How did Charles Baudelaire’s essay “The Painter of Modern Life” anticipate Impressionism?

Charles Baudelaire’s 1863 essay, The Painter of Modern Life, anticipated the emergence of Impressionism by championing the necessity of a new artistic approach that captured the fleeting, contemporary nature of modern existence.1

Baudelaire argued that the modern artist must move beyond traditional, academic subjects to represent the "essentially modern man" in all his physical and psychological complexity. By praising the draftsman Constantin Guys as the ideal "painter of modern life," Baudelaire emphasized the importance of observing and recording the transient, everyday scenes of urban life—a core tenet that would later define the Impressionist movement.21

Furthermore, Baudelaire’s earlier critical writings, such as his 1846 essay on the Salon, had already predicted that color would become a primary quality of modern art. His advocacy for an art that prioritized the "evocative magic" of images and the artist's subjective experience over rigid, traditional forms provided a critical framework that encouraged the radical stylistic shifts seen in the work of painters like Édouard Manet and the subsequent Impressionist group.12