MERYON AND BAUDELAIRE

ByWILLIAM ASPENWALL BRADLEY

ALL French poets of the middle part of the nineteenth century were interested, theoretically at least, in painting and the graphic arts, which afforded them an ideal and an example of objectivity for their own verbal representations of reality. From Théophile Gautier, godfather of Parnassianism, who reserved for his prose the full resources of his superb Turneresque palate, to Verlaine, creator of decadence, with his limpid and lovelyaquarelles, pictorial preoccupations were, on the whole, paramount. Charles Baudelaire almost alone appears, in part, an exception to this rule; but if, in his work, the purely visual element is less pronounced than in that of most of his contemporaries—if the images of sight yield there in number and in clear evocative power to those of sound and of scent, thereby preluding the way for a new poetic dispensation—he nevertheless fits into the late romantic tradition, if only by reason of his keen æsthetic appreciation of the arts of design, and of his association, as a disinterested friend or sympathetic critic, with many of the most illustrious artists of the age. Himself a rebel and an outlaw in the domain of orthodox taste, though with a distinct tinge of the traditional, he was especially drawn to the insurgent leader, likeDelacroix, his championship of whom is as famous as his espousal of the cause of Wagner’s music in Paris, or to the solitaryattardéof romanticism who, like Constantin Guys, worked out his own salvation in his own way. It is not that he did not welcome new movements in all their collectivity of talents and temperaments; but these, to find favor with him, must be vouched for by unmistakable evidences of creative vigor and originality in the individual artists, not merely by plausible theories or pretentious dogmas professed scholastically. Intellectual distinctions counted but little with him in matters of art, and a new way of rendering what was actually seen or felt seemed to him of infinitely more importance than any merely academic discussion as to what an artist should or should not look for, deliberately, in order to put it into or leave it out of his pictures.

Thus it was that while he shrugged his shoulders at the realists who were not really observers, he turned an attentive eye to the work of the group of young painter-etchers who, about 1859, were beginning to attract attention in the salons. Baudelaire thought highly of etching because it afforded an opportunity for “the most clean-cut possible translation of the character of the artist,” and he was attracted to those who were engaged in reviving this almost obsolete medium, because they gave clear proof in their work of that personal force and distinction which he valued above all else, and which he was always on the alert to discover in the productions of the new and the unknown.

In his article,Peintres et Aqua-fortistes, includedin the volume of his collected works entitledL’Art Romantique, Baudelaire mentions the following etchers as among those through whose efforts the medium was to recover its ancient vitality: Seymour Haden, Manet, Legros, Bracquemond, Jongkind, Meryon, Millet, Daubigny, Saint-Marcel, Jacquemart, and Whistler. With at least two of these, on the evidence of his published correspondence,[2]he had personal relations: Bracquemond and Meryon. The name of the former occurs frequently in the letters with reference to a device which Baudelaire wished to adopt as a frontispiece to the second edition ofFleurs du Mal. The idea of this device came to him, as he writes to Félix Nadar (May 16, 1859), while turning the leaves of theHistoire des Danses Macabres, by Hyacinthe Langlois. It was to be “an arborescent skeleton, the legs and the ribs forming the trunk, the arms extended in the form of a cross breaking into leaf and shoot, and protecting several rows of poisonous plants arranged in rising tiers of pots, as in a greenhouse.” In casting about for an artist to execute this design, Baudelaire mentions and dismisses Doré, Penguilly—whom he afterward wished he had taken—and Célestin Nanteuil. Finally, perhaps at the instance of his publisher, Poulet-Malassis, he chose Bracquemond,—a most unhappy selection as it turned out, for that artist was either unable or unwilling to grasp the poet’s conception, and the plate which he etched for this purpose was not used. A few proofs were pulled, however, and impressions in both the first and secondstates of the plate are now in the Samuel P. Avery collection in the New York Public Library.

[2]Charles Baudelaire: Lettres, 1841-1866. Paris, 1907.

