Salons

Charles Baudelaire was a 19th-century French poet, translator, and art critic, best known for his poetry collection Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil). He was also an influential art critic, writing reviews of the Salon exhibitions in 1845 and 1846. In these reviews, Baudelaire developed theories on modern painting, urging artists to capture the "heroism of modern life". His critical work championed artists like Eugène Delacroix and explored the "Painter of Modern Life". Baudelaire's critical writings, though sometimes inconsistent, consistently emphasized the artist's role in creating meaning from life and acknowledged the inherent corruption of the material world.123