Jeanne Duval (; – c. 1862) was a Haitian-born actress and dancer of mixed French and

black African Black is a Racialization, racialized classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have ...

ancestry. For 20 years, she was the muse of French poet and art critic

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

. 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 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). 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. She lived at 6, rue de la Femme-sans-tête (Street of the Headless Woman) on the Ile Saint-Louis, near the Hôtel Pimodan. Jeanne Duval

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...

, a friend of Baudelaire, painted Duval in his 1862 painting ''Baudelaire's Mistress, Reclining''. She was, by this time, going blind. Duval may have died of syphilis as early as 1862, five years before Baudelaire, who also died of syphilis. Other sources claim that Duval survived Baudelaire.

Nadar Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloon (aircraft), balloonist, and proponent of Aircraft#Heavier-than-air – aerodynes, h ...

claimed to have seen Duval, last, in 1870—by this time she was on crutches, suffering heavily from syphilis.

Popular culture

Jeanne Duval serves as a main character in Caribbean author

Nalo Hopkinson Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels ('' Brown Girl in the Ring'', ''Midnight Robber'', '' The Salt Roads'', ''The New Moon's Arms'') and short stories such as thos ...

's '' The Salt Roads'', a work of historic fiction, and in the title story of the collection '' Black Venus'' by

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

. Tinge Krishnan's film ''My Heart Laid Bare'' is about the life of Jeanne Duval called "the Big Breast, big Bank Girl. The noted American conceptual artist

Lorraine O'Grady Lorraine O'Grady (born September 21, 1934) is an American artist, writer, translator, and critic. Working in conceptual art and performance art that integrates photo and video installation, she explores the cultural construction of identity – pa ...

developed a 16-diptych photo-installation featuring paired images of Charles Baudelaire and Jeanne Duval titled ''Flowers of Evil and Good''. Preliminary studies for this installation have been exhibited in the

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple na ...

, the Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, and Galerie Fotohof in Salzburg, Austria. O'Grady has written extensively about the relationship of Baudelaire and Duval in ''Mousse Magazine'' and ''Pétunia: magazine féministe d’art contemporain et de loisirs''. Scottish artist

Maud Sulter Maud Sulter (19 September 1960 – 27 February 2008) was a Scottish contemporary fine artist, photographer, writer, educator, feminist, cultural historian, and curator of Ghanaian heritage. She began her career as a writer and poet, becoming a v ...

created several artworks inspired by Duval, using images such as her photograph by

, and self-portraits of the artist. Many of these were displayed in a solo show at the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Co ...

titled ''Jeanne Duval: A Melodrama''. In addition, Jeanne Duval is the inspiration for a song titled "Street of Roses" by then-Soviet heavy metal band

Aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

on the 1987 album '' Hero of Asphalt''. "Mademoiselle Baudelaire", by Yslaire, is a 2021 biographical graphic novel about her life from Europe Comics.

References

External links

20 English translations
of Baudelaire's poem "The Balcony", addressed to Jeanne Duval {{DEFAULTSORT:Duval, Jeanne 19th-century French actresses French stage actresses 1820 births 1862 deaths People from Jacmel 19th-century Haitian people Haitian stage actresses Haitian people of Mulatto descent Deaths from syphilis Haitian emigrants to France Muses Charles Baudelaire