Review: Baudelaire, ‘La modernité mélancolique’ (Bibliothèque nationale de France, 3 November 2021 – 13 February 2022)

Abstract

The title of the latest exhibition devoted to Charles Baudelaire at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) may leave one unsatisfied – the emphasis on melancholy has more of a tinge of our conflict-ridden contemporary times than of the bustling and somewhat optimistic nineteenth century. Title aside, however, this is a well-conceived, richly illustrated exhibition, replete with material such as manuscripts, newspapers, and magazines where Baudelaire’s poems first appeared, various editions of his works, and visual material such as paintings, lithographs, engravings, drawings, photographs, and daguerreotypes.