Picard, Edmond (1836-1924)

A Belgian francophone jurisconsult and writer, born in Brussels and died in the neighbourhood of Dave, which is today a part of Namur. After brilliant studies at the Free University of Brussels, he began a career as a lawyer, established the Pandectes belges (encyclopedia of Belgian legislation, doctrine and jurisprudence and created the Journal des tribunaux. But his activities were not restricted to law: his passion for letters led him to found r L'Art moderne in 1881, a journal which defended the idea of a national literature and a social art setting itself up against the conception of art for art’s sake advocated by the authors of Jeune Belgique. But this personality, which was omnipresent in his time – he was a law Professor, journalist, patron, socialist senator and welcomed as interns the major intellectuals of his era, and moreover anxious to theorise the ‘Belgian spirit’, was also a notorious anti-Semite.