Aloysius Bertrand in Dijon, (Côte-d'Or (21))

Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand, or Aloysius Bertrand (1807-41) was a poet, playwright and journalist considered as the inventor of the prose poem. He is most noted as the author of Gaspard de la nuit (1842). He spent much of his life in Dijon, although he died in Paris and is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse. His bust in Le Jardin de l'Arquebuse in Dijon contains a quotation from Gaspard: 'J'étais un jour assis a l'écart dans le jardin de l'Arquebuse'.

Cimetière du Montparnasse (continued) #5: Aloysius Bertrand

Aloysius Bertrand (1807–41) is considered by many as the creator of the prose poem: his Gaspard de la nuit : Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot was published posthumously in 1842 by his friend David d'Angers. A number of writers were impressed or inspired by his work, among them Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Pierre Reverdy, Max Jacob and André Breton. A musical work by Ravel bears the name Gaspard de la nuit, a title which was also used in one of Magritte's paintings.