PARIS | Thu Apr 18, 2013 2:08pm EDT
Reuters - The discovery of a lost self-portrait of Charles Baudelaire has rekindled interest in the 19th century French poet, revealing a lighter, painterly side to a literary "enfant terrible" known for his dark, erotic poetry.
The drawing, overlaid with pale brown watercolors, shows a three-quarter view of Baudelaire with what appears to be a red scarf tied around his neck. Sketched in the background are a naked woman, silhouettes of men and a dog.
The drawing surfaced when curators at the Cite de l'Architecture museum were looking through a collection of art objects found in the workshop of French sculptor Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume, a contemporary of Baudelaire's.
Museum curator Carole Lenfant was digging through the Geoffroy-Dechaume stash for an upcoming exhibition when the loose sheet caught her eye.
"There was something about the eyes and the way it was painted," she said.
Convinced it was by Baudelaire, she began a quest to confirm that it was indeed a self-portrait.
image
flowers of rarest bloom
proffering their perfume
mixed with the vague fragrances of amber
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work is, Les Fleurs du mal. Baudelaire influenced a whole generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé among many others.
It seems as though it were just yesterday that I took dear, Charles a black orchid grown under glass and nurtured with tincture of moonlight, said Princess Haiku. A ghost poet has just too many friends to keep up with...
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