JEAN LEON GER&ME (1824-1904): A STUDY OF A MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY FRENCH ACADEMIC ARTIST by DONALD SCOTT WATSON B.A., University of British Columbia, 1975 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (The Department of Fine Arts) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1977 © Donald Scott Watson, 1977 In p r e s e n t i n g t h i s thesis in p a r t i a l f u l f i l m e n t o f the requirements for an advanced degree at the U n i v e r s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, the L i b r a r y s h a l l I make i t f r e e l y a v a i l a b l e f u r t h e r agree t h a t p e r m i s s i o n I agree that f o r reference and study. f o r e x t e n s i v e copying o f t h i s thesis f o r s c h o l a r l y purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by h i s r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s . of t h i s thesis It i s understood that copying or publication f o r f i n a n c i a l gain shall written permission. Department o f The U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Columbia not be allowed without my ii ABSTRACT This t h e s i s i s not a monograph on Gerome. Rather i t i s an a n a l y s i s of s e l e c t e d p a i n t i n g s and the themes that occur in them. My approach has been icono1ogica1 , as was, f o r Gerome, the most important aspect I have a l s o endeavoured to t i e a formal subject-matter of p a i n t i n g . But a n a l y s i s of Gerome's a r t to i t s content. Chapter I contains a b r i e f b i o g r a p h i c a l sketch, as most of t h i s information chapter is quite i s r e a d i l y a v a i l a b l e elsewhere this brief. Chapter II deals with Ge'rome's neo- gre c p a i n t i n g , both f o r i t s own sake and to introduce my t h e s i s - - t h a t Gerome's painting i s an extension the world century of h i s r o l e as c o l l e c t o r and that he creates i s an extension French interieur. Chapter III continues deals with explain of the nineteenth- and expands on t h i s argument and Ge'rome's ethnographic h i s use of a photographic work and attempts to style. Chapter IV deals with Ge'rome's s e r i o u s h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g s and r e l a t e s them to h i s t o r i o g r a p h i c d i s c o u r s e in nineteenth- century France. Chapter V, the c o n c l u s i o n , summarizes my arguments. i ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter I. II. GENOME'S CAREER 1 THE NEO-GREC PAINTINGS 8 Neo-grec P a i n t i n g and I t s R e l a t i o n s h i p to "High" A r t ' 8 Genre P a i n t i n g During the July Monarchy . . . 13 Gerome's Teachers I: Paul Delaroche . . . . . . 14 Gerome's .Teachers I I : Charles Gleyre - -19 L'Ecole de bon sens '20 The^Cock Fight 25 Ge'rome ' s Other Ne'o-grec P a i n t i n g s : The Female Nude As an Icon,of High A r t ',28 Goupil et Compagnie - 37 The Neo-Grec "Fashion" and the " i n t e r i e u r " . . < 40 King Candaules and Antiochus and S t r a t o n i c e : The Decline of Neo-cl.assi c i sm 46 III. THE ETHNOGRAPHIC PAINTINGS The Content of Ge'rome's Ethnographic P a i n t i n g s I: Physiognomic Types The Ethnographic P a i n t i n g s and Photography. The Contenjt of Gerome's Ethnographic Painting's I I : The Inte'rieur IV. THE HISTORY PAINTINGS .".'5 7 . 60 67 75 88 H i s t o r i o g r a p h i c Thought in Mid-Nineteenth Century France. . . . 89 The Influence of P o s i t i v i s m on the Arts . . ., 102 Ge'r6me's H i s tory Pa i n t i n gs 106 ; V. CONCLUSION SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 38 145 iv ILLUSTRATIONS Page Figure 1 2. 3. The Cock F i g h t . 