Gautier, Baudelaire : affinités, résonances, divergences

Study day organised by the Société Théophile Gautier, with the support of the he Paris Institute for Advanced Study, CELLF (Sorbonne University/CNRS), CERILAC (Paris Cité) and ITEM (ENS Ulm/CNRS).

Event open to the public. Registration required.
Those wishing to attend the day are requested to register using the following form: https://forms.gle/kEs1Bpvcvuu67PT4A 
or by sending a message to the Société Théophile Gautier: societe.gautier@gmail.com

Presentation

The next study day of the Société Théophile Gautier aims to reopen the important issue of the relationship between two major figures of 19th-century literature, Gautier and Baudelaire. It will be held on 21 November 2025 in the magnificent Hôtel de Lauzun, a venue eminently suited to this event: it was here that the two writers, invited by the painter Boissard de Boisdenier, met for the first time around 1845 and experimented with hashish.

The dialogue between Gautier and Baudelaire was marked by mutual admiration, as clearly evidenced by the dedication in Les Fleurs du Mal and Gautier's preface to Baudelaire's Œuvres complètes (1868).

The presentations will freely cover the different fields of creation of the two authors (poetry, prose, literary criticism and art criticism). They will compare their views on their contemporary artists, poets and novelists. They will consider their aesthetic and philosophical affinities, but also their differences on sensitive issues such as the autonomy of art, the philosophy of progress and modernity, not to mention the vast subject of the sources, influences and intertextual networks that link the two works.

Program

Morning session, chaired by Stéphane Guégan

9:30 a.m. Opening

9:45 a.m. Claire Chagniot (ITEM)
Gautier et Baudelaire sur les traces de Goya, à la lumière de documents nouveaux

10:10 a.m. Corinne Bayle (ENS-Lyon / ITEM)
Idéalisation vs imagination. Gautier et Baudelaire face à la peinture d’Ingres

10:35 a.m. Discussion and break

11:15 a.m. Romain Jalabert (CELLF / ITEM)
Baudelaire, Gautier et les paysagistes

11:35 a.m. Julien Zanetta (Université Ca’Foscari, Venise / ITEM)
Gautier, Baudelaire et la possession des peintres

12:00 Anne Geisler-Szmulewicz (University of Évry Paris-Saclay / CERILAC)
Gautier, Baudelaire et le dilettantisme

12:25 p.m. Discussion

1.00 p.m-2:00 p.m Lunch break

Afternoon, chaired by Martine Lavaud

2:30 p.m. Laëtitia Bertrand (ENS-Lyon)
Gautier, passeur de Musset à Baudelaire : trois romantiques modernes

2:55 p.m. Sylvie Thorel (University of Lille)
Gautier et Baudelaire, flâneurs parisiens

3:20 p.m. Discussion and break

4:10 p.m. Serge Zenkine (Moscow – Saint Petersburg)
L’image du héros

4:35 p.m. Silvia Giudice (Collège de France)
Baudelaire, entre Gautier magicien et la magie du réalisme

5:00 p.m. Aurélia Cervoni (CELLF / ITEM)
Gautier par Baudelaire, Baudelaire par Gautier. Portraits croisés

5:25 p.m. Discussion and closing of the day

6:30 p.m. End

Organisers

• Aurélia Cervoni, research engineer, CELLF (Sorbonne Université / CNRS), associate member of ITEM (ENS-Ulm / CNRS).
• Anne Geisler-Szmulewicz, lecturer, Université Évry Paris-Saclay, associate member of CERILAC (Paris Cité).

Institutions involved in organisation/funding

• Société Théophile Gautier,
• CELLF (Sorbonne University / CNRS),
• CERILAC (University Paris Cité),
• ITEM (ENS Ulm / CNRS).

 More information: https://www.theophilegautier.fr