Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) may be more widely known by his famous work Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil). However, it is another of his works the one that relates to understanding Modern Art: Le Peintre de la vie moderne.
This essay was actually written in 1860 and would not be published until 1863 in Le Figaro, the oldest currently existing newspaper in France. Based on artist Constantin Guys, the essay explores the rising of a new type of artist: the Modern artist.
According to Baudelaire, Constantin Guys refused to be named in the essay. For this reason, the work is about an artist cryptically named Monsieur G. The fact that the name of the artist in which the essay is based is not explicitly mentioned and that its publication in 1863 coincides with the infamous Salon des Réfusés and the debut of Édouard Manet as an artist of scandal allows us to relate it with the igniting spark of Modern Art.
In this publication, Baudelaire comes up with the term “modernity”. Baudelaire’s description of Monsieur G is his own description of a Modern artist. Monsieur G‘s originality is so clear-cut and powerful that he does not seek anyone’s approval. He does not sign his name because that is unoriginal and boring. Instead, his works are signed with his “dazzling” soul, meaning that they are so unique that they do not need a signature to be recognized.
By ‘modernity’ I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and immutable… This transitory, fugitive element, whose metamorphoses are so rapid, must on no account be despised or dispensed with. By neglecting it, you cannot fail to tumble into the abyss of an abstract and indeterminate beauty…
Charles Baudelaire, 1863
Credit:
- Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette. Baudelaire and “The Painter of Modern Life”. Art History Unstuffed. August 27, 2010.
- Prezi: Baudelaire “A Painter of Modern Life”. June 12, 2014.
Modern Art: Ideas! 