BAUDELAIRE Charles (1821-1867)
Portrait of Jeanne DUVAL, original drawing
Pencil, ink and pencil, 13,5 x 8 cm, pasted on strong paper.
Precious portrait of her "cursed" mistress. One of the four drawings Baudelaire left of Jeanne Duval, none of which is captioned with her name, executed at several moments of her life: "The only woman I ever loved" (letter to Narcisse Ancelle, June 30, 1845). Jeanne Duval occupies a central place in Baudelaire's life and work. He met her in the spring of 1842, and lived intermittently with her for nearly twenty years a tempestuous passion that evolved into a charitable love when the beautiful woman, aging and moving away from him, became a "wreck".
Les Fleurs du mal devote several major poems to her, sometimes referred to as the "cycle de Jeanne". Thus, in I give you these verses: "[...] Cursed be you who from the deepest abyss, To the highest heaven nothing, except me, answers; - O you who, like a shadow with an ephemeral trace, Crowds with a light foot and a serene look The stupid mortals who judged you bitter, Statue in the eyes of jet, great angel with a bronze forehead!".
Baudelaire's mother destroyed all their letters after the death of her son. The real name of this woman of colour remains uncertain, Duval, Lemer, Lemaire or Prosper according to the documents, as well as her origin, probably Santo Domingo, and her employment - it would seem that she played small roles in the theatre in the years 1838-1839. Banville, in Mes Souvenirs (1882), gives a description of her that underlines her Baudelairean duality: "She was a coloured girl, very tall, who wore her beautiful, ingenuous brown head well, crowned with violently crested hair, and whose queenly gait, full of fierce grace, had something both divine and bestial...". "I used and abused; I had fun to martyr, and I was martyred in my turn" (Charles Baudelaire, letter to his mother, September 11, 1856).
Extremely rare document.
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