Baudelaire de Profil

(After) Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883, French) “Baudelaire en Profil” (1862) Profile portrait of Charles Baudelaire wearing a top hat and cravat depicted in a posthumous printing of the monochrome etching. Manet’s stylized ‘M’ monogram is in the top left corner and the words printed in the lower edge of the plate beneath the image are ‘Peint et gravé par Manet 1862’ (Painted and engraved by Manet 1862) and ‘Imp. A. Salmon’ (imprimer" or "imprime" - to print.) The image is 4 x 3.5 inches, the sheet is 12 x 8 inches, and the work of art has been triple matted in a frame measuring 16.5 x 12.5 inches. The Literary reference/ Catalogue raisonné for the image is: Jean C. Harris, ‘Édouard Manet: Graphic Works, a Definitive Catalogue Raisonné’, New York, 1970.

Edouard Manet was an important figure in the Impressionist art movement. He was a versatile painter and printmaker, known for portraits, landscapes and still life works. Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867, France) was a poet as well as a literary and art critic. Manet was a close friend of the influential Baudelaire whose writings lauded the medium of etching as a high form of artistic creativity. Between 1862 and 1869, Manet etched five portraits of Baudelaire.