Baudelaire, la modernité mélancolique

Baudelaire, la modernité mélancolique : Portrait de Baudelaire « aux gravures », par Étienne Carjat, vers octobre 1863, BnF, dpt.des Estampes et de la photographie, © BnF    Baudelaire, la modernité mélancolique : Charles Baudelaire, Fleurs du Mal, Dessin de Nadar, 1859, Réserve des livres rares, BnF, © BnF    Baudelaire, la modernité mélancolique : Charles Baudelaire, « Spleen », Les Fleurs du Mal, épreuves corrigées de l’édition originale, 1857, Réserve des livres rares, BnF, © BnF    Baudelaire, la modernité mélancolique : Odilon Redon, « Gloire et louange à toi, Satan… », 7e pl. de la série des illustrations pour Les Fleurs du mal, Bruxelles, E. Deman, 1890, BnF, dpt.des Estampes et de la photographie, © BnF   


The exhibition


It is known, the "melancholy" characterizes the work of Baudelaire. For the artist, it is "the illustrious companion of the beauty". From one poem to another, its difficulty of being makes its poetic power. It is this notion that irrigates the exhibition of the National Library. Rare manuscripts, letters, corrected proofs, photographs and paintings mark out a course aiming less to expose Baudelaire than the poet he was. Without pushing back his biography, it is rather a question of putting fully in light pieces entering in resonance with his poetic universe. This is the case in particular of works by Delacroix, engravings by Goya or lithographs by Daumier that fed his critical thinking. Built like a collection, the exhibition is set between a prologue and an epilogue echoing each other. A way to pay tribute to the notion of architecture, fundamental in the work of the poet. Thus, Baudelaire finds himself facing his double Hamlet, which he had hung in his bedroom as a young man, at the opening of an exhibition that concludes with a series of specular works, photographs and self-portraits. Among the most remarkable pieces, the printing proofs of the first edition of Les Fleurs du mal (1857), annotated by Baudelaire for his publisher.

Excerpt from the article by Emma Noyant, published in nº99 of the magazine Art Absolument.

When


03/11/2021 - 13/02/2022
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