Adolphe Desbarrolles
Adolphe Desbarrolles (22 August 1801 – 11 February 1886) was a French artist. He is considered the father of modern chiromancy, aka palmistry or palm reading, a form of divination.
Also recorded as Desbarolles · Adolphe Desbarolles
Adolphe Desbarrolles
Nadar · Bibliothèque nationale de France · Public domain
- Born
- 1801 · Paris.
- Died
- 1886 · Paris.
- Nationality
- France
- Occupation
- painter · chiromancer · writer · lithographer
- Fields
- visual arts · painting · lithography · occultism
- Languages
- French
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wikidata · Q2824807 · wikipedia · Adolphe Desbarrolles
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Key facts
Key facts
• Illustration — Adolphe Desbarrolles
Biography
Biography
Desbarolles was born in Paris, France. After completing his studies he spent three years in Germany before returning to France. Back in France he worked as a painter and writer before becoming interested in palmistry. Desbarolles married and from this marriage there was a daughter, Marthe Desbarolles who also became a graphologist and continued her fathers work. He died in Paris and was buried in the Pére Lachaise Cemetery. He was a pupil and friend of Éliphas Lévi, who mentioned him in his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. He was also friend to Alexandre Dumas, concluding after reading Dumas' palm that would he die at 104 years of age, after a duel. • Illustration — Satirical image depicting The Emperor of Marocco consulting the celebrated magician Desbarolles by Honoré Daumier from the Le Charivari, 13 December 1859
Documentary record
Adolphe Desbarrolles, a painter, was born on 22 August 1801 in Paris and died on 11 February 1886 in Paris. Both events are recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Works
Works
• "Les mystères de la main révélés et expliqués, art de connaître la vie, le caractère, les aptitudes et la destinée de chacun d'après la seule inspection des mains (chiromancie nouvelle)" (1860), Paris, Dentu, 624 p.
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Licensing
Text attribution
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Adolphe Desbarrolles, revision 1293628104 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Richard Raczynski, Un dictionnaire du Martinisme, Paris, Dualpha éd., 2009, p. 211.
- 2.Histoire de la graphologie. Publication Graphologique. 1877.
- 3.Un mois de voyage en Suisse pour 200 francs. Dentu. 1840.
- 4.Deux artistes en Espagne. G. Barba. 1862.
- 5.Les mystères de la main. E DENTU Paris. 1859.
- 6.Le caractère allemand expliqué par la physiologie. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Cie. 1866.
- 7.Les mystères de l'écriture : art de juger les hommes sur leurs autographes. Garnier Frères. 1872, seconde édition 1884.
- 8.Révélations complètes : chiromancie, phrénologie, graphologie, etc. Vigot Frère. 1922 (écrit en 1874).
References
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 31 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
19,456 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Adolphe AppianArtist
- Adolphe AzeArtist
- Adolphe DéchenaudArtist
- Adolphe DemangeArtist
- Adolphe Joseph Thomas MonticelliArtist
- Adolphe JourdanArtist
- Adolphe MilichArtist
- Adolphe MillotArtist
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