As early as the 1845 Salon, Baudelaire evoked a regret: "No one listens to the wind that will blow tomorrow; and yet the heroism of modern life surrounds us and urges us on. [...] Epics lack neither subjects nor colors. He will be the painter, the true painter, who will be able to wrest the epic side from present-day life, and make us see and understand, with color or drawing, how great and poetic we are in our ties and patent boots" The argument was taken up again and developed in the conclusion of the 1846 Salon, whose final chapter is entitled "De l'héroïsme de la vie moderne" (On the heroism of modern life) and begins by noting (this is the lesson drawn from the Salon) the decadence of painting: "It is true that the great tradition has been lost, and that the new one has not been made." After and despite his praise of Romanticism, color and Delacroix, described as "the head of the modern school" and "the last expression of progress in art", Baudelaire gives two examples, two approximations of the extraction of modern beauty he calls for. However, long before Constantin Guys, painters of modern life were painters of manners, even caricaturists: Eugène Lami and Gavarni.
The century was devoid of pomp; there was no absolute, eternal beauty. To the very end, Romanticism and modernity are one and the same, in Baudelaire's eyes. Modernity is about taking the best. Painters of manners, even caricaturists, embody the future of great painting. "They are not superior geniuses, but they know how to draw beauty from modern life", especially in black dress. Baudelaire refers to them as "poets of dandyism". The sketch of manners is thus at the heart of this representation of modernity and trivial life.
Quelques caricaturistes français was published in 1857, but is part of a much larger, long-standing project. As such, it can be read as a link woven between the Salons of 1845 and 1846 and Le Peintre de la vie moderne. Baudelaire had always wanted to write about caricature; he saw in it an art comparable to that of the novelist and moralist. Balzac's name is invariably mentioned in his writings. He is the model for this quest for the heroism of modern life. There is a thread that leads to Le Spleen de Paris, made up of "sketches of manners" and caricatures. Baudelaire was interested in caricature as early as 1845, but the prose poem was not to become its equivalent until 1861-1862. Modern art is the sketch of manners or the caricature, and this is what will be achieved in the prose poem.