1846. O i l on canvas. ( 143 x 204 cm. ). Musee de Louvre, Paris Paul Delaroche. The A r t i s t s of A l l Ages. 1841 Hemicycle, Ecole des Beaux A r t s , P a r i s . ( F i g . 114 in Robert Rosenblum, Ingres 'New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1 967) . . . . .' .- . . . . Paul Delaroche. The C h i l d r e n of Edward IV.1830. Oil on canvas. (181 x 215 cm.) Muse'e duLouvre. (Page 301 in French P a i n t i n g 1774-1830: The Age of R e v o l u t i o n , i New York: 1974) . '. '. 7 . Phryne Before the Areopagus. 1861. Hamburger K u n s t h a l l e . (Page 10 in Jean-Leon Gerome, Dayton, Ohio: 1972) King Candaules. 1 859. O i l on can vas . (67. 3 x 99 cm.) Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico. (Page 43 in Jean-Leon Gerome, Ibid.) Cleopatra and Caesar. 1864. (Page 43 in Nancy B e l l , Representative P a i n t e r s of the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1 899). ~ '. '. '. '. '. '. '. '. 7~. Roman Slave Market. 1884. O i l on canvas. (64.1 x 56.9 cm. ) The Wal ter£ A r t G a l l e r y , Baltimore. (Page 89 in Jean-Leon G'leVdme, o p . c i t . ) Jean-Louis Hamon. Ma soecfr n'y e s t pas i c i . Whereabouts un known. (Page 108 i n C h a r l e s Gl eyre , ( La us an ne : 19 74}) > •• Gustave Boulanger. The Lute PIayer. 1861 Musee National 4, Versai 11 e~s7 (Page 146 i n Ingres , -o_p. c j t . ) Infelrieur grec. 1851. Hamburger Kunsthalle . . . . Socrates Seeking A l c i b i a d e s in the House of Aspasia.1861. Robert Isaacson C o l l e c t i o n : New York. ("Page 36 in Isaacson, "Ge'r6me," A r t and A r t i s t s , V o l . 2 [August, 1 967]) Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Antiochus and S t r a t o n i ce. 1 840. O i l on canvas. (44.9 x 78.8 cm.) Musee Conde, C h a n t i l l y . (Plate 39 in In gres , op . c i t. ) Nadar. Photograph of Musette. 1856. ( F i g . 228 in Helmut Gernsh-eim, The H i s t o r y of Photography London: Oxford"'Uni vers i ty Press, 1 9 55)) . . 7 . . Recreation i n a Russian Camp. 1854. Whereabouts un known. (Page 11 in Jean- Leon GeVome, op.cit.).. Photograph of Ger6me at 70(?) (Page 1.34 in V i c t o r G u i l l e m i n , "Etude sur l e pe_intre et s ^ u l p t e u r , J.L. Gerome," Academie des Sciences B e l l e s - l e t t r e s & Arts de Besfrncon. 1904) ! '. 7 . ; 4. 5. 6. 7. 9 ,1 7 1 7 '31; 3,2 .32 t 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. .36 40 40 44 '44 47 _ 55 61 65 V Figure 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. Page Arnaut Smoking. 1865? O i l on canvas. (59.6 x 72.4 cm.) The Sordoni Family C o l l e c t i o n , Wi1kes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (Page 59 in J . - L . Gerome , o p . c i t . ) 65 The P r i s o n e r . 1 86 3. (46 x 7 8.1 cm.) P r i v a t e C o l l e c t i o n , New York. An e a r l i e r v e r s i o n (1861) i n the Musee Nantes (Page 51 in J.-L. Ge'rome, o p . c i t . ) 68 Conducteur de Chameaux. Whereabouts unknown. (Page 15 in Fre'de'ric Mas son, " J .-L. Ge'rome : p e i n t r e de 1 ' o r i e n t , " Figaro II lustre'', Vol . 12, [ J u l y , 1901] 74 Dance of the Almeh. 1863. (520.2 x 81.3 cm.) Dayton A r t I n s t i t u t e , Dayton, Ohio. , (Page 5 3 in J.-L. Ge'rome,, opci t.) 74 Emile Bayard, Cover f o r "Le Nu E s t h e t i q u e " , P a r i s , 1900. (Page 304 i n Michel B r a i v e , The S o c i a l H i s t o r y of Photography. New Y o r k , 1 9 6 6 ) . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Ave Caesar, M o r i t u r i Te S a l u t a n t . 1859. O i l on Canvas. (92.2 x 14.4 cm.) Yale U n i v e r s i t y A r t G a l l e r y . (Page 45 i n J . L . Ge'rome , o p . c i t . ) 107 P o l l ice Verso. 