Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.
The House of Verlaine, Verlaine's birthplace in Metz, today a museum dedicated to the poet's life and artwork
Plaque in Brussels
Paul Verlaine in 1893; photograph by Otto Wegener
Monument to Paul Verlaine, sculpted by Rodo in 1911, in the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realism.
Death and the Grave Digger (La Mort et le Fossoyeur) (c. 1895) by Carlos Schwabe is a visual compendium of symbolist motifs. The angel of Death, pristine snow, and the dramatic poses of the characters all express symbolist longings for transfiguration "anywhere, out of the world".
Henri Fantin-Latour, By the Table, 1872, depicting: Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Léon Valade, Ernest d'Hervilly and Camille Pelletan (seated); Pierre Elzéar, Emile Blémont, and Jean Aicard (standing)
Portrait of Charles Baudelaire (c. 1862), whose writing was a precursor of the symbolist style
Eugen Bracht, The Shore of Oblivion, 1889