Bracquemond. Frontispiece for “Les Fleurs du Mal” of BaudelaireThe seven plants symbolize the Seven Deadly Sins, and the outstretched arms of the skeleton will support, later, the Fruits of Evil. This romantic and remarkable frontispiece was never used. Baudelaire criticized the drawing of the skeleton severely, as well as the spirit and arrangement of the whole design.Size of the original etching, 6¾ × 4⁵⁄₁₆ inches

Bracquemond. Frontispiece for “Les Fleurs du Mal” of Baudelaire

The seven plants symbolize the Seven Deadly Sins, and the outstretched arms of the skeleton will support, later, the Fruits of Evil. This romantic and remarkable frontispiece was never used. Baudelaire criticized the drawing of the skeleton severely, as well as the spirit and arrangement of the whole design.

Size of the original etching, 6¾ × 4⁵⁄₁₆ inches

Portrait of Charles BaudelaireFrom the etching by Félix Bracquemond. Of the same size as the original etching. Evidently an excellent likeness, since it exactly renders that ecclesiastical aspect of the poet which made one of his friends compare him to a cardinal.

Portrait of Charles Baudelaire

From the etching by Félix Bracquemond. Of the same size as the original etching. Evidently an excellent likeness, since it exactly renders that ecclesiastical aspect of the poet which made one of his friends compare him to a cardinal.

Baudelaire’s negotiations with the “terrible Bracquemond,” as he came to call him, were carried on for the most part through Poulet-Malassis, which perhaps affords a partial explanation of the misunderstanding concerning themacabrefrontispiece. And, although he speaks in one letter of having met the artist and repeated verbally the instructions which he had already given, with characteristically minute attention to detail, in writing, no such special interest attaches to this meeting, by no means unique, as to that between Baudelaire and Meryon which occurred about the same time, and to which we owe one of the most vivid and fantastic presentments we possess of that mad genius. In hisSalon of 1859, Baudelaire had written of Meryon with an enthusiasm which awoke a responsive reverberation in the breast of Victor Hugo.

“Since you know M. Meryon,” the latter wrote to Baudelaire (April 29, 1860), “tell him that his splendid etchings have dazzled me. Without color, with nothing save shadow and light, chiaroscuro pure and simple and left to itself: that is the problem of etching. M. Meryon solves it magisterially. What he does is superb. His plates live, radiate, and think. He is worthy of the profound and luminous page with which he has inspired you.”

This page, which Baudelaire afterward incorporated in hisPeintres et Aqua-fortistes, where he speaks further of Meryon as “the true type of the accomplishedaqua-fortiste,” and praises the famousperspective of San Francisco as his masterpiece, does, indeed, betray the subtle penetration of the poet into the very spirit of his fellow-artist: “By the severity, the delicacy, and the certitude of his design, M. Meryon recalls what is best in the oldaqua-fortistes. I have rarely seen represented with more poetry the natural solemnity of a great capital. The majesties of accumulated stone,the spires pointing a finger to the skies, the obelisks of industry vomiting their thick clouds of smoke heavenward, the prodigious scaffoldings of monuments under repair, relieved against the solid mass of architecture, their tracery of a filmy and paradoxical beauty, the misty sky, charged with wrath and with rancor, the depths of the perspectives augmented by the thought of the dramas contained therein,—none of the complex elements of which the dolorous and glorious setting of civilization is composed is here forgotten.”

Grateful for such recognition on the part of a distinguished man of letters who was also accepted as one of the leading art critics of the day in Paris, Meryon evidently wrote to Baudelaire, thanking him, and asking permission to call; for in his letter of January 8, 1860, to Poulet-Malassis, the poet writes as follows:

“What I write to-night,” he begins, “is worth the trouble of writing: M. Meryon has sent me his card, and we have met. He said to me:You live in a hotel whose name must have attracted you, because of the relation it bears, I presume, to your tastes.—Then I looked at the envelope of his letter. On it was ‘Hôtel deThèbes,’ and yet his letter reached me.”

Portrait of Charles MeryonFrom the etching by Félix Bracquemond, done in 1853Size of the original etching, 8⁷/₁₆ × 6⅛ inches

Portrait of Charles Meryon

From the etching by Félix Bracquemond, done in 1853

Size of the original etching, 8⁷/₁₆ × 6⅛ inches

Meryon. Le Pont au Change“In one of his great plates, he has substituted for a little balloon a flight of birds of prey, and, when I remarked to him that it was lacking in verisimilitude to put so many eagles into a Parisian sky, he replied that what he had done was not devoid of foundation in fact, sinceces gens-là[the imperial government] had often released eagles so as to study the presages, according to the rite,—and that this had been printed in the newspapers, even inLe Moniteur.”Charles Baudelaire in a letter to Poulet-Malassis (January 8, 1860).