1 874. O i l on canvas. (96.5 x 145.2 cm.) Phoenix A r t Museum, Phoenix, A r i z o n a . (Page 68 in J.-L Gerome, o p . c i t . ) . 107 The C h r i s t i a n Martyrs' Last Prayer. 18631 883. O i l on Canvas. ( 87.9 x 1 50.1 cm.) The Walters A r t G a l l e r y , Baltimore. (Page 86 in J.-L. Ge'rome) 108 Pol 1i ce Verso c. 1 876. Large bronze scuptural group. Muse'e Besancon(?) (Page 27 in Fre'de'ric Masson, "x\'. L . Ge'rome : Notes et fragments i n e d i t e s , " Les A r t s , 1904) . . . . . 109 La Mcyty re. Bronze mounted on black marble. (36 x 48.5 cm.) (Page 37 in G a l e r i e Tanagra, P a r i s . Jean-Leon Ge'rome, 1 9 7 4 ) . . . . . . . . 110 La REntree des f e l i n e s dans l e c i r q u e , c. 1902. Walters A r t G a l l e r y , Baltimore (Page 8 in G a l e r i e Tanagra, op.ci t.) 112 The Death of Marshal Ney. 1868. O i l on canvas. (64.1 x 103.5 cm.) S h e f f i e l d C i t y A r t G a l l e r i e s , S h e f f i e l d , England. (Page 64 ,-, J.L. Gerome,.gp,git.) The Death of Cflesdr'. 1 867. O i l on canvas. (85.5 x 145.2 cm.) The Walters A r t G a l l e r y , Baltimore. (Page 6 3 in J.-L. Ge'rome, o p . c i t . ) . 117 7 ; 28: vi Page Fi gure 29. L'0 e d i p e . c. 1 886. Whereabouts unknown. (Page 482 in Fanny Hering, "J.-L. Ge>6me," The Century Magazine, v o l . 37, 1 889) 19 Sketch f o r 1 Oedipe c. 1886 (Page 484, I b i d . ) . . 120 The Poet Touched.By His Muse, c. 1881. Whereabouts unknown. (Page 18 in Henri Houssaye, Le Salon de 1881. P a r i s , 1881.) The Reception of the Due de-Conde. 1 878. Oi1 on canvas. (96.5 x 139.7 cm.) Mr. and Mrs. Armand du Vannes, Los Angeles, C a l i f o r n i a . (Page 75 of J.-L. Gerome, op. c i t. ) 128 L'Eminence Gri se. 1 874. O i l on canvas. (65.5 'x 98.5 cm.) Museum of Fine A r t s , Boston. (Page 71 in J.-L. Gerome, op. c i t.) . . ' ° Be11ona. 1 893. Large c h r y s e l e p h a n t i n e s c u l p t u r e . (Page 205 in M. H. Speilmann, "J.-L. Gerome," The Magazine of A r t . V o l . 2 , 1 904) 1 30. 31. 1 1 32. 33. 2 4 2 34. 1 4 2 1 CHAPTER I: GEROME'S CAREER Gerome's career was he may have had Gerome himself who There i s no r e a l us by his biographers, or r a t h e r by f u r n i s h e d them with his l i f e reason has given us, f u l l to doubt the account of lacunae as i t i s , nor to doubt the embellishments us by those who knew the p a i n t e r . oddly; nineteenth century biography that l i t e r a r y biography difficulties in h i s personal l i f e , whatever e c c e n t r i c i t i e s have been withheld from reason a charmed one* whatever form. story.^ which Gerome i s there upon t h i s t a l e given to But was i t a l l reads r a t h e r perhaps the n a d i r of For the V i c t o r i a n s , French meant an account any and English, of a man's achievements i n the p u b l i c arena with only the merest hints of what motivated him. Therefore the image of Gerome that emerges from literature we can about him infer certain i s of a man reading a s c r i p t . the However, things about Gerome from these books and a r t i c l e s which are not stated d i r e c t l y . A f t e r a l l , we have the works of a r t . Ge'rome was born on the 11th df May, small town in North-eastern Basel and Dijon. s i l v e r s m i t h , who couraged He was 1824, in Vesoul , a France, about halfway the son of a moderately between well-to-do being a maker of o b j e t s d ' a r t h i m s e l f , en- h i s son's ambition to become an a r t i s t . t h i s childhood that gave Gerome his l i f e l o n g I t was devotion to an 2 arduous work schedule was and an a t t i t u d e very much a craftsman's In 1839 Paul more than an he went to P a r i s to e n r o l l Delaroche. This was a prestigious most p r e s t i g i o u s