The aim of this essay is to compare Bauderaire's views on aesthetics with those of Malraux, having as a starting point Claude Pichois' pioneer study on the important place occupied by the author of Fleurs du mal and Curiosités esthétiques in the thoughts of André Malraux. But not only that: it adds Malraux's correspondence to the sources already known: his "aesthetic library" and the papers concerning the genesis of La Metamorphose des dieux that the author of this article had the opportunity to research for the Pléiade edition of André Malraux's Écrits sur l'art.
Malraux; Baudelaire; aesthetic criticism; genetic criticism