Meryon. Le Pont au Change

“In one of his great plates, he has substituted for a little balloon a flight of birds of prey, and, when I remarked to him that it was lacking in verisimilitude to put so many eagles into a Parisian sky, he replied that what he had done was not devoid of foundation in fact, sinceces gens-là[the imperial government] had often released eagles so as to study the presages, according to the rite,—and that this had been printed in the newspapers, even inLe Moniteur.”Charles Baudelaire in a letter to Poulet-Malassis (January 8, 1860).

It is necessary to interrupt the letter at this point to explain what is obscure in the foregoing allusion for one not familiar with Baudelaire’s haunts and homes in Paris. He was living at this time, not in the Hôtel Pimodan where he dwelt so long, and where he held those famous meetings described by Gautier in his introductory essay toFleurs du Mal, but in modest quarters in the Hotel de Dieppe, 22, rue d’Amsterdam, whose principal advantage was its proximity to the Gare de l’Ouest whence he took the train for Honfleur on his frequent visits to his mother. Thus, through a bizarre confusion between the two words,DieppeandThèbes, is explained Meryon’s curious mistake in addressing his letter to Baudelaire.

The poet proceeds with the following report of their conversation: “In one of his great plates,[3]he [Meryon] has substituted for a little balloon a flight of birds of prey, and, when I remarked to him that it was lacking in verisimilitude to put so many eagles into a Parisian sky, he replied that what he had done was not devoid of foundation in fact, sinceces gens-là[the imperial government] had often released eagles so as to study the presages, according to the rite,—and that this had been printed in the newspapers, even inLe Moniteur.

[3]ThePont-au-Change.

“I must tell you that he makes no attempt to conceal his respect for all superstitions, but he explains them badly, and he sees cabal everywhere.

“He drew my attention to the fact, in another of his plates, that the shadows cast by one of the masonry constructions of thePont-Neuf[4]on the lateralwall of the quay represented exactly the profile of a sphinx; that this had been, on his part, quite involuntary, and that he had only remarked this singularity later, on recalling that this design had been made a short time before thecoup d’état. But the Prince is the real person who, by his acts and his visage, bears the closest resemblance to asphinx.

[4]An error of Baudelaire’s. The plate is thePetit-Pont.

“He asked me if I had read the tales of a certain Edgar Poe. I answered that I knew them better than any one else, and for a good reason. He then asked me in a very emphatic manner, if I believed in the reality of this Edgar Poe. I naturally asked him to whom he attributed all his tales. He replied: ‘To a society of men of letters who are very clever, very powerful, and who are in touch with everything.’ And here is one of his reasons: ‘TheRueMorgue.I have made a design of theMorgue.—AnOrang-ou-tang.I have often been compared toa monkey.—This monkey murderstwo women, a mother and her daughter.I also have morally assassinatedtwo women, a mother and her daughter.—I have always taken the story as an allusion to my misfortunes. You would be doing me a great favor if you could find out for me the date when Edgar Poe, supposing that he was not helped by any one, composed this story, so that I could see if the date coincided with my adventures.’

“He spoke to me, with admiration, of Michelet’s book onJeanne d’Arc, but he is convinced that this book is not by Michelet.

“One of his great preoccupations is cabalistical science, but he interprets it in a strange fashion that would make a cabalist laugh.

Meryon. Le Petit Pont“He drew my attention to the fact, in another of his plates, that the shadows cast by one of the masonry constructions of the Pont-Neuf on the lateral wall of the quay represented exactly the profile of a sphinx; that this had been, on his part, quite involuntary, and that he had only remarked this singularity later, on recalling that this design had been made a short time before thecoup d’état.”Charles Baudelaire in a letter to Poulet-Malassis (January 8, 1860).Size of the original etching, 9⅝ × 7¼ inches

Meryon. Le Petit Pont

“He drew my attention to the fact, in another of his plates, that the shadows cast by one of the masonry constructions of the Pont-Neuf on the lateral wall of the quay represented exactly the profile of a sphinx; that this had been, on his part, quite involuntary, and that he had only remarked this singularity later, on recalling that this design had been made a short time before thecoup d’état.”Charles Baudelaire in a letter to Poulet-Malassis (January 8, 1860).

