Son of Charles Fouques-Duparc and Amélie de Guaita, Henri Fouques-Duparc was born in
Paris. He studied piano with
César Franck at the Jesuit College in the
Vaugirard district and became one of his first composition pupils. Following military service in the
Franco-Prussian War, he married Ellen MacSwiney, from Scotland, on 9 November 1871. In the same year, he joined
Saint-Saëns and
Romain Bussine to found the
Société nationale de musique. Duparc is best known for his 17
mélodies ("art songs"), with texts by poets such as
Baudelaire,
Gautier,
Leconte de Lisle and
Goethe. A mental illness, diagnosed at the time as "
neurasthenia", caused him abruptly to cease composing at age 37, in 1885. He devoted himself to his family and his other passions, drawing and painting. But increasing vision loss after the turn of the century eventually led to total blindness. He destroyed most of his music, leaving fewer than 40 works to posterity. In a poignant letter about the destruction of his incomplete opera, dated 19 January 1922, to the composer
Jean Cras, his close friend, Duparc wrote: He spent most of the rest of his life in
La Tour-de-Peilz, near
Vevey,
Switzerland, and died in
Mont-de-Marsan, in southwestern France, at age 85. Duparc is buried at
Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. A square in the
17th arrondissement of Paris, near the rue de Levis, is named in his honor. Image:Henri Duparc (1858).jpg|Duparc at age 10,in 1858 Image:Duparc 1870.jpg|Duparc in uniform during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 Image:Henri_Duparc.jpg|Henri Duparcin middle age ==Works==