'A Portrait of Alfred de Musset'

These portraits by Charles Landelle show de Musset in 1854, three years before his death. The one above actually seems to be from 1854; the one below seems to be a later version, from 1878.

De Musset spent much of his time writing, drinking and cruising brothels. Possibly, he beat up Céleste de Chabrillan, La Mogador in one of them. The painting below, Rolla was based on one of his most cynical poems, from 1833, the same year he became involved with George Sand. This painting, from much later, in 1878, was rejected by the jury of the Salon de Paris for immorality, because the jury knew that this young man (Rolla) was about to commit suicide by poison. His life has been ruined because he finds solace with Marie, a teenage prostitute, and there is no way out of this except downwards.

This all made for great opera ideas, which is why de Musset's writing influenced numerous musicians: Chabrier, Bizet, Offenbach, Puccini, Leoncavallo, among others.