at the time. David to Gros and Charles G l e y r e ) . towering sonal towards his a r t that I t had then to Delaroche Delaroche in the a t e l i e r of s t u d i o , i f not the been handed down from (and subsequently himself was f i g u r e s of D e l a c r o i x and "artist's". only r i v a l l e d Ingres, and by the a per- f r i e n d of L o u i s - P h i l i p p e . In other words, a favored student of Delaroche's to the coveted missions. often had privileged Prix-de-Rome and In 1843, access to the to state and p r i v a t e com- p r a c t i s e s , Delaroche c l o s e d his s t u d i o , i t over to Charles Gleyre and encouraging to go to e i t h e r Gleyre or Martin D r o l l i n g . utterly devoted Salon, a f t e r a student died as a r e s u l t of the rowdy i n i t i a t i o n handing was he was to to Delaroche his students Gerdme, however, and went with him to Italy for a year. In 1845 Ge'rome returned to P a r i s and e n r o l l e d in Charles Gleyre's s t u d i o so that he might compete f o r the Prix-de-Rome. He was first u n s u c c e s s f u l , but in the f o l l o w i n g year p a i n t i n g to the Salon, The Cock/Fight. r e c e i v e d a T h i r d Class medal, r a t h e r unusual Salon, and made Ge'rome a recognized p a i n t e r . he was he sent his This p a i n t i n g for a f i r s t At twenty-two . famous. One would l i k e to know a great deal more about the group that then gathered around Gerome. These young p a i n t e r s , 3 all students Rue de of Gleyre, Fleurus dency t h e r e ) . included and the lived together in a studio on the ( l a t e r made famous by Gertrude Stein's r e s i - Le Chalet, as the group c a l l e d themselves, Toulmouche (Claude Monet's c o u s i n ) , Hamon, Picou s c u l p t o r Jobbe-Duval. come and frequent Theophile Gautier was a wel- "a l i t t l e Athens". guest at what he c a l l e d Perhaps f o l l o w i n g the example of Gleyre, Le Chalet housed a large numer of animals, and Jacques, would often accompany him They were a l l r a t h e r poor and Gerome's chimpanzee, to restaurants. very idealistic, they seem to have p a r t i c i p a t e d in the s p i r i t headed a p e t i t i o n as e n t e r i n g also and of 1 848. Ge'rome to a b o l i s h marriage in that year as well the contest f o r an a l l e g o r i c a l f i g u r e of the 2 Republi c. The one who spired image we was get of Ge'rome as a young man driven to succeed. those around him. charm which he could He had His devotion a great deal i s of some- to his work i n of personal which made him 3 the c e n t r a l f i g u r e of the group, " l e chef des neo-grecs". In the 1850s he r e c e i v e d several important commissions 4 and e x h i b i t e d r e g u l a r l y at the Salon. searching first f o r a large commission 5 In 1854, he made what was while to be rethe of many voyages east. In 1862 dealer. who turn on or o f f at w i l l he married They had Marie G o u p i l , daughter of the a r t - four c h i l d r e n , three died at the age of 27 in 1891. By daughters and a son t h i s time Ge'rome was 4 living in a house on the Rue In 1 863, to Ge'rSme along with his death in 1904. f o r t y - o n e , he was ure at the Ecole and impressionism P i l s was His students In 1865, appointed e l e c t e d to the I n s t i t u t e . him. age His long ten- his v i o l e n t o p p o s i t i o n to r e a l i s m and an image he seemed to have included Henri g whom admired he held at the f a i r l y young have c o n t r i b u t e d to his image as the Academician; i t was of Cabanel and a p r o f e s s o r s h i p at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a post until of de C l i c h y . Rousseau