Goncourt was born in
Nancy. His parents, Marc-Pierre Huot de Goncourt and Annette-Cécile de Goncourt (née Guérin), were minor aristocrats who died when he and his brother
Jules de Goncourt were young adults. His father was a former cavalry officer and squadron commander in the
Grande Armée of
Napoleon I, and his grandfather Jean-Antoine Huot de Goncourt had been a deputy in the
National Assembly of 1789. At the Lycée Condorcet, he studied rhetoric and philosophy from 1840 to 1842, followed by the study of law between 1842 and 1844. After their mother's death in 1848, the brothers inherited an income which enabled them to live independently and pursue their artistic interests. Edmond was able to leave a treasury clerkship that had made him so miserable as to contemplate suicide. He also collected rare books. The brothers' house at
Auteuil, which they purchased in 1868, was a showcase for their collection of 18th century French and Far Eastern art. Edmond documented the house and its interiors in his 1881 book ''La Maison d'un Artiste.
Between 1856 and 1875, the brothers published essays on 18th century art in a collected series called L'Art du XVIIIe siècle
, which revived appreciation for the Rococo. He completed unfinished works from his collaboration with his brother, including a monograph on Paul Gavarni (1873) and a book called L'Amour au XVIIIe Siècle
(1875). He revised, enlarged and reissued Les Maîtresses de Louis XV
(1860) in three volumes between 1878 and 1879: La du Barry
, Madame de Pompadour
, and La Duchesse de Châteauroux et ses soeurs
. His last novel, Chérie
(1884), about a young woman who expresses her artistic sensibility in fashion, can be read as an exploration of impressionistic art. He collected the letters of his late brother in 1885, and between 1887 and 1896 issued nine volumes of the Journal
. Edmond became increasingly jealous of more successful writers like Guy de Maupassant and Émile Zola, which is reflected in scathing entries in the Journal''. In 1893 he wrote of Maupassant that his "success with loose society women is an indication of their vulgarity, for never have I seen a man of the world with such a red face, such common features, or such a peasant build." Edmond de Goncourt died in
Champrosay in 1896 (1882) ==Works==