He initially studied law, then entered the civil service as a clerk in the offices of the Seine prefecture.

In 1863, he wrote his first collection Avril, mai, juin, sonnets with Valade.

He was praised by the poets of his time, and Rimbaud, in his letter to Paul Demeny dated May 15, 1871, considered him visionary and almost equal to Verlaine, who dedicated his poem Jadis to him.

After two decades without publications, he returned to poetry by publishing about ten collections.

The next morning, January 16, 1909, he was found "dead, his head wrapped in his eiderdown, his temple twice pierced, with such care that the beautiful Olympian mask, which he held so dear, was not damaged, and that sudden death had scarcely altered his features.