BAUDELAIRE (CHARLES)

Autograph manuscript of his poem 'Les Promesses d'un visage', from the collection Les Épaves, c.1865-1866

Footnotes

'J'AIME, Ö PÂLE BEAUTÉ, TES SOURCILS SURBAISSÉS' - THE ONLY KNOWN MANUSCRIPT OF BAUDELAIRE'S MUCH QUOTED EROTIC POEM.

'Les promesses d'un visage' was written in 1865 or 1866, and sent by Baudelaire along with some other verses to Catulle Mendès for publication in the literary periodical Le Parnasse contemporain. Mendès, whose name is written in pencil at the top of the manuscript, was to include fifteen of the poems in the next issue, under the collective title of Nouvelles Fleurs du mal. But in a letter dated 23 January 1866, he wrote to Baudelaire saying "Quelques pièces, trop vives, ne peuvent prendre place dans le Parnasse". 'Les promesses d'un visage' was presumably one of these, but it soon found its way into Les Épaves as number XI of the "Galanteries". A table of contents found in Baudelaire's papers lists our poem as number 14, whilst the manuscript bears the deleted number 16.

Published clandestinely in Brussels in February 1866 by Poulet-Malassis, in an edition of only two hundred and seventy copies, Les Épaves contained twenty-three poems, an introduction by Poulet-Malassis and a frontispiece of the author by Félicien Rops. It was to be the last book overseen by Baudelaire himself, who suffered a debilitating stroke a month later and died the following year back in Paris.

Despite much speculation, including links with Manet's painting La Chanteuse des rues, the identity of the mysterious dedicatee "Mademoiselle A...z" remains unknown. In fact our manuscript suggests that the dedication was to have been the original title, but this was then revised to 'Promesses', and finally given its full title of 'Les promesses d'un visage'.