āHalf Artā: Baudelaireās Le Peintre de la vie moderne
In this piece, I look at an essay that I have probably read too often not to find in it the key to all matters aesthetic, historical, philosophical, and more. The essay is Charles Baudelaireās Le Peintre de la vie moderne (The Painter of Modern Life), first published in 1863 and written, most probably, around 1859 to 1860. Baudelaireās exhilarating innovation is to downplay the significance of eternal value in art, in favor of what he designates as its other half, the fleeting presentness that is modernity. My essay is unapologetically an appreciationāfor the most partāof a text that, in focusing on another artist, itself appears to be just that. For Baudelaire develops his arguments through a mock-anonymous celebration of the artist Constantin Guys, referred to as M. G. (Monsieur G.). Guysās prolific sketches, done at speed, for rapid journal publication, chart the smallest of day-byday changes and typical scenes in contemporary life. Guysās picturesāthe art of modernityāgive to the day a second life, and ātranslateā into a different mediumāfrom sight to (mental) impression to its ārebirthā as a sketchāthat which would otherwise be lost with its passing.
At one level, then, The Painter of Modern Life is a celebration of the work (and the lifestyle) of Guys, whose subjects ranged from fashion to war, and whose images were reproduced in widely circulated magazines such as the Illustrated London News. Guys is not named directly by Baudelaire; there is a coy pretense of secrecy, on the grounds that this is what the mysterious M. G. himself would prefer . . .