Profile of Baudelaire

(After) Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883, French) “Baudelaire en Profil’ (1862 / 1869) 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 in a box 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.) This is a 2nd state (published in 1869, 2 years after Baudelaire’s death) after the 1862 first state. The image, on Arches laid paper, is 4 x 3.5 inches, and the sheet with full margins is under glass, surrounded by gold fillet, linen matting, and an ornate gold tone wood frame that measures 21 x 20 inches. The Literary references/ Catalogue raisonnés for the image are: H.59; Jean C. Harris, ‘Édouard Manet: Graphic Works, a Definitive Catalogue Raisonné’, New York, 1970 and Guerin 31.

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.