The Decadent movement, named from the French word décadence, which means "decay," was an artistic and literary movement that began in the late 1800s. It was centered in Western Europe and focused on ideas that valued extravagance and artificial beauty.

The movement started in France and later spread to other parts of Europe and the United States. It was based on the belief that human imagination and the enjoyment of beauty and pleasure were more important than logic or the natural world.

Overview

The idea of decadence began in the 18th century, especially in the writings of Montesquieu, an Enlightenment philosopher. He believed the fall of the Roman Empire was partly due to its loss of moral standards and cultural values. Later, a Latin scholar named Désiré Nisard compared Victor Hugo and Romantic writers to the decline of Rome. He argued that these writers focused more on pleasure than on preserving their craft and traditions. Nisard noticed trends like a focus on description, a rejection of traditional rules in art and literature, and a love for elaborate language. These trends became the foundation of the Decadent movement.

The first major step in French decadence happened when writers Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire proudly used the term to reject what they saw as ordinary "progress." Baudelaire called himself decadent in his 1857 book Les Fleurs du mal and saw the fall of Rome as a model for modern poets to express strong emotions. He later used the word to describe breaking traditional categories in art to explore full, sensory experiences. In his 1868 introduction to Les Fleurs du mal, Gautier first disagreed with the term but later accepted it, noting Baudelaire’s love for beauty, the exotic, and fantasy, as well as his skill with language.

Félicien Rops, a Belgian artist and friend of Baudelaire, played a key role in the early stages of the Decadent movement. He often illustrated Baudelaire’s work and created shocking, strange images that broke artistic rules. His art often focused on themes like Satan and women, and sometimes showed women harming themselves for pleasure. Some believe Rops used supernatural elements to keep Baudelaire’s poetry connected to a spiritual world, even if it was filled with dark ideas. Both Rops and Baudelaire were deeply interested in themes like death, corruption, and the beauty of evil. Rops’s ability to capture these themes made him a popular illustrator for other Decadent writers.

The idea of decadence continued after this, but it wasn’t until 1884 that Maurice Barrès called a group of writers Decadents. He said these writers were influenced by Baudelaire, Gothic novels, and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Many were linked to Symbolism or Aestheticism. Arthur Symons described their goal as trying to capture the intensity of the moment and the feeling of life, even if their work felt distant from the real world.

In his 1884 novel À rebours (Against Nature), Joris-Karl Huysmans listed writers like Paul Verlaine, Tristan Corbière, and Stéphane Mallarmé as key figures of the Decadent movement. His character, Des Esseintes, praised these writers for their creativity and skill, calling their work "insidious delight." Des Esseintes also admired the art of Gustave Moreau, Jan Luyken, and others, which focused on madness, irrationality, and a rejection of natural logic. Some believe Des Esseintes’s dream vision was inspired by Félicien Rops’s paintings.

In 1886, Anatole Baju started the magazine Le Décadent to organize the movement formally. These writers aimed to challenge society’s values and create art that shocked people, believing this would lead to greater freedom and creativity. Not everyone supported Baju or the magazine. Jean Moréas, for example, published a Symbolist Manifesto to distance himself from the Decadents. Paul Verlaine initially liked the label but later rejected it after seeing his work misused.

Decadence in France remained limited to Baju and his followers, who focused on themes like extreme sexuality, luxury, and breaking social rules. Their stories often included strange plots that highlighted shocking or grotesque experiences. Writers like Albert Aurier, Rachilde, and Laurent Tailhade were part of this movement, though many also wrote Symbolist works.

In France, the Decadent movement is often linked to either Huysmans’s Against Nature (1884) or Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal. The movement faded when Le Décadent closed in 1889 and Baju turned to politics. A few writers, like Octave Mirbeau, continued the style, but Decadence was no longer a major force in art or literature.

The term "decadence" is often tied to times of cultural decline, pessimism, and uncertainty. In France, the Decadent movement was strongest during the 1880s and 1890s, a period known as fin de siècle ("end-of-the-century gloom"). Scholars like David Weir see Decadence as a bridge between Romanticism and Modernism, marked by a focus on fantasy and a rejection of realism.

Symbolism is sometimes confused with Decadence. Arthur Symons, a British critic, once thought Decadence was a broader category that included Symbolism and Impressionism. He described the shared trait of these movements as a focus on intense self-awareness, curiosity, and a search for beauty through refinement.