Size of the original etching, 9⅝ × 7¼ inches

Portrait of Charles MeryonFrom the drawing by Léopold Flameng, made in May, 1858, in Meryon’s room in the rue des Fossés-Saint-Jacques, the night before Meryon became dangerously mad and was taken by his friends, in a cab, to Charenton for the first time. Later he was discharged, and took up his lodging in the rue Duperré, and in October, 1866, returned to Charenton, where he died in February, 1868.

Portrait of Charles Meryon

From the drawing by Léopold Flameng, made in May, 1858, in Meryon’s room in the rue des Fossés-Saint-Jacques, the night before Meryon became dangerously mad and was taken by his friends, in a cab, to Charenton for the first time. Later he was discharged, and took up his lodging in the rue Duperré, and in October, 1866, returned to Charenton, where he died in February, 1868.

“Do not laugh at all this withméchants bougres. For nothing in the world would I wish to injure a man of talent....

“After he left me, I asked myself how it happened that I, who have always had, in my mind and in my nerves, all that was needed to make me mad, had not become so. Seriously, I addressed to heaven the thanksgivings of the Pharisee.”

* * * * *

It is not surprising that Baudelaire should have been somewhat disconcerted by this interview which confirmed so strikingly the reports of the mental malady of his visitor to which he had alluded in hisSalon of 1859, and that he should soon have sought, after some brief intercourse, to avoid personal and private encounters which might have proved embarrassing. He gave notice in ways the artist could not long mistake, that he did not wish to continue the acquaintance on a footing of intimacy, though, as Crépet, in hisCharles Baudelaire[5]points out, he by no means ceased to interest himself in the artist, several sets of whoseEaux-Fortes sur Parishe was instrumental, with one or two other admirers of Meryon, in having purchased by the Ministry. Poor Meryon! With an incomplete realization of his own condition which rendered him incapable of divining the real truth, he felt he had offended Baudelaire in some way, and finally addressed him the following appeal, tragic in its note of noble and unconscious pathos:

“Dear Sir: I called on you yesterday evening at the Hôtel de Dieppe. I was informed that you had changed your domicile. I wished, above all, to see you, in order to learn from your own lips that you were not angry with me, for I do not think I have ever done anything to you which could serve as a motive for your change of manner toward me. Only, as the last letter which I wrote you has remained unanswered, and as three times I have left my name at your dwelling without my having had the slightest word from you, I am entitled to believe that you have some reason for breaking with me. I did not remind you of your promise to write a newspaper article about my work, because, quite frankly, I was sure that you could make much better employment of your time and of your literary skill. My etchings are known to nearly all whom they could interest and rather too much good has been said of them. As to the interruption of our relations, which have been but of brief duration and of slight importance, I agree to this without a word if such is your desire, and I shall conserve, none the less, the recollection of the eminent services you have rendered me in coming to see me, and in occupying yourself with me at a time when I was utterly destitute.“I have forwarded to M. Lavielle, whom I had the advantage of meeting once with you, the set of my views, reworked and a trifle modified; he has, perhaps, shown them to you. I have had difficulty in procuring the ten sets of them (the printer being very busy at that time) that I have disposed of with sufficient rapidity. I have no longer any left and I have destroyed thePetit-Pont, which I propose to engraveanew, after I have made in it some rather important corrections.“Adieu, dear sir, with all possible good wishes.“I am your sincere and devoted friend,“C. Meryon.“20, rue Duperré.”

“I have forwarded to M. Lavielle, whom I had the advantage of meeting once with you, the set of my views, reworked and a trifle modified; he has, perhaps, shown them to you. I have had difficulty in procuring the ten sets of them (the printer being very busy at that time) that I have disposed of with sufficient rapidity. I have no longer any left and I have destroyed thePetit-Pont, which I propose to engraveanew, after I have made in it some rather important corrections.

“Adieu, dear sir, with all possible good wishes.“I am your sincere and devoted friend,

“C. Meryon.

“20, rue Duperré.”

[5]Charles Baudelaire: Étude biographique d’Eugène Crépet revue et mise au jour par Jacques Crépet. Paris, 1907.

