Étienne Carjat
Charles Baudelaire

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)
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
On view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

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 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.

Charles Baudelaire
Étienne Carjat
1866, printed 1906
Gelatin silver print
2016.335
provided
Étienne Carjat
1870s
Gelatin matrix
2015.542
provided
Étienne Carjat
c. 1875
Gelatin matrix
2015.543
provided
Étienne Carjat
c. 1862
Gelatin matrix
2015.544
Henry Monnier in Character as Monsieur Prudhomme
Étienne Carjat
c. 1875
Woodburytype
2016.268
De Marcère
Étienne Carjat
c. 1870
Woodburytype
79.170
Henri Martin
Étienne Carjat
c. 1870
Woodburytype
79.171
Louis Blanc
Étienne Carjat
c. 1870
Woodburytype
79.172
Philippe Ricord
Étienne Carjat
c. 1870
Woodburytype
79.175
Sarcophagus of Victor Hugo in the Pantheon, Paris
Étienne Neurdein
1885
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2016.46
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
June 1864
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2023.234.2.18
[Charles Delahaye, Seated]
Charles Delahaye
c. 1860
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2022.48