Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet renowned for his work as an essayist, art critic, and translator. His mastery of rhyme and rhythm, combined with a romantic exoticism, allowed his observations of real life to flourish poetically. Baudelaire's most acclaimed work, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), captures the transformative beauty of nature against the backdrop of a rapidly industrializing Paris. His original style of prose-poetry set a precedent for future poets, including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane Mallarmé. Baudelaire's concept of modernity (modernité) was groundbreaking, seeking to encapsulate the transient experiences of urban life and the artist's duty to convey them.

Baudelaire's lifestyle was marked by bohemian excess and a fascination with the macabre, leading Paul Verlaine to include him among the cursed poets of 19th-century France. His work and decadent life prompted French journalist and writer Barbey d'Aurevilly to describe him as 'the Dante of a decadent era.' His greatest influences included Théophile Gautier, Joseph de Maistre—who taught him to think—and Edgar Allan Poe, whose works he extensively translated. Baudelaire is often credited with coining the term modernity to describe the fleeting and ephemeral life in an urban metropolis, and the crucial role of art in capturing that experience.