Hippolyte Triat
Hippolyte Triat c. 1876–1877
Born
Antoine Hippolyte Trilhac

(1812-10-14)14 October 1812
Saint-Chaptes, France
Died11 January 1881(1881-01-11) (aged 68)
Paris, France
Resting placeMontmartre Cemetery
Height179 cm (5 ft 10 in)
SpouseMarie-Françoise-Cornélie Pasquet

Antoine Hippolyte Trilhac (known as Hippolyte Triat; 14 October 1812 – 11 January 1881), was a French strongman and entrepreneur, one of the founding fathers of modern physical culture and fitness centers.

Biography

Hippolyte Triat was born Antoine Hippolyte Trilhac on 14 October 1812 to Marguerite Bailesse and Félix Trilhac in Saint-Chaptes in the Gard.[1] Félix was aged 50 when his child was born and he worked as a gardener for Marie Anne Aubin de Bellevue, widow of François Paul de Brueys d'Aigalliers.[2] Triat was the youngest of a large family; he lost his parents at the age of four, and was subsequently raised by his older sister in Nîmes. At six, he was kidnapped by vagabonds, then sold to a troupe of Italian acrobats in Nice.[3] He stayed with them for seven years, traveling to Italy, Austria, before settling in Spain. Triat became a mascot, was dressed as a girl, and worked as a rope dancer in the troupe under the name of young Isela. In 1825, the troupe disbanded, and he remained a Spaniard named Consuelo, and formed with the man and two of his sons, a weightlifting and physique posing group called "Les Alcides". Triat became popular in Spain and was known by the nickname of "L'Enfant" (The Child). While on tour in Burgos in 1828, his left leg was broken by a horse's hooves when he tried to stop it from eloping. The accident forced him to remain in Burgos for a long time. He was taken in by Mme Montsento, a lady-patroness from Burgos, who cared for and educated him. The wealthy benefactor paid his education tuition at the Jesuit college of Burgos where he remained until he was 22.[3] During this time he learned French and Spanish, and read classical and renaissance gymnastics and physical education literature volumes in the school library. Among these books were the works of Girolamo Mercuriale, d’Andry, and Chevalier Capriani. While persisting in his physical exercises and instructing a few followers, Triat engaged in the formulation and organization of ideas that would eventually shape his physical education methods.[3]

In 1834, he set up an itinerant sports show and pioneered a novel performance featuring physique posing, closely resembling the one subsequently used by Eugen Sandow. His acts were met with success in Spain and England, and took him as far as Brussels, where he opened his first gymnasium at 7 Rue de Ligne in 1840; the gym was successful among the Belgian fashionable elite and operated until 1849.[3] Hippolyte moved to Paris around 1846,[4] and joined forces with Nicolas Dally (1795–1862)[5] to found a joint-stock company with the aim of opening a large gymnasium on the Allée des Veuves, the future Avenue Montaigne.[6][7] This 40 m × 21 m (131 ft × 69 ft)[3] space became known as the "Gymnase Triat", changing location several times. In 1848, Triat and Dally wrote a letter to the Provisional Government calling for the creation of a Ministry of Physical Education.[8] In 1855, Due to the maintenance demands of the existing premises, Triat relocated his operations across the street to number 36. Despite its smaller size, the new gymnasium was known for its remarkable beauty.[9]

Triat saw himself as a "gymnasiarch", a hygienic sports educator with orthopedic aims. His pupils and clients included aristocrats and members of the Parisian haute bourgeoisie. Among them were Prince Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, novelist Paul Féval, authors Jules Vallès and Eugène Paz.[10] At the end of the 1860s, having earned up to 400,000 francs in revenue, he set his sights on building a huge sports complex on the Île Saint-Germain, a "gymnastics school", the plans for which were drawn up by Théodore Charpentier's son.[11] The Franco-Prussian war compromised the project. Triat, reclusive in Paris at the time of the Paris Commune, was appointed by Jules Allix, a communard, to lead a battalion of gymnasts.[12] Triat became further implicated when he permitted his gymnasium to be used for meetings.[13] Denounced, Triat was imprisoned by the National Assembly loyalists, then released in July 1871. The Triat gymnasium still existed in 1872, advertising its new hydrotherapy-based treatments.[12]

In 1873, Triat moved gym to a final, smaller space at 22 Rue du Bouloi.[13] He participated in the 1878 Universal Exhibition where he presented a scale model of his gymnasium, which closed the following year.[14] Relatively forgotten, Triat, who left a widow named Marie-Françoise-Cornélie Pasquet, died at 22 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Paris on 11 January 1881: Jules Allix paid tribute to him and allowed his remains to be buried in his family's tomb in the Montmartre Cemetery.[15][16][13]

