Charles Baudelaire by Etienne Carjat
The poet's most famous photograph, taken in 1862. Photoglypty from a wet collodion negative.
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The poet's most famous photograph, taken in 1862. Photoglypty from a wet collodion negative.
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Charles Baudelaire by Etienne Carjat
Original photoglyph – Portrait of Charles Baudelaire.
Photoglypty from a wet collodion negative (230 x 183 mm).
Mounted on the original cardboard captioned "Ch. Baudelaire, Born in Paris, in 1821, died in 1867" and with the indications "Contemporary Gallery – 126, boul. Magenta. Paris. Photograph by Carjat et Cie"
This portrait – the most famous of the poet – was taken in 1862 in the studios of Etienne Carjat (1828-1906). The latter was – along with Nadar – one of the great Parisian portrait photographers of the mid-19th century .
"It is a great ordeal that has nothing to envy in Nadar's portraits, neither the extraordinary grounding of the figure, nor the dramatic chiaroscuro that hollows out the features, giving the gaze an almost unbearable intensity in its pain." Nadar Exhibition , Musée d'Orsay, 1994, p. 84.)
Baudelaire, however, often visited Carjat, the artist who painted his most famous portraits. He wrote about this: "This [portrait] is not perfect, because such perfection is impossible, but I have rarely seen anything so good." Carjat Exhibition , Carnavalet Museum, 1983, p. 22.)