Antoine Renard by Victoire with autograph

Antoine Aimé Renard (1825-1872); French tenor and composer.
He is best remembered for composing the melody for the famous "Le Temps des cerises", now a milestone of the French repertoire. Born in a working class family, as a teen he joined his father in a print shop and afterwards he was a foundry worker. In the evenings he sang in vaudeville productions at local inns or in the streets. He slowly established himself by joining the regional choirs and the choir of the Grand Opéra Paris. Then he obtained a commitment as a tenor at the theatre of Nîmes in 1852 followed by Le Havre, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lyon in 1855 and finally the Grand Opéra Paris in 1856. The following year he had his breakthrough in Rossini’s "Guillaume Tell". As a true bohemian, he was a popular figure in the French capital, what was illustrated by the caricatures made of him by Etienne Carjat and others, several of which are preserved at the French National Library. Hector Berlioz, who directed Renard at a concert in Baden in 1861 wrote that the tenor had "a very full and sonorous voice", an extended range and a very clear enunciation. In 1867, Renard met the impoverished songwriter Jean-Baptiste Clément in Brussels, and, according to lore, offered him his coat. In return, Clément offered Renard one of his songs, Le Temps des Cerises. Renard put music to it and introduced the song to the public in 1868, at the Paris Eldorado Theatre. It quickly became popular and has been recorded by a great number of artists since then. Renard then became gravely ill (a victim of laryngeal cancer, according to some sources) and his career rapidly declined. The artist died three years later, without reaping the rewards of his enduring creation.