Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Charles Baudelaire was a close friend of many artists, including Edouard Manet, whom the poet met in 1859. Baudelaire-who saw etching as "up to date" and as the highest form of creative activity-encouraged the young artist to try his hand at printmaking. Manet became a leading figure in the French etching revival and one of the great modern pioneers in the medium.
Manet etched five portraits of his friend between 1862 and 1869. After the poet's death, two of these prints were offered for inclusion in Charles Asselineau's biography of Baudelaire, including this "bareheaded" version that Manet described as the "more important." Ironically, although Baudelaire decried photography as mechanical and unimaginative, the image was closely based on an 1862 photo by Nadar.