Sed Non Satiata

This scetch was made by Henri Matisse as an illustration for Baudelaire's poem Sed Non Satiata. Many artists have illustrated Les Fleurs du Mal over the years, and Matisse was one of them.

Sed non satiata

Bizarre déité, brune comme les nuits,
Au parfum mélangé de musc et de havane,
Oeuvre de quelque obi, le Faust de la savane,
Sorcière au flanc d'ébène, enfant des noirs minuits,

Je préfère au constance, à l'opium, au nuits,
L'élixir de ta bouche où l'amour se pavane;
Quand vers toi mes désirs partent en caravane,
Tes yeux sont la citerne où boivent mes ennuis.

Par ces deux grands yeux noirs, soupiraux de ton âme,
Ô démon sans pitié! verse-moi moins de flamme;
Je ne suis pas le Styx pour t'embrasser neuf fois,

Hélas! et je ne puis, Mégère libertine,
Pour briser ton courage et te mettre aux abois,
Dans l'enfer de ton lit devenir Proserpine!

— Charles Baudelaire

The poem has been translated  more than once also, but I shall show here the translation that was used by Black Phoenix, as this was the one that inspired the perfume:

Strange goddess, brown as evening to the sight,
Whose scent is half of musk, half of havanah,
Work of some obi, Faust of the Savanah,
Ebony witch, and daughter of the night.

By far preferred to troth, or opium, or sleep,
Love vaunts the red elixir of your mouth.
My caravan of longings seeks in drouth
Your eyes, the wells at which my cares drink deep.

Through those black eyes, by which your soul respires,
Pitiless demon! pour less scorching fires.
I am no Styx nine times with flame to wed.

Nor can I turn myself to Proserpine
To break your spell, Megera libertine!
Within the dark inferno of your bed.

I think this was a time when many artists discovered colored women and portrayed them, be it in words or in paint. Think of the paintings of Gauguin, who was more a contemporary of Baudelaire than Matisse who was born after Baudelaire died. 

  
I had not worn Sed Non Satiata for quite some time and now that I do I am sorry that I did not try to buy the bottle that was available at eBay last week. It is a very lovely scent, a bit like Vixen which I love also. Although I only see patchouli as a note they share, there seems to be more in which they are similar. Apart from the fact that both scents are supposed to be the scents of lascivious women.

A pounding heartbeat coalesced into scent: demonic passion and brutal sexuality manifested through myrrh, red patchouli, cognac, honey, and tuberose and geranium in a breathy, panting veil over the darkest body musk.

To balance all this I would like to show a photograph of Matisse scetching a Haitian model for, probably, the some of the pictures in Baudelaire's poem collection Les Fleurs du Mal.