The letter to which Meryon refers in the opening paragraph of the foregoing as having remained unanswered by Baudelaire is doubtless that bearing the date of February 23, 1860, which is the only other one given by Crépet in the appendix to his volume. This is it:

“Dear Sir: I send you a set of my ‘Views of Paris.’[6]As you can see, they are well printed, on Chinese tissue mounted on laid paper, and consequentlyde bonne tenue. It is on my part a feeble means of recognizing the devotion you have shown on my behalf. However, I dare hope that they will serve sometimes to fix your imagination, curious of the things of the past. I myself, who made them at an epoch, it is true, when my naïve heart was still seized with sudden aspirations toward a happiness which I believed I could attain, look over some of these pieces with averitable pleasure. They may, then, be able to produce nearly the same effect upon you who also love to dream.“I have not yet terminated the notes that I promised to make in order to aid you in your work; at all events, I shall go to see you soon to discuss the matter with you further. As the publisher recoils before the steps which would still have to be taken, he says, for the placing of these prints, there is nothing pressing about the affair. Thus, do not let this disturb you.“Adieu, monsieur; I hope that before your departure, I shall be able to profit by the kindly reception that I have received from you.“I am your very humble and very devoted servant.“I am going to try to place sets with those persons who have been so good, on your recommendation, as to interest themselves in this work.“Meryon.“20, rue Duperré.”

“I have not yet terminated the notes that I promised to make in order to aid you in your work; at all events, I shall go to see you soon to discuss the matter with you further. As the publisher recoils before the steps which would still have to be taken, he says, for the placing of these prints, there is nothing pressing about the affair. Thus, do not let this disturb you.

“Adieu, monsieur; I hope that before your departure, I shall be able to profit by the kindly reception that I have received from you.

“I am your very humble and very devoted servant.

“I am going to try to place sets with those persons who have been so good, on your recommendation, as to interest themselves in this work.

“Meryon.

“20, rue Duperré.”

[6]Baudelaire had already tried to obtain a set of these prints. In writing to Charles Asselineau (February 20, 1859) he commissions his friend to get from Édouard Houssaye “all the engravings of Meryon (views of Paris), good proofs on Chinese paper.Pour parer notre chambre, as Dorine says.” He was not successful, however, at that time. In quoting Molière, Baudelaire refers to Toinette’s speech inLe Malade Imaginaire(Act II slc· v).

This letter renders sufficiently clear the kind of service Baudelaire had rendered Meryon over and above the public praise contained in his writings. What, at the first glance, is less certain is the work on which the poet was engaged at this time and for which Meryon, on his own testimony, had promised to assist him with notes. In a foot-note to this letter, M. Jacques Crépet states that it was “doubtlessL’eau-forte est à la mode, an anonymous article published by theRevue anecdotiquein the latter half of April, 1862.” Personally, I doubt the correctness of this conjecture. One has but to turn to Baudelaire’s letters of the period to see that there was then under discussion anotherpiece of work for which Meryon would have been much more likely to give assistance in the form of notes, since it directly concerned himself. Indeed, the matter almost amounted to a project of collaboration between Meryon and Baudelaire. The publisher Delâtre had promised to bring out an album of the “Vues de Paris,” and had asked the poet to prepare some text for the plates. The first reference to this tentative undertaking occurs in Baudelaire’s letter of February 16, 1860 (just a week before Meryon’s), to Poulet-Malassis:

“And then Meryon!”—he broaches the matter abruptly, after having expressed his impatience at the attitude of two other artists, Champfleury and Duranty, friends of his, toward Constantin Guys, and at a certain note of pedantry and dogmatism that was stealing into art under the influence and sanction of “realism”—“And then Meryon! Oh, as for him, it is intolerable. Delâtre asks me to write some text for the album. Good! there is an occasion to write some reveries—ten lines, twenty or thirty lines—on beautiful engravings, the philosophical reveries of a Parisianflaneur. But Meryon, whose idea is different, objects. I am to say: on the right you see this; on the left you see that. I must say: here originally there were twelve windows, reduced to six by the artist, and finally I must go to the Hôtel de Ville to find out the exact epoch of the demolitions. M. Meryon talks, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, and without listening to any observation.”

