Global InformationJeanne Duval information
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Jeanne Duval | |
|---|---|
 Jeanne Duval as drawn by Charles Baudelaire. | |
| Born | Jeanne Duval, Jeanne Prosper or Jeanne Lemer c. 1820 Jacmel, Haiti |
| Died | 1862–1870 (unknown; aged between 41 and 50) Paris, France |
| Partner | Charles Baudelaire |
Jeanne Duval (French pronunciation: [ʒan dyval]; c. 1820 – after 1862) 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[1] after his mother. She was born in Haiti on an unknown date, sometime around 1820.
Poems of Baudelaire's that are dedicated to Duval or pay her homage include "Le balcon" (The Balcony), "Parfum exotique" (Exotic Perfume), "La chevelure" (The Hair), "Sed non satiata" (Yet she is not satisfied), "Le serpent qui danse" (The Dancing Serpent), and "Une charogne" (A Carcass).[2]
Baudelaire called her "mistress of mistresses" and his "Vénus Noire" ("Black Venus"), and it is believed that Duval symbolized to him the dangerous beauty, sexuality, and mystery of a Creole woman in mid-19th century France.[3] She lived at 6, rue de la Femme-sans-tête (Street of the Headless Woman) on the Ile Saint-Louis, near the Hôtel Pimodan.[4]
Édouard Manet, a friend of Baudelaire, painted Duval in his 1862 painting Baudelaire's Mistress, Reclining.[5] She was, by this time, going blind.[6]
Duval may have died of syphilis as early as 1862, five years before Baudelaire, who also died of syphilis.[7] Other sources claim that Duval survived Baudelaire.[8] Nadar claimed to have seen Duval, last, in 1870—by this time she was on crutches, suffering heavily from syphilis.[9]
- ^ "Baud1". Archived from the original on 2007-10-23. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
- ^ Lloyd, Rosemary (2005). The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521537827.
- ^ "Black Venus - Angela Carter". Webdoc.gwdg.de. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
- ^ "Charles Baudelaire - Jeanne Duval". Archived from the original on 2007-02-18. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
- ^ Therese Dolan (1997). "Skirting the issue: Manet's portrait of 'Baudelaire's Mistress, Reclining'". Art Bulletin. 79 (4): 611–629. doi:10.2307/3046278. JSTOR 3046278.
- ^ "Charles Pierre Baudelaire Biography", Encyclopedia of World Biography.
- ^ "Baudelaire". Archived from the original on 2007-06-02. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
- ^ Abigail Bray, "Infective Writing: Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil and Angela Carter's 'Black Venus'" Archived 2020-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, in Anne Brewster, Marion Campbell, Ann McGuire, Kathryn Trees (eds), Yorga Wangi: Postcolonialism and Feminism. Journal of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, Number 37, 1993.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
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