Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and literary critic. He began writing poetry as early as 1826 but the majority of his life was spent as a contributor to various journals, mainly for La Presse. This also gave him the opportunity for foreign travel and meeting many influential contacts in high society and in the world of the arts, which inspired many of his writings including Voyage en Espagne (1843), Trésors d'Art de la Russie (1858), and Voyage en Russie (1867). Gautier spent the majority of his career as a journalist at La Presse and later on at Le Moniteur universel. His works include: Albertus (1830), La Comédie de la Mort (1838), Une Larme du Diable (1839) and L'Art Moderne (1856).