Paul Verlaine’s Femmes (Women), here in German translation as Verlaine-Frauen, is a collection of eighteen poems published posthumously in 1890 to celebrate Verlaine’s women friends and lovers, reflecting the poet’s complex and ambivalent views on women, shaped by his turbulent personal life. The poems reveal his disillusionment following failed relationships, particularly his disastrous marriage to Mathilde Mauté and his passionate affair with Arthur Rimbaud. Rather than offering idealised portraits, Verlaine presents women in roles ranging from seductress to oppressor, often depicted through a lens of bitterness. The verses are laced with irony, sensuality, and occasional cruelty, suggesting an internal struggle between desire and resentment.

The ten engravings for Verlaine-Frauen are perfect examples of Philipp’s skill in technique and composition.

Verlaine-Frauen was privately published in a limited, signed and numbered edition of just 50 copies.