120
The image has taken second place behind writing for
Baudelaire: what there is to know about this exhibition
and its contents exists in the political, social, or aesthetic
philosophizing that Baudelaire wishes to make. “The
Salon of 1859” is a work on the philosophy of art and
therein lies its greatness. Baudelaire’s denunciation of
photography is a convenience to introduce the more
important concept of the imagination in relation to art.
It does not provide a complete picture of his relation to
photography. Photographers, most specifi cally Nadar,
were among Baudelaire’s close friends, and Baudelaire
was quite willing to sit for his own photographic portrait,
e.g. with Étienne Carjat, Charles Neyt, Nadar, as well
as the son Paul. He even contributed one of his poems,
“Le Reniement de Saint Pierre,” to Nadar’s album for
guests/clients who visited his photo graphic studio.
Baudelaire’s letters reveal his confl icted emotions
regarding the relatively new medium of photography. In
an 1861 letter he claims that “photography can produce
only hideous results” (Baudelaire, The Letters of Charles
Baudelaire to His Mother, 1833–1866, New York:
Haskell House, 1971, 187)—a comment prompted by
activities relating to the illustrations for the fi n e edition
of Les Fleurs du mal [The Flowers of Evil].
In a letter from December 1865, however, he requests
that his mother provide him with her photographic
portrait:
I would very much like to have a photograph of you. It
is an idea which now obsesses me. There is an excel-
lent photographer in Havre ... [but] I must be there. You
know nothing about them, and all photographers, even
the best, have ridiculous mannerisms. They think it is a
good photograph if warts, wrinkles, and every defect
and triviality of the face are made visible and exagger-
ated; and the HARDER the image is, the more they are
pleased. (Baudelaire, The Letters of Charles Baudelaire
to His Mother, 1833–1866, New York: Haskell House,
1971, 275–276)
Baudelaire represents the conflicting sentiments
among many nineteenth-century aestheticians regarding
the upstart fi eld of photography. Is it a mechanical trade
or an artistic medium? Few published writers indulged
in the discussion that it could be both: most took a side
either for or against the consideration of photography
as art.
Nancy M. Shawcross
Biography
Charles-Pierre Baudelaire was born in Paris, France on 9
April 1821 to Joseph-François Baudelaire and Caroline
Dufays. His father died in February 1827; 18 months
later his mother married Jacques Aupick, a general in the
army who later become the French ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire and Spain and then a senator. Initially
schooled in Lyons, Baudelaire completed his education
in Paris but was expelled from college in 1839, after
which he briefl y studied law. Around 1840 he contracted
syphilis, from which he would ultimately die. Living the
life of a dandy in Paris, Baudelaire exhausted half of his
inheritance within two years of turning 21. He wrote his
fi rst art reviews in 1845 concerning that year’s Salon
exhibition, followed by reviews of the Salons of 1846
and 1859, as well as the Exposition Universelle of 1855.
His fi rst published literary works were the short story
La Fanfarlo [The Fanfarlo] in 1847 and a translation of
Edgar Allan Poe in 1848; his fi rst poem was published
in 1851. In the 1850s Baudelaire continued to translate
works by Poe and published his poetry in earnest, cul-
minating with Les Fleurs du mal [The Flowers of Evil]
(1857) and Les Paradis artifi ciels [Artifi cial Paradises]
(1860). An expanded second edition of Les Fleurs du
mal was published in 1861. In the 1860s, Baudelaire
suffered from failing health and continued to be plagued
with fi nancial troubles. A debilitating stroke in 1866
forced him into a nursing home where he died on 31
August 1867.Further Reading
Baudelaire, Charles, Art in Paris, 1845–1862, translated and
edited by Jonathan Mayne, Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1981.
Blood, Susan, “Baudelaire Against Photography,” Baudelaire
and the Aesthetics of Bad Faith, Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1997, 150–172.
Pichois, Claude, Baudelaire, translated by Graham Robb, Lon-
don: Hamish Hamilton, 1989.
Raser, Timothy, A Poetics of Art Criticism: The Case of Baude-
laire, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Department
of Romance Languages, 1989.
Shawcross, Nancy M., “Correspondences: Baudelaire and
Barthes,” Roland Barthes on Photography, Gainesville:
University Press of Florida, 1997, 46–66.BAUER, FRANZ ANDREAS (1758–1840)
Austrian Artist
The botanical illustrator Franz Bauer was born in Felds-
berg, Austria. After persuasion by Sir Joseph Banks
(1743–1820), who remained his patron, he took up a
position as a resident draughtsman at Kew in 1790 and
he received a life annuity of £300 after Banks’ death
on condition he remained at Kew. Bauer took an ac-
tive role in wider discussions on science, botany and
medical matters forming acquaintances with many of
the leading scientists and fi gures of the day. He became
a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1804 and the Royal
Society in 1821.
In mid-September 1827 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
(1765–1833) arrived in Britain to visit his seriously ill
brother Claude. He also used the opportunity to explore