady Tartufe
(1853), and the one-act comedies, C’est la faute du mari (1851),
La Joie fait peur (1854), Le Chapeau d’un horloger (1854) and Une
Femme qui déteste son mari, which did not appear till after the
author’s death. In the literary society of her time Madame
Girardin exercised no small personal influence, and among the
frequenters of her drawing-room were Théophile Gautier and
Balzac, Alfred de Musset and Victor Hugo. She died on the
29th of June 1855. Her collected works were published in six
volumes (1860–1861).
See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, t. iii.; G. de Molènes, “Les Femmes poètes,” in Revue des deux mondes (July 1842); Taxile Delord, Les Matinées littéraires (1860); L’Esprit de Madame Girardin, avec une préface par M. Lamartine (1862); G. d’Heilly, Madame de Girardin, sa vie et ses œuvres (1868); Imbert de Saint Amand, Mme de Girardin (1875).
GIRARDIN, ÉMILE DE (1802–1881), French publicist, was
born, not in Switzerland in 1806 of unknown parents, but (as
was recognized in 1837) in Paris in 1802, the son of General
Alexandre de Girardin and of Madame Dupuy, wife of a Parisian
advocate. His first publication was a novel, Émile, dealing
with his birth and early life, and appeared under the name of
Girardin in 1827. He became inspector of fine arts under the
Martignac ministry just before the revolution of 1830, and
was an energetic and passionate journalist. Besides his work
on the daily press he issued miscellaneous publications which
attained an enormous circulation. His Journal des
connaissances utiles had 120,000 subscribers, and the initial edition of
his Almanach de France (1834) ran to a million copies. In 1836
he inaugurated cheap journalism in a popular Conservative
organ, La Presse, the subscription to which was only forty
francs a year. This undertaking involved him in a duel with
Armand Carrel, the fatal result of which made him refuse
satisfaction to later opponents. In 1839 he was excluded from the
Chamber of Deputies, to which he had been four times elected,
on the plea of his foreign birth, but was admitted in 1842. He
resigned early in February 1847, and on the 24th of February
1848 sent a note to Louis Philippe demanding his resignation and
the regency of the duchess of Orleans. In the Legislative
Assembly he voted with the Mountain. He pressed eagerly in
his paper for the election of Prince Louis Napoleon, of whom he
afterwards became one of the most violent opponents. In 1856
he sold La Presse, only to resume it in 1862, but its vogue was
over, and Girardin started a new journal, La Liberté, the sale
of which was forbidden in the public streets. He supported
Émile Ollivier and the Liberal Empire, but plunged into vehement
journalism again to advocate war against Prussia. Of his
many subsequent enterprises the most successful was the purchase
of Le Petit Journal, which served to advocate the policy of Thiers,
though he himself did not contribute. The crisis of the 16th
of May 1877, when Jules Simon fell from power, made him
resume his pen to attack MacMahon and the party of reaction
in La France and in Le Petit Journal. Émile de Girardin married
in 1831 Delphine Gay (see above), and after her death in 1855
Guillemette Joséphine Brunold, countess von Tieffenbach,
widow of Prince Frederick of Nassau. He was divorced from
his second wife in 1872.
The long list of his social and political writings includes: De la presse périodique au XIX e, siècle (1837); De l’instruction publique (1838); Études politiques (1838); De la liberté de la presse et du journalisme (1842); Le Droit au travail au Luxembourg et à l’Assemblée Nationale (2 vols., 1848); Les Cinquante-deux (1849, &c.), a series of articles on current parliamentary questions; La Politique universelle, décrets de l’avenir (Brussels, 1852); Le Condamné du 6 mars (1867), an account of his own differences with the government in 1867 when he was fined 5000 fr. for an article in La Liberté; Le Dossier de la guerre (1877), a collection of official documents; Questions de mon temps, 1836 à 1856, articles extracted from the daily and weekly press (12 vols., 1858).
GIRARDON, FRANÇOIS (1628–1715), French sculptor, was
born at Troyes on the 17th of March 1628. As a boy he had for
master a joiner and wood-carver of his native town, named
Baudesson, under whom he is said to have worked at the château
of Liébault, where he attracted the notice of Chancellor Séguier.
By the chancellor’s influence Girardon was first removed to
Paris and placed in the studio of François Anguier, and afterwards
sent to Rome. In 1652 he was back in France, and seems at
once to have addressed himself with something like ignoble
subserviency to the task of conciliating the court painter Charles
Le Brun. Girardon is reported to have declared himself
incapable of composing a group, whether with truth or from motives of
policy it is impossible to say. This much is certain, that a very
large proportion of his work was carried out from designs by
Le Brun, and shows the merits and defects of Le Brun’s manner—a
great command of ceremonial pomp in presenting his subject,
coupled with a large treatment of forms which if it were more
expressive might be imposing. The court which Girardon paid
to the “premier peintre du roi” was rewarded. An immense
quantity of work at Versailles was entrusted to him, and in
recognition of the successful execution of four figures for the
Bains d’Apollon, Le Brun induced the king to present his protégé
personally with a purse of 300 louis, as a distinguishing mark
of royal favour. In 1650 Girardon was made member of the
Academy, in 1659 professor, in 1674 “adjoint au recteur,”
and finally in 1695 chancellor. Five years before (1690), on the
death of Le Brun, he had also been appointed “inspecteur
général des ouvrages de sculpture”—a place of power and profit.
In 1699 he completed the bronze equestrian statue of Louis
XIV., erected by the town of Paris on the Place Louis le Grand.
This statue was melted down during the Revolution, and is
known to us only by a small bronze model (Louvre) finished
by Girardon himself. His Tomb of Richelieu (church of the
Sorbonne) was saved from destruction by Alexandre Lenoir,
who received a bayonet thrust in protecting the head of the
cardinal from mutilation. It is a capital example of Girardon’s
work, and the theatrical pomp of its style is typical of the funeral
sculpture of the reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV.; but amongst
other important specimens yet remaining may also be cited the
Tomb of Louvois (St Eustache), that of Bignon, the king’s
librarian, executed in 1656 (St Nicolas du Chardonneret), and
decorative sculptures in the Galerie d’Apollon and Chambre du
roi in the Louvre. Mention should not be omitted of the group,
signed and dated 1699, “The Rape of Proserpine” at Versailles,
which also contains the “Bull of Apollo.” Although chiefly
occupied at Paris Girardon never forgot his native Troyes, the
museum of which town contains some of his best works, including
the marble busts of Louis XIV. and Maria Theresa. In the
hôtel de ville is still shown a medallion of Louis XIV., and in the
church of St Rémy a bronze crucifix of some importance—both
works by his hand. He died in Paris in 1715.
See Corrard de Breban, Notice sur la vie et les œuvres de Girardon (1850).
GIRART DE ROUSSILLON, an epic figure of the Carolingian cycle of romance. In the genealogy of romance he is a son of Doon de Mayence, and he appears in different and irreconcilable
