Noir, Victor

JOURNALIST (FRANCE)
BORN 27 Jul 1848, Attigny, Vosges - DIED 10 Jan 1870, Paris: 59, rue d'Auteuil
BIRTH NAME Salmon, Yvan
CAUSE OF DEATH shot to death
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 92, ligne 01, K, 23)

Son of a Jewish cobbler. He used Victor Noir as a pen name and went to Paris to become a journalist for La Marseillaise, edited by Paschal Grousset. Noir had the reputation of a playboy.

In 1869 there was a dispute between two Corsican newspapers concentrating on Napoleon I. Grousset supported the party that spoke against Napoleon I and Pierre Bonaparte, a nephew of emperor Napoleon III, challenged him to a duel.

When Noir went to Pierre Bonaparte to negotiate the terms of the duel he was shot to death by Bonaparte. Bonaparte claimed that Noir had struck him first before he drew his gun and shot at him. The court accepted Bonaparte's version of the story and he was acquitted. This caused a public outrage and 100.000 people followed the funeral procession to Neuilly, where he was buried.

After the Third Republic was established in 1891 Noir's body was transferred to the more fashionable cemetery Père Lachaise in Paris. The statue of his grave by Jules Dalou shows him as if he had just been shot. The protuberance in his trousers is touched by many people who seem to believe to can enhance their fertility by doing so.

Related persons
• was killed by Bonaparte, Pierre Napoleon

Images

The grave of Victor Noir at Père Lachaise, Paris.
Picture by Androom (28 Aug 2001)

 

Sources
• Culbertson, Judi & Tom Randall, Permanent Parisians, Robson Books, London, 1991
Victor Noir - Wikipedia (EN)


Nolan, Sidney

Published: 23 Oct 2009
Last update: 25 Apr 2022