Baudelaire's Expression Of The Artist During The July Monarchy

César Graña and Matei Calinescu both discuss a number of different paradoxes regarding the relationship between artists and the bourgeois public, during the July Monarchy. Artists blamed the bourgeoisie for the conformity and bleakness of the July Monarchy. In 1980, this revolution put an end to ancient French society and its institutions, dethroned Charles X and enthroned the bourgeoisie. The bourgeois society believed in the idea of progress, and wanted to continue with the artistic traditions and rules of the past. However, artists at that time wanted the freedom to experiment with new artistic manners and subjects and break free from the constraints of the old regime. These opposing opinions resulted in a major contraction as the artists still wanted recognition for their work but the public had no way of recognising

He speaks about Baudelaire’s view of Progress which differs hugely from that of the bourgeois society. According to Calinescu, Baudelaire thought that what had survived, aesthetically, from the past was nothing but the expression of a variety of successive modernities, each one of them being unique and having its own unique artistic expression. Therefore, Baudelaire and most of the artist’s during the July Monarchy, felt that one couldn’t compare the past to the present in relation to Art. This is why they wished to express themselves freely and without constraints in order to create ‘Modern’ Art as they viewed it. However, this meant that artistic creation relied solely on the imagination. Each artist wanted to be different and original. In order to do this, many artists isolated themselves from their society and battled with their own imaginations in order to produce a work of art which was completely original. As Calinescu mentions, the artist had to battle against his or her own memory in order to stay away from repetition of the