Baudelaire

The application of the analysis of what was involved during the creation of modern art is not something I can confidently say I can do successfully, but there was a concept in the reading that struck me as applicable to our modern times. Baudelaire states on page 4, “ For the sketch of manners, the depiction of bourgeois life and the pageant of fashion, the technical means that is the most expeditious and the least costly will obviously be the best. The more beauty that the artist can put into it, the more valuable will be his work; but in trivial life, in the daily metamorphosis of external things, there is a rapidity of movement which calls for an equal speed of execution from the artist.” I found this to be somewhat disappointing, assuming the mindset of the eighteenth century was similar to today’s perspective that whatever is more successful is sought out, rather than showing the reality of a situation. For example, an artist following the typical modern-day approach would focus on work that would make him successful.

For the artists who wanted to paint the “trivial life”, they would be at a disadvantage. Upon analyzing the art of Mme J.C. Prost, despite the loss of intricacy in the black and white copy, I noticed that there was a rapidity to her pieces. The art was focused on the general scene rather than the details of the masses of people in each piece. Her work is the kind that I look at and say, “I could do that,” because they are so quick and lacking of intensity. The rushed demeanor and unfinished borders immediately draw the eye to the picture as a whole rather than those involved, which I can appreciate. When Baudelaire speaks of the quick execution expected from the artist when painting everyday trivial life and it can be demonstrated in Prost’s work, I can’t even imagine what Prost would do if she were asked to go to the streets of New York City on a Monday morning and paint what she sees. There is such a faster pace than back in the eighteenth century, and I think that maybe anyone who can capture the speed we encompass now as a general society would be more respected than someone who can add the details on a skirt.

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