Artist
Étienne Carjat(French, 1828–1906)French, 1828–1906
CultureFrench
Titles
- Charles Baudelaire
Date1862
MediumAlbumen silver print
DimensionsImage: 9 1/8 × 7 1/8 in. (23.2 × 18.1 cm)
Sheet: 9 1/8 × 7 1/8 in. (23.2 × 18.1 cm)
Mount: 15 3/8 × 11 1/2 in. (39 × 29.2 cm)
Sheet: 9 1/8 × 7 1/8 in. (23.2 × 18.1 cm)
Mount: 15 3/8 × 11 1/2 in. (39 × 29.2 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2004.344
Current Location
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building
Gallery 208
Exposé
Explore Further
Department
PhotographySpecial Collections
Object Type
Étienne Carjat photographed Charles Baudelaire, one of the creative geniuses of the 19th century, twice in the 1860s. His early, widely distributed image of a fortysomething poet with an intense stare conveys a burning creative energy. The second, much rarer photograph is a sad, moving portrait made a few months before the poet died, when he was already under the care of a doctor, in the hospital, and no longer able to speak. Nadar visited Baudelaire each week for silent walks together, and it is likely that Nadar escorted him to Carjat’s home for one final portrait sitting.
ProvenanceEx-collection G. Sirot, Paris.
Bought by Manfred Heiting from Lunn Ltd.
Exhibition History"The Art of Fixing a Shadow", The Art Institut of Chicago, 1989; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1989; "Baudelaire-Paris", Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville de Paris, 1993.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
in pencil verso mount top left corner: "Meeee"
in pencil verso mount top right corner: "5A"
in pencil verso mount center: "Le Baudelaire / [illegible] / Portrait de Carjat"
in pencil verso mount bottom "IIe parte / chap. 3/ page 218"
in pencil verso top center "36-7-8-9-W[?]"
upper right "1181/11"
upper right in ink reading vertically "46/63"
in pencil verso mount top right corner: "5A"
in pencil verso mount center: "Le Baudelaire / [illegible] / Portrait de Carjat"
in pencil verso mount bottom "IIe parte / chap. 3/ page 218"
in pencil verso top center "36-7-8-9-W[?]"
upper right "1181/11"
upper right in ink reading vertically "46/63"
in ink recto mount bottom right: "EL. Carjat"
Stamped in red verso mount: "G. SIROT / 35, Rue Jacob, 35 / PARIS-VI e"
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
June 1864
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2023.234.2.18
Julia Margaret Cameron
1868, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.63