In the context of art history, modernity (modernité) has a far more minimal sense, modern artwork masking the period of c. 1860–1970. Use of your phrase in this sense is attributed to Charles Baudelaire, who in his 1863 essay "The Painter of Modern Life", selected the "fleeting, ephemeral experience of https://thefairlist.com/story6716398/little-known-facts-about-culture-of-the-united-states