Jean-Baptiste Auriol

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Drawing of Jean-Baptiste Auriol in costume while dancing on bottles

Jean-Baptiste Auriol (* around 1800 in Toulouse ; † August 29, 1881 ) was a French clown and artist .

Life

Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Auriol

Auriol was born in Toulouse into a family of artists, both parents toured Europe as tightrope walkers . His exact year of birth is unclear and is given in the literature as 1797, 1806 or 1808. The first mentions of his appearances date from 1835 in the Cirque Olympique in Paris . Performances in Europe followed, including in Madrid in 1841 and also in Prussia , Bohemia and Switzerland. From 1847 Auriol was engaged in Antonio Franconi's Paris circus , where he received a salary of 2,000 francs a month, which at that time was roughly 100 times the income of a simple worker.

Auriol was one of the French grotesques . Although the performances were originally only intended to fill pauses, his skills were highly valued. Contemporaries described Auriol as a “universal artist, jumper, juggler, equilibrist , tightrope walker, comedian”. His dance on upright bottles (with a final handstand on the last bottle) and his extraordinary jumps became particularly well known. A somersault with the help of a springboard over 20 soldiers and a double somersault over eight horses have been reported. His enormous jumps earned him the nickname Homme Oiseau (bird man).

Auriol's costumes set the style for European clowns for two decades. Two of his original costumes can be seen today in the Musée du Pays vaurais in Lavaur .

literature

  • John H. Towsen: Clowns. Hawthorn Books, 1976.
  • Leslie Stephen et al .: Dictionary of national biography. Smith, Elder & Co., 1889, p. 323.
  • Thierry Frères: Jean-Baptiste Auriol. Impr. Pollet et Cie, 1844.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ José de Espronceda, Robert Marrast: El estudiante de Salamanca . Editorial Castalia, 1978, ISBN 84-7039-296-4 , p. 252.
  2. ^ A b Sarah Stanton, Martin Banham: Cambridge paperback guide to theater. Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-44654-6 , p. 22.
  3. ^ Théophile Gautier : Correspondence Generale 1852–53. Librairie Droz, ISBN 2-600-03663-6 , p. 219.
  4. ↑ a b John H. Towsen: Clowns . Hawthorn Books, 1976, ISBN 0-8015-3962-5 , p. 163.
  5. ^ Théophile Gautier , quoted in: Jewgeni Kusnezow: Der Zirkus der Welt (with additions by Ernst Günther and Gerhard Krause). Henschelverlag, 1970, p. 44.
personal data
SURNAME Auriol, Jean-Baptiste
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French clown and artist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Toulouse
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1881