Appearance and legacy

According to French physical culturist and academic Edmond Desbonnet, Triat measured 1.79 m (5.9 ft) tall in 1854, and weighed 95 kg (209 lb).[17] He was capable of lifting a 91 kg (201 lb) dumbbell. In his Parisian gymnasium, he played master of ceremonies and trained athletes collectively in various strength disciplines, which the public could watch: "Triat, doing away with complicated apparatus, invented his parquet method, where the pupil, with a pair of 6-pound dumbbells, a 12-pound bar and a few clubs, acquires good muscularity before tackling suspension exercises, climbing, jumps, etc."[18]

Triat is credited with opening the first commercial gymnasium in Belgium.[19] He is featured in a number of paintings; Ernest Hébert's painting, Esclave près d'un tombeau dans la campagne romaine (1841 [?], Musée Hébert) is said to have been inspired by the athlete; another, showing him in mid-body carrying a club, identifies him as "Gymnasiarch, Grand Master founder of the Order of the Regeneration of Man".[15] He is also featured on a medallion portrait engraved by Maurice Borrel (Salon of 1855), and an enamel portrait (Salon of 1878) by Thérèse-Mirza Allix.[15] In weightlifting, it was customary to call certain weights "Triat dumbbells".[20]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Archives départementales du Gard, commune de Saint-Chaptes, année 1812, acte de naissance {{numéro|9}}". gard.viewer.anaphore.org. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  2. ↑ Archives du Gard, acte de naissance Mairie de Saint-Chaptes, année 1812 EC n°9.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Desbonnet 1911, p. 58.
  4. ↑ « Couvert, découvert, redécouvert… L’invention du gymnase scolaire en France (1818–1872) » par Marc Le Cœur, in: Histoire de l'éducation, 102|2004, p. 109-135 — via OpenEdition.
  5. ↑ Nicolas Dally est l'auteur de Gymnastique. De la régénération physique de l'espèce humaine par la gymnastique rationelle publié en 1848 à Paris — via Welcome Collection.
  6. ↑ En juillet 1855, Triat fonde une nouvelle société par actions, « La Société générale des gymnases de France », sise au 33 rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, annonçant un capital de 5 millions de francs — via Gallica.
  7. ↑ Eugène Chapus, Le Sport à Paris, Bibliothèque des chemins de fer, 1855, p. 249-250 — via Gallica.
  8. ↑ Triat, H. et Dally, N., Au gouvernement provisoire. Lettre demandant la création d’un ministère de l’Éducation publique, Paris: P. Dupont, 1848.
  9. ↑ Desbonnet 1911, p. 59.
  10. ↑ Jean Latte, La Gymnastique, Paris, Vigot, 1948, p. 24
  11. ↑ « L'île Saint-Germain : projet de Centre sportif international », 15 avril 2014, sur Historim.fr.
  12. 1 2 Annuaire-almanach du commerce, Paris, 1873, p. 1006 — via Gallica.
  13. 1 2 3 Desbonnet 1911, p. 60.
  14. ↑ Desbonnet 1911, p. 74.
  15. 1 2 3 « Les précurseurs de la culture physique : Hippolyte Triat » par Edmond Desbonnet, in La Culture physique, Paris, septembre 1912, p. 10-14 — via Gallica.
  16. ↑ « Commune de Paris. Séance du 7 mai 1871 », par Eloi Valat, in: Médiapart, 4 juin 2016 — article en ligne.
  17. ↑ Desbonnet 1911, p. 73.
  18. ↑ « Les gymnastiques culturistes », par Élie Mercier, in: Marcel Labbé (dir.), Traité d'éducation physique, 1930, p. 495
  19. ↑ Brighton, Wellard & Clark 2020, p. 67.
  20. ↑ L'Auto-vélo, Paris, 1" décembre 1925, p. 1 — via Gallica.

Bibliography

  • Brighton, James; Wellard, Ian; Clark, Amy (2020). Gym Bodies: Exploring Fitness Cultures. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-21410-6.
  • Desbonnet, Edmond (1911). Les rois de la force: histoire de tous les hommes forts depuis les temps anciens jusqu'à nos jours [The Kings of Strength: A History of All Strongmen from Ancient Times to the Present Day] (in French). Librairie Berger-Levrault. OCLC 9211493.
  • Jean-Michel Faidit, « Hippolyte Triat (1812–1881). Pionnier de l'éducation physique et du sport pour tous. (Communication du 13 avril 2018). Mémoires de l'Académie de Nîmes ». IXe série. Tome XCII. Année 2018. 2019. pp. 153-175.
  • Jacques Gleyse, « De l'art de la gymnastique (1569) au culturisme et aux premières compétitions organisées (1904). L'émergence du body-building ?», in: Staps, revue internationale des sciences du sport et de l'éducation physique, De Boeck Supérieur, 2018|1 No. 119, pp. 27–45 — via Cairn.info.

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