"It is claimed that Gautier will leave Le Moniteur and take up a position in the Fine Arts. Mr. de Nieuwerkerke * would go to the Senate, and Mr. Delacroix would take over the direction of the Museums."
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Charles Baudelaire (1821.1867)
Autograph letter signed "CB" to his publisher Auguste Poulet-Malassis.
Two octavo pages addressed to the Madelonnettes prison.
Slight loss (without affecting the text) on the 4th sheet due to the opening of the seal.
Autograph address, postal marking, trace of red wax seal.
Correspondence. Pléiade. Volume II, page 246.
[Paris] January 6, 1863.
"Mr. Delacroix would take over the management of the Museums."
Beautiful letter from the poet giving news of artistic and literary life, of Delacroix, Gautier, and Barbey d'Aurevilly, to his publisher imprisoned in Paris.
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"My dear Auguste, I am writing to you from our friend [Charles Asselineau]'s house, with whom I had dinner and whose leg is already better. He hopes to be able to go out at the end of the week and ask permission to see you. – As for your famous gift, he thinks, like me and even more so, that it is completely absurd. – I cannot accept anything of the sort."
"You're still asking for news: – It's rumored that Gautier is going to leave Le Moniteur and take up a position in the Fine Arts. Mr. de Nieuwerkerke * is supposed to go to the Senate, and Mr. Delacroix will take over the Museums. It was also said that Monselet was to inherit Gautier's position in the theaters, and a Mr. Chesneau ** from the same Gautier in the Fine Arts department. Finally, to top it all off, F. Desnoyers claimed to be inheriting d'Aurevilly's position at Le Pays . But his friend Ulysse Pic, who had become director of Le Pays , didn't think he could dare such a thing. Yours truly, CB"
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Auguste Poulet-Malassis served numerous prison sentences, notably for his opposition to the Second Empire. In 1862, his financial negligence and the bankruptcy of his publishing house landed him back behind bars. He went into exile in Brussels in September 1863, where he clandestinely published banned texts.
* Count Nieuwerkerke was then the Director General of the Imperial Museums. He would be appointed Superintendent General of Fine Arts on June 29th of that year, and a senator in 1864. Gautier, for his part, would remain at the Moniteur. Delacroix would die a few months later, in August 1863.
** Ernest Chesneau, Nieuwerkerke's protégé and confidant, writes the art column for Le Constitutionnel.