Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, de Face

(After) Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883, French) “Portrait Charles Baudelaire, de Face” (1865) Detailed and defined portrait etching of French poet, Charles Baudelaire, depicted in a posthumous printing of the monochrome etching that had been created in four states with multiple editions. Inscribed in the plate with the artist’s signature (“Manet”) in the lower right, the words “Peint et Gravé par Manet 1865” (Painted and engraved by Manet 1865) and “Imp. A. Salmon” (imprimer" or "imprime" - to print) in the lower edge of the plate beneath the image. The image is 3.5 x 3 inches, the sheet is 11 x 8.5 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. The image was also included in the 1869 book by Charles Asselineau, “Charles Baudelaire, Sa Vie et Son Oeuvre” (His Life and His Work.)

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.