Influence and legacy

The Decadent movement in France struggled when its main leaders left. Many people who were once part of the Decadent movement later became symbolists. Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé were among these people, even though they had once been linked to Baju's Le Décadent. Some writers, like Albert Aurier, wrote both decadent and symbolist works. Rachilde, a decadent writer, strongly opposed symbolists taking over Le Décadent, even though her play The Crystal Spider is likely a symbolist work. Others, like Joris-Karl Huysmans, left the movement completely. Huysmans later saw his book Against Nature as the start of his journey into Roman Catholic symbolist ideas. Anatole Baju, who once led the French decadent movement, later thought the movement was naive and half-hearted. He left decadence for anarchy.

Although the Decadent movement was mainly a French phenomenon, its influence spread widely. People became interested in pleasure, experimental ideas about sexuality, and strange, unusual things. They also valued art for its own sake. In Czech lands, writers like Karel Hlaváček, Arnošt Procházka, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, and Louisa Zikova were influenced by the Decadent movement. Arthur Breisky fully embraced the ideas of Le Décadent, especially its focus on luxury and pleasure. He studied the idea of a "dandy," a person who lives in wealth and elegance, and wrote about this concept in his work.

In Britain, writers like Oscar Wilde, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and Aubrey Beardsley were linked to decadence. Others, like Walter Pater, resisted the movement even though their work shared similar ideas. British decadents focused on creating art for its own sake and explored desires and material wealth. They also used decadent ideas for social and political goals. Beardsley cared about improving society through art, and Wilde wrote about socialism as a way to free people from hardship. Swinburne addressed Irish-English politics in his poetry. Wilde had a secret homosexual life, and Swinburne had an obsession with flagellation.

In Italy, critics often studied the Decadent movement as a way to define a historical period from the 1860s to the 1920s. This led to the term "Decadentism" being used more widely. Today, most critics divide the movement into three periods. The first period, called Scapigliatura, included writers and poets who rejected the strict intellectual culture of post-unified Italy. They introduced themes like illness and fascination with death. Works like Igino Ugo Tarchetti’s Fosca and Camillo Boito’s Senso explored dark and disturbing ideas. Many Scapigliati died young from illness, alcoholism, or suicide.

The second period was led by writers like Gabriele D’Annunzio, Antonio Fogazzaro, and Giovanni Pascoli. D’Annunzio brought ideas from French intellectuals, including Nietzsche’s concepts of the "Übermensch" and "will to power." His works focused on beauty, individualism, and the power of machines. His novel The Pleasure is one of the key books of the Decadent movement. Pascoli, closer to French symbolists, saw poetry as a way to reveal hidden truths.

The third period, seen as a postlude to Decadentism, included writers like Italo Svevo, Luigi Pirandello, and the Crepusculars. Svevo’s Zeno’s Conscience explored sickness, while Pirandello’s works, like Six Characters in Search of an Author, showed the breakdown of identity. The Crepuscular poets, known as "twilight poets," wrote about the sadness of everyday life in small towns. Painters like Giorgio de Chirico and Giorgio Morandi also captured these moods.

In Russia, the Decadent movement spread through the works of Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine. Early Russian writers focused on themes like breaking moral rules, ignoring health, and living in ways that challenged religious beliefs. They were especially drawn to the dark, death-focused aspects of decadence.

Critical studies

Max Nordau, a German doctor and social critic, wrote a long book called Degeneration in 1892. The book studied the trend of decadence and criticized people linked to the Decadent movement, as well as others who did not follow cultural, moral, or political rules. Nordau used strong and harsh language, sometimes mentioning the worship of Satan. The book became popular because it suggested a medical condition called "degeneration," a brain-related illness that caused these behaviors. It also gained attention by naming well-known figures like Oscar Wilde, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Paul Verlaine, and Maurice Barrès, who were part of the Decadent movement and had public recognition.

In 1930, Italian critic Mario Praz finished a wide study of dark and sexual literature. It was published in English as The Romantic Agony in 1933. The study included decadent works by writers like Baudelaire and Swinburne, as well as other writings Praz thought were dark, grim, or sexual. Praz believed this kind of literature was dangerous because it made the connection between pain and pleasure seem natural. He thought the main purpose of art is to teach and share culture, regardless of the artist's goals.