THE NAMELESS WOMAN,
THE STORY OF JEANNE
& BAUDELAIRE
THE NAMELESS WOMAN, THE STORY OF JEANNE & BAUDELAIRE is the story of a ghost haunting a painting. In Paris, at the Musée d’Orsay, is exhibited a monumental work of Gustave Courbet painted in 1855: The Painter’s Studio: A real allegory. The artist is represented there, surrounded by his models. Among the art lovers, there is Charles Baudelaire. Over time, a figure appeared next to him. It is Jeanne Duval, a black woman whose real name is not known, the poet’s lover, who was erased from the painting by Courbet himself. Jeanne came back to the surface as if the pigments of the painting could not bear her erasure. This film aims to rehabilitate the woman who inspired some of the most beautiful poems in the French language, the one who was so badly treated by the biographers of the poet, blinded by their racist prejudices.
