Stéphane Mallarmé

Villiers was a close friend, and Manet (who painted Mallarmé’s portrait and illustrated several of his poems) especially dear. Proust, Valéry, Yeats, Rilke, Verlaine, Gide, Louÿs and George were all visitors at Mallarmé’s Tuesday salons. He dined regularly with Morisot, was asked advice by Huysmans on ‘À rebours’, commiserated with Rodin and spoke at Verlaine’s funeral. Degas photographed Renoir and Mallarmé together, Redon was a neighbour and Vuillard a visitor. Mallarmé thought Debussy’s work based on his own was sublime, and told Whistler (who’d warned him by telegram) that his evening with Wilde had in fact been rather dull.