Jeanne Duval was a Haitian-born actress and dancer of mixed French and West African ancestry. For 20 years, she was the muse of French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire. They met in 1842 when Duval left Haiti for France, and the two remained together, albeit stormily, for the next two decades. Duval is said to have been the woman whom Baudelaire loved most in his life after his mother. She was born in Haiti on an unknown date, sometime around 1820.
Jeanne Duval as drawn by Charles Baudelaire.
Duval as Baudelaire's Mistress, Reclining by Édouard Manet.
Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who also worked as an essayist, art critic and translator. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhyme and rhythm, containing an exoticism inherited from Romantics, and are based on observations of real life.
Charles Baudelaire by Étienne Carjat, 1863
Portrait of Baudelaire at 23 years old, painted in 1844 by Émile Deroy (1820–1846)
The first edition of Les Fleurs du mal with author's notes
Illustration cover for Les Épaves, by Baudelaire's friend Félicien Rops