It was in 1870 that Jules de Goncourt died at the age of thirty-nine.
"It was impossible," wrote Paul de Saint-Victor in _La Liberté_, "to
know and not to love this young man, with his child's face, his
pleasant, ready laugh, his eyes sparkling with intellect and purpose....
That blond young head was bent over his work for months at a time...."
It was the profile of this "blond young head" that Claudius Popelin
traced for the enamel that was set into the binding of the _Nécrologe_,
in which Edmond preserved all the articles, letters, and tokens of
sympathy called forth by the irreparable loss of his beloved companion
and fellow-labourer. This medallion, etched by Abot, was prefixed
afterward to the edition of Jules de Goncourt's _Letters_, published by
Charpentier. The profile, which is reproduced as the frontispiece to
this edition of _Renée Mauperin_, is infinitely gentle; the emaciated
contours, the extraordinary delicacy of the features, betray the
intellectual dreamer, his mind intent on literary questions, and we
understand M. Émile Zola's dictum: "Art killed him."
[Illustration: EDMOND DE GONCOURT.
From an etching by Bracquemond, 1882.
(The original drawing is in the Luxembourg Museum.)]
Prince Gabrielli and Princesse Mathilde also made certain furtive
sketches of Jules which have since been photographed. Méaulle engraved a
portrait of him on wood, and Varin made an etching of him. Henceforth,
save in Bracquemond's double medallion, and in one or two papers in
which studies of him by different hands appeared, Edmond de Goncourt was
no longer represented in company with his gifted brother, but always
alone.
[Illustration: EDMOND DE GONCOURT.