Antoinette Quarré

Antoinette Célinie Quarré was born on January 16, 1813, in Recey-sur-Ource, France.^[1] Her parents were Cécile Quarré and an unknown father.

Though of fragile health, she worked as a laundress in Dijon. Legend has it that she learned to read from Voltaire's Zaire. Educated by a scholar, M. de Belloguet, she turned to poetry and published several essays in verse and prose (notably in the Journal des Demoiselles [fr]), as well as a eulogy for Princess Marie d’Orléans, which earned her, in 1839, a mention from the Société des lettres et des arts de Seine-et-Oise. She sent her verses to Alphonse de Lamartine,^[2] whom she admired. He replied to her on August 24, 1838, with a poem titled "À une jeune fille poète " (To a Young Poetess), which he later included in his "Recueillements poétiques" (Poetic Reflections).^[3] Quarré responded to this poem with another poem, "Réponse à M. de Lamartine" (Reply to Mr. de Lamartine). Quarré's friends encouraged her to publish her first collection, which appeared in 1843 and attracted considerable attention.

Of frail constitution, she died (of heart enlargement) on November 25, 1847, in Dijon.^[4] She is buried in the Péjoces Cemetery.

In her portrait of Antoinette Quarré in Tour de France, Flora Tristan comes across as openly hostile toward Quarré.^[a]

Xavier Privas, a Lyon-based and later Paris-based goguettier, lists Quarré among the famous goguettières alongside Élisa Fleury [fr] and Élie Deleschaux [fr] of Paris, Reine Garde of Aix-en-Provence, and Rose Harel [fr] of Lisieux.^[6]