This paper focuses on Baudelaire’s theory of the portrait as developed from his Salon de 1846 to his last writings, as well as on the place and role of the portrait in his poetry. Preoccupied by the success of photography and therefore by mimetic representation, Baudelaire defends a conception of the portrait where faithfulness – physical and moral – to the model requires participation from the imagination. The question portraits ask of art, at a time when images are proliferating, is at the heart of Baudelaire’s poetry. Portraits in his poetry relay allegory. And finally, with My Heart Laid Bare (Mon coeur mis à nu), the poet gives the portrait a final shape: that of invective.