Matisse / Baudelaire Les Fleurs du mal

Written in French.

During the summer of 1944, Matisse decided to illustrate Les Fleurs du mal by Baudelaire, as he did the same for Mallarmé, Ronsard, Charles d'Orléans and many others. He drew 34 faces in grease pencil, compositions which would adorn the 1947 edition, published by La Bibliothèque française...

Written in French.

During the summer of 1944, Matisse decided to illustrate Les Fleurs du mal by Baudelaire, as he did the same for Mallarmé, Ronsard, Charles d'Orléans and many others. He drew 34 faces in grease pencil, compositions which would adorn the 1947 edition, published by La Bibliothèque française.

The one hundred and fifty years that separate us from the first edition of Les Fleurs du mal have only confirmed its inaugural value and impact on artists. In 1857, for the poet it was a matter of shedding the old romanticism, which was too idealistic, of translating the spirit of the times, what he called "modernity", and of exploring the dark side of his own conscience, condemned to the limits and pleasures of a disenchanted era.

This book, cherished for a long time, opens a very feminine window onto the aesthetics and psyche of the literate artist, having reached the threshold of paper cutouts and his ultimate orientalist explosion. This luxurious, inexpensive version of the facsimile of the 1947 edition is accompanied by an introductory essay written by Stéphane Guégan shedding light on Matisse's choices and the links that unite the poet and the painter.

French
200 pages

Éditions Hazan