Charles BAUDELAIRE – Autograph letter signed to Paul Meurice.
Did you receive the package from Delâtre for Mr. Hugo?
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Did you receive the package from Delâtre for Mr. Hugo?
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Charles Baudelaire (1821.1867)
Autographed letter signed to Paul Meurice.
One page in quarto. Autograph address, again initialed by Baudelaire.
[Paris]. Wednesday, December 21 [18]59. Delicate restoration on the reverse of the first leaf.
"My dear friend, I wish to show De Calonne and Malassis the dreadful drawings this evening , along with a new package I have just received, to give them an idea of the planned article. Please be so kind as to send me the card. Have you received Delâtre's package for Mr. Hugo? Please give my regards to Madame Meurice. Ch. Baudelaire"
Baudelaire is referring here to the awful drawings of Constantin Guys ( awful is understood in a moral sense: these drawings by Guys representing women) for which he wrote a laudatory essay, The Painter of Modern Life .
On December 13th, Baudelaire wrote a long letter to Victor Hugo, copying his critical work on the 1859 Salon and informing him of a publication of views of Paris by Messrs. Meryon and Delâtre, which he wished to send him: “ I learn with great pleasure that Mr. Meryon and his publisher and friend, Mr. Delâtre, intend to send you a copy of the beautiful compositions based on several views of Paris, which one has drawn and engraved, and which the other, an artist himself, has carefully printed. I take this opportunity to include an extract from a work on the Fine Arts in which your name has once again come to my attention. You are in exile; is this not the most opportune moment to pay you my respects? …”