French poetry and painting are inextricably connected; one cannot be understood without reference to the other. Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Apollinaire in particular were deeply interested in the visual arts and themsleves influenced many painters. Alan Bowness explores the chain of personal contacts which underlie the evolution of modernist art and literature from 1850 to 1920, notably Manet's close friendship with Baudelaire and Mallarmé, and Apollinaire's with Picasso.