LAPRADE, PIERRE-MARIN-VICTOR-RICHARD de. - French poet, b. at Montbrison on 13 Jan. 1812, d. at Lyons on 13 Dec. 1883. Educated in legal studies, he soon abandoned them to follow his literary inclinations. He took part in the Romantic movement. In 1847 he was appointed professor of French literature at the University of Lyons; from 1858, a member of the Académie française.
His first verses were inspired by the more melancholy and musical Lamartine, but the works of his maturity (La colère de Jésus, 1840; Psyché, 1842; Odes et poèmes, 1844; Poèmes évangéliques, 1850; Idylles héroïques, 1858) sound the Christian note with accents of serene intimacy. Later he devoted himself, with less success, to satirical and patriotic poetry. Among his prose writings, mention should be made of his studies on Romanticism and the Histoire du sentiment de la nature (1883).