Charles Baudelaire is best known as a poet, writing on the early modern phase of Paris in the nineteenth century. Baudelaire was influential on the later work of essayist Walter Benjamin, who celebrated the life of the modern city on Baudelaire’s instigation. Until Baudelaire, the default approach was to criticize and decry the modern city as an appalling, hellish place to live: crowded, alienating, impersonal, chaotic and inhuman.
Baudelaire found wonder and beauty in the city. In particular, Baudelaire categorized and wrote about the characters found in the city, ways of being that were unique to the city and which could not be found elsewhere.
As well as his poetry, Baudelaire is recognized as an early example of writing in art history and critique. Of particular interest to us here is his essay The Painter of Modern Life (2006 [1863]) in which he discusses the work of an artist not widely regarded as important to the canon of art history, Constantin Guys. What is of interest to Baudelaire is the way in which Guys is recording everyday life: bearing witness.
Writing on a series of fashion plates depicting the styles of clothing from the Revolution to the time of writing in 1863, Baudelaire finds it to be a historical document of great interest and reflective of the everyday philosophy of the time.
Rather than establish an ‘academic theory’ of absolute beauty (2006:3), Baudelaire
sought to promote a theory of beauty that was based in both rationalism and historical context: the second factor being almost anthropological in intention.
His aim was to move away from the singularity of classical understandings of beauty and to have a layer of circumstance over the top of this. Baudelaire is writing at a time when concepts of beauty and aesthetics are fiercely debated, and the prevailing opinion is that there is a fundamental, classical concept of absolute beauty: a perfection that would be universal to all people in all places and times. Baudelaire is challenging this a little, but not entirely, by suggesting that there are two parts to beauty that interact in a balance that is difficult to discern without the historical document of which he writes.
The challenge is an important step away from the classical model, if not an outright rejection of it, which would come later. What is important to note here is Baudelaire’s focus upon the contextual element of beauty represented both by the fashion plates and by the work of Guys.
This is important in structuring the essay and offers the opportunity for discussing the themes of drawing and observing, making a record and seeing the value in the everyday:
And so, as a first step towards an understanding of Monsieur G., I would ask you to note at once that the mainspring of genius is curiosity.
(Baudelaire, 2006:7)
This concept of curiosity is crucial to Baudelaire’s understanding of the artist.
That one must be truly curious is an interesting focus, but it is important to underline the context of art was changing at this time, with a realization that the everyday lives of people, wherever they might be found, were just as interesting as the rich patrons of the Church or nobility. In the nineteenth century, art is moving towards increasing democratization, where the gaze of the artist is directed at his peers as well as towards the rich patron.
Driving this must be a genuine interest in human nature, the condition of the city and the ways in which we arrange ourselves socially. Baudelaire is enthusiastic and oversells the work of the artist a little, but a number of important points remain. Most notably, he writes of the duty of the artist to record the ‘gait, glance and gesture’ (2006:13) specific to their age. This suggests an importance for sketching in capturing these finer points of poise and costume which are pertinent to the times. Take, for example, the idea of comportment, that is to say, the posture and way of moving people have.
This is affected by the clothing that people wear to a great extent. Recording the fashions of people, how they sit in cafes, and how they go about their business is an important role for the artist to take. We will discuss walking in a later chapter, but it is worth noting at this juncture that something as simple and everyday as just walking is culturally and socially specific.
The spectator becomes the translator, so to speak, of a translation which is always clear and thrilling. (Baudelaire, 2006:15)
This short passage speaks to the theme of this chapter broadly: that the act of spectatorship is important and cognitive. To speak of an act of spectatorship is important: indicating that it is deliberate, directed, attentive. This is not some passive reception, but a gaze and perception that is turned towards a scene in a particular way. Baudelaire goes further to describe a little of the actual process of this perception, as focused through the act of drawing and painting: of sketching proper (2006:17). His process moves from lightly indicated pencil sketches designed to note the composition. This is followed by tints and washes to give some substance to the territory marked out. Once these are done, the ink lines are selected from the under-drawing, finishing what was started. The process reportedly allowed Guys to complete multiple drawings in short succession, working swiftly on a series and selecting all the while which lines to follow through and which studies to complete.
There are several elements which are worth discussing from Baudelaire’s account. The movement from light pencil lines to more permanent ink lines is important and interesting given the selection process inherent to any sketching practice, as is the application of colour in between the line- making steps. Inscribing in pencil and then pen exposes a process which also occurs in single-media sketches, but in a more involved and obvious manner.
Sketching is a selection process in which a scene is observed and inscribed on the surface of the paper (also known as support – allowing for alternative drawing surfaces to be discussed). Sketching does not allow everything to be represented, particularly when a scene is in motion, people and vehicles moving, flags fluttering, or clouds drifting.
He has everywhere sought after the fugitive, fleeting beauty of present-day life, the distinguishing character of quality which, with the reader’s kind permission, we have called ‘modernity’. Often weird, violent and excessive, he has contrived to concentrate in his drawings the acrid or heady bouquet of the wine of life. (Baudelaire, 2006:41)
This leads us to the concept of a drawing as a ‘study’. Indicating that a drawing is in preparation for another work, it suggests a plural nature for drawing:
that we might not always refer to a single work as one item or instance, but an entire stack of sketches which contributed to a work.5 This is an almost academic turn of phrase for a creative practice, in that a concentrated form of attention is turned towards a subject. Formal aspects are examined in detail and rendered in outline, given contours and detailed. A sketch can be considered as a form of research, an academic pursuit.