Jeanne Duval
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Poems of Baudelaire's which are dedicated to Jeanne Duval or pay her homage are: Le balcon, Parfum exotique, La chevelure, Sed non satiata, Le serpent qui danse, and Une charogne"--Sholem Stein |
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Jeanne Duval was a second-tier mulatto actress, and maintained a lifelong romantic association with French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire. Poems which are dedicated to her or pay her homage are: 'Le Balcon', 'Parfum Exotique', 'La Chevelure', 'Le Serpent qui Danse', and 'Une charogne'. She lived at 6, rue de la Femme-sans-tête (Street of the Headless Woman), near the hôtel Pimodan (now the Hotel Lauzun), where Baudelaire lived.
Jeanne Duval also served as a main character in Caribbean author Nalo Hopkinson's, Salt Roads a work of historic fiction.
In addition, she is the inspiration for the short story "Black Venus" by Angela Carter.
Manet, a friend of Baudelaire, painted Duval in his 1862 painting Baudelaire's Mistress, Reclining. She was, by this time, going blind. Duval died of syphilis, later in 1862, and Baudelaire died five years later, also of syphilis.
As portrayed in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
Her gross conduct is a phrase used by the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica to refer to the conduct of Jeanne Duval.
- "He had for many years a liaison with a colored woman, whom he helped to the end of his life in spite of her gross conduct."
See also