Antonin Proust

Antonin Proust (1832-1905), French journalist and politician, was born at Niort on the 15th of March 183 2. He founded in 1864 an anti-imperial journal, La Semaine hebdomadaire which appeared at Brussels. He was war correspondent to in the early days of the Franco-German War, but after Sedan he returned to Paris, where he became secretary to Gambetta and superintended the refugees in Paris. He entered the Chamber as deputy for his native town in 1876, taking his seat on the left. In Gambetta's cabinet (1881-1882) he was minister of the fine arts, and in the Chamber of Deputies he was regularly commissioned to draw up the budget for the fine arts, after the separate department had ceased to exist. Prosecuted in connexion with the Panama scandals, he was acquitted in 1893. From this time he lived in the closest retirement. On the 20th of March 1905 he shot himself in the head, dying of the wound two days later.