The Boy Poet As Explorer
“Je vis assis, tel qu’un ange aux mains d’un barbier”
A black & white photograph from the 1880s shows Arthur Rimbaud on the terrace of the Hôtel Univers w/six others from his gun running & exploring days in modern Yemen & Ethiopia, according to Le Monde.
If true, this wisp of paper becomes only the fourth known photograph of the poet as an adult, & just the eighth image of the French writer at all.
Although a series of self portraits from Africa survive in a damaged state, this new find would be the first to clearly show Rimbaud’s adult face.
Le Monde reports that a pair of librarians found the old photograph among a stack of thirty at a flea market two years ago.
ps. I’ve always been partial to this 1875 portrait drawn by his friend E.Delahaye.
