Edouard Manet PORTRAIT OF BAUDELAIRE Restrike Etching

This is a Edouard Manet re-strike etching titled “PORTRAIT OF BAUDELAIRE” or “Charles Baudelaire, de Face”.

Struck on thin handmade laid paper. Signed by Manet in the plate (lower right) and bearing the inscriptions of both the artist and the printer along the lower margin.

Charles Baudelaire, de Face represents a prime, original example of the art of Edouard Manet.

Image Measures 3½” x 3″. Sheet measures 9½” x 9″.

In excellent condition, comes unframed. Comes with a certificate of authenticity.

From 1860 (the year he created his first original print) etching and lithography became as important to Edouard Manet’s art as his celebrated paintings. Manet was one of the first artists to actively experiment with etching during its revival in France and even contributed an original plate to the first issue published by the Societe des Aquafortistes. During this time Manet also came into contact with other great pioneers of etching and lithography, such as Bracquemond, Ribot, Legros, Whistler and Fantin-Latour. As well, Manet was a close friend of the influential poet, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), who, through his perceptive and critical writings championed the cause of etching as the highest form of artistic creativity. From 1862 to 1869 the artist etched five portraits of Baudelaire.

The years from 1863 to 1870 mark a climatic period in the development of both Manet’s graphic art and his paintings. The style which appears in the works of the late 1860’s — often termed, ‘Synthetist’ — is Manet’s outstanding achievement for the first half of his career, and clearly looks forward to the modern era of art. In such works of original etching such as, Charles Baudelaire, de Face, we see Manet deliberately moving towards the creation of simplified areas and two-dimensional compositions. This is the beginnings of a new and forceful artistic language, carefully controlled, yet subtly evocative. This alone is sufficient to make Edouard Manet one of the greatest geniuses of nineteenth century art.

Charles Baudelaire, de Face owes its beginnings to a rather tentative portrait etching it is believed Manet created in 1865. In 1869, two years after Baudelaire’s death, Charles Asselineau’s completed book, Charles Baudelaire, sa vie et son oeuvre, was published.

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