Thus it was historical and antiquarian notes that, in all probability, Meryon had promised to jot down to facilitate the composition of a running commentaryon the etchings. Meryon’s reference to the reluctance of the publisher in the very same paragraph in which he speaks of these notes, serves to remove the least doubt as to what is meant. When he tells Baudelaire not to be disturbed, it is clearly as to the time at his disposal for the preparation of his text. Baudelaire, however, seems to have been less concerned about his own share in the work than about the fate of the project as a whole. Evidently he was not satisfied at the prospects of the work with Delâtre, for, on March 9, 1860, he wrote in a postscript to Poulet-Malassis:

“I turn my letter, to ask you, very seriously, if it would not be advisable for you to be the publisher of Meryon’s album (which will be augmented) and for which I am to write the text. You know that, unfortunately, this text will not be in accordance with my wishes.

“I warn you that I have made overtures to the house of Gide....

“This Meryon does not know how to go about things; he knows nothing of life. He does not know how to sell; he does not know how to find a publisher. His work is readily salable.”

And again, on March 13, he writes, in response to some proposition from his friend:

“Relative to Meryon, do you mean bybuying the platesto buy the metal plates, or rather the right of selling an indefinite number of proofs from them? I can conceive that you fear the conversations with Meryon. You should carry on the negotiations by letter (20, rue Duperré). I warn you that Meryon’s great fear is lest the publisher should change theformat and the paper.... What you say to me of Meryon does not affect what I write to you concerning him.”

The excellent business sense, the note of prudence and painstaking, that comes out in all this correspondence on the part of Baudelaire, and which is scarcely less notable than his unwearied devotion to the interests of his friends, ought to go far toward discountenancing the theory that a poet cannot be a good man of affairs. Still again he writes on the same subject, with recapitulations of what he had said before, to the same correspondent:

“I am very much embarrassed,mon cher, to reply to you relatively to the Meryon affair. I have no rights in the matter whatsoever; M. Meryon has repulsed, with a species of horror, the idea of a text composed of a dozen little poems or sonnets; he has refused the idea of poetic meditations in prose. So as not to wound him, I have promised to write for him, in return for three copies with the good proofs, a text in the style of a guide or manual, unsigned. It is, therefore, with him alone that you will have to treat.... The thing has presented itself to my mind very simply. On one side, an unfortunate madman, who does not know how to conduct his affairs, and who has executed a beautiful work; on the other, you, on whose list I want to see the best books possible. As the journalists say, I have considered for you the double pleasure of a good bit of business and of a good act.” And he compares Meryon’s case with that of Daumier, then without a publisher, to wind whom up, “like a clock,” would also, he tells Poulet-Malassis, be “a great and good bit of business.”

This is the last reference in any of the letters to Meryon, or to the album, for which Baudelaire never wrote his text, since no publisher was willing to publish the work. Had Poulet-Malassis not failed in 1861, it might have appeared, and then, in spite of the restrictions imposed upon the restive spirit of the poet, we might have had in Baudelaire’s text some literary equivalent of Meryon’s etchings. How sympathetic this would have been, is shown by the descriptive and interpretative passage from theSalon de 1859already quoted, which, in a few sentences, completely defines the form of Meryon’s imaginative genius, and reveals the inmost source of its power to stir the emotions.

There was, indeed, much that was common to the genius of Meryon and of Baudelaire. The work of both was profoundly personal, and in both a powerful and somber imagination was tinged with a subtle fantasy supplied by a morbid exaggeration in the senses, which did not, however, preclude an intense and ardent preoccupation with formal perfection.

On the contrary, these two moderndétraquéspresent in their work a solidity of construction and an absolute rectitude in the rendering of their moods and dreams, that is scarcely to be found in the work of even their best-balanced and sanest contemporaries. The art of Baudelaire has been compared to that of Racine, and, in the same way, Meryon’s design has the complete economy and control of Robert Nanteuil or of Callot. Men like these make us doubt and reconsider our stock distinctions of “romantic” and “classic.” The work of Meryon and of Baudelaire answers equally to both descriptions, and assures them a place apart in their generation. Thus,while their paths crossed but for a moment, and while they never shared with each other their secret thoughts and aspirations, there is, nevertheless, no small interest for the student in these slight and fragmentary records of what, had it not been for a cruel freak of fate, might have proved an enduring and fruitful friendship.

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