Camille Benoît was a French composer, musicographer, art critic and museum curator, born in Roanne on 7 December 1851 and died in Paris on 1 July 1923.
Camille Benoît grew up in Roanne and moved to Paris in 1871, where he became a student of César Franck, thus rubbing shoulders with Vincent d'Indy and Ernest Chausson.
In 1880, he was an editor at the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris5 and his dramatic scene La mort de Cléopâtre for soprano and orchestra was selected for the final of the Grand Prix de la ville de Paris. From 1882, he made numerous translations of Richard Wagner's writings for the first time in French and published the good copies in Le Ménestrel.
In 1888, he joined the Louvre Museum as an attaché for the conservation of paintings and drawings. Nevertheless, his career at the Louvre did not prevent him from continuing to be involved in the musical world of his time, particularly at the Société nationale de musique, and from continuing to compose at the same time. His Épithalame was performed the same year, the Prélude des Noces corinthiennes in 1889.
In 1894, he was appointed assistant curator in the paintings department of the Louvre Museum and carried out several missions throughout Europe for the fine arts administration (cataloguing works and studying possible purchases). He was also an art critic for various publications, such as the Gazette des beaux-arts, the Revue de l'art ancien et moderne and the Revue de Paris.
In 1904, he was part of the organizing committee for the exhibition on French primitives, of which he was one of the great specialists. He was named a knight in the order of the Legion of Honor in 1922. (Hide extended text)...(Read all)