Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire; April 9, 1821 – August 31, 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 April 1821
CityParis, France
CountryFrance
love men occupation
Love is the natural occupation of the man of leisure.
art crime should
A work of art should be like a well-planned crime.
past artist historical-value
My concern today is with the painting of manners of the present. The past is interesting not only by reason of the beauty which could be distilled from it by those artists for whom it was the present, but also precisely because it is the past, for its historical value. It is the same with the present. The pleasure which we derive from the representation of the present is due not only to the beauty with which it can be invested, but also to its essential quality of being present
passion worship cult
To glorify the cult of images (my great, my only, my primitive passion).
self centralization
On the vaporization and the centralization of the Self. All is there.
queens imagination mysterious
What a mysterious faculty is that queen of the faculties!
running men squares
The idea of beauty which man creates for himself imprints itself on his whole attire, crumples or stiffens his dress, rounds off or squares his gesture, and in the long run even ends by subtly penetrating the very features of his face. Man ends by looking like his ideal self. These engravings can be translated either into beauty or ugliness; in one direction, they become caricatures, in the other, antique statues.
reign becoming mediocrity
That in all times, mediocrity has dominated, that is indubitable; but that it reigns more than ever, that it is becoming absolutely triumphant and inhibiting, this is what is as true as it is distressing.
hideous
Etre un homme utile m'a paru toujours quelque chose de bien hideux. To be useful has always seemed to me quite hideous.
satisfaction proud pleasure
It is the pleasure of astonishing others, and the proud satisfaction of never being astonished by them.
sleep mirrors sublime
The dandy should aspire to be uninterruptedly sublime. He should live and sleep in front of a mirror.
moon long worms
I am a cemetery abhorred by the moon, In which long worms crawl like remorse.
ingredients strangeness
Strangeness is an ingredient necessary in beauty.
past reality artist
Artist should look at the reality and brutality of modern life in all its color, nature with all its imperfections - that should be the challenge to the modern painter not the didactic idealization of the past. The new generation should forge a new path.