Charles Baudelaire | |
|---|---|
 Charles Baudelaire by Étienne Carjat, 1863 | |
| Born | Pierre Baudelaire 9 April 1821 Paris, France |
| Died | 31 August 1867 (aged 46) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Poet, art critic, philosopher |
| Education | Lycée Louis-le-Grand |
| Period | 1844–1866 |
| Literary movement | Decadent |
| Signature | |
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Charles Pierre Baudelaire (UK: /ˈboʊdəlɛər/, US: /ˌboʊd(ə)ˈlɛər/;[1] French: [ʃaʁl(ə) bodlɛʁ] ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhyme and rhythm, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, and are based on observations of real life.[2]
His most famous work, a book of lyric poetry titled Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), expresses the changing nature of beauty in the rapidly industrialising Paris caused by Haussmann's renovation of Paris during the mid-19th century. Baudelaire's original style of prose-poetry influenced a generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé. He coined the term modernity (modernité) to designate the fleeting experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the responsibility of artistic expression to capture that experience.[3] Marshall Berman has credited Baudelaire as being the first Modernist.[4]
- ^ "Baudelaire". Merriam-Webster.
- ^ Norwich, John Julius (1985–1993). Oxford illustrated encyclopedia. Judge, Harry George., Toyne, Anthony. Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-19-869129-7. OCLC 11814265.
- ^ "By modernity I mean the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent which make up one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable." Charles Baudelaire, "The Painter of Modern Life" in The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays, edited and translated by Jonathan Mayne. London: Phaidon Press, 13.
- ^ ""If we had to nominate a first modernist, Baudelaire would surely be the man."" Marshall Berman, "Everything That Is Solid Melts Into Air".