The Painter of Modern Life

"The Painter of Modern Life" (French: "Le Peintre de la vie moderne") is an essay written by French poet, essayist, and art critic Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867). It was composed sometime between November 1859 and February 1860, and was first published in three installments in the French morning newspaper Le Figaro in 1863: first on November 26, and then on the 28th, and finally on December 3. The essay inspired young artists to break away from academic art and to discover and innovate new approaches for representing and portraying the ephemeral nature of the modern world.