Born in Villeneuve-sur-Fère. He was a diplomat from 1893 to 1936, and was French consul in Prague, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, ministre plenipotentiaire in Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, ambassador in Tokyo, Washington, DC and Brussels.
He was elected at the Académie française in 1946.
He was the brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel, and was responsable for her internment in a mental institution, regardless of the fact that she wasn't mad.