Edmond Picard
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Edmond Picard (15 December 1836, Brussels – 19 February 1924, Dåve (now Namur) was a Belgian jurist and writer.
Edmond Picard was lawyer at the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation of Belgium. He was also head of the Belgian bar association, professor of law, playwright and journalist. Involved in politics, he was senator for the Belgian Labour Party. He also was a patron of the arts and a notorious antisemite. He founded L'Art moderne, an arts magazine that coined the term art nouveau.
The Escal-Vigor case
In 1899 Georges Eekhoud offered to his readers a new and daring novel, Escal-Vigor. Many of these readers were shocked, because the book is concerned with love between men. A clear and resolute novel about homosexuality, Escal-Vigor was heading towards trouble. Although it was well received by most critics, like Rachilde and Eugène Demolder, a lawsuit was launched against it. However, a storm of protest, especially vociferous because of numerous literary celebrities, and a cunning lawyer with literary aspirations, Edmond Picard, did their part in acquitting Eekhoud.