and Among his l a s t ultimate enjoyed. Thomas Eakins, students was both Fernand Le'ger. The honours heaped upon Gerome during his l i f e t i m e were too numerous to l i s t awarded in here. He was the Grand Medal of Honour three times. many s o c i a l As a man e n e r g e t i c and graphs and He c i r c l e s , among his f r i e n d s were the Prince Napoleon, the Peireires, and travelled Goncourts, the R o t h s c h i l d s . Ger6me i s c o n s i s t e n t l y described as t r i m , very elegant in his manners. p a i n t i n g s of him the eyebrows r a i s e d Gerome l i v e d give him by a s t r i c t day often with James R o t h s c h i l d . adult l i f e , A l l the photo- a very arch appearance, in a permanent mask of d i s d a i n . he would r i d e almost every his the only p a i n t e r to be making him regimen--when not t r a v e l l i n g - in the Bois de Boulogne, He painted almost every a very p r o l i f i c day a r t i s t , especi- ally c o n s i d e r i n g the amount of time that goes into work of this type. of 5 He p r a c t i s e d often e x h i b i t i n g a l l s o r t s of genres a neo-grec or h i s t o r i c a l Salon as an ethnographic work. neo-grec, ethnographic throughout his l i f e , work at the same This t h e s i s deals with h i s and h i s t o r i c a l sides these there are r e l i g i o u s paintings. But be- p a i n t i n g s , a few p o r t r a i t s , among them one of the a c t r e s s Rachel, a few landscapes, often with animals, e s p e c i a l l y suggests, he may have thought l i o n s , which A l b e r t Boime of.as s o r t of a personal totem.^ He was among the most popular p a i n t e r s of h i s time. Salon made p a i n t i n g a subject of p u b l i c a t t e n t i o n gree almost unimaginable today; perhaps a reasonable comparison. First of a l l , One can, I t h i n k , understand why that of a r t ; they were also esca- The s e x u a l i t y of many of the p a i n t i n g s , hardly n o t i c e - able by today's the p r o t e c t i v e of bourgeois and subjects were popu- they were l e g i b l e as s t o r i e s and a great many people expected pist. to a de- the cinema would be Gerome's meticulous renderings of e x o t i c lar. The standards, allowed sexual fantasy w i t h i n c o n f i n e s of a r t . virtue. As a man, he was a paragon He himself had s a i d that "perspicacity good sense" were the foundations of the French c h a r a c t e r , g and he made himself the embodiment of these q u a l i t i e s . gave France an image of an a r t i s t who was not a w i l d He Romantic, contemptous of m i d d l e - c l a s s v a l u e s , nor a r e a l i s t who might be a s o c i a l i s t as w e l l , nor was he given to "high-brow" d i s c u s s i o n s of h i s a r t . was Rather he t r e a t e d a r t as though i t a p r o f e s s i o n , which was to be approached in a business- 6 l i k e manner. Words l i k e "imagination" and "poetry" have no meaning when Gerome uses them. Gerome had the misfortune of seeing his career begin to disintegrate. fall. He s t i l l From the 1880s on he saw h i s p r i c e s begin to won awards at the Salon, but by t h i s time the Salon had begun to be r e p l a c e d by the p r i v a t e a r t g a l lery. When he died in 1904 no r e t r o s p e c t i v e was Although lege shown. there was small Gerome e x h i b i t i o n s at Vassar in 1967, i t was not u n t i l Col- Gerald Ackerman and Bruce Evans organized a Gerome show f o r the Dayton Art I n s t i t u t e in 1972 that the p a i n t e r has been given a major r e t r o s p e c t i v e . Due to the new f i e l d that Academic p a i n t i n g o f f e r s to a r t h i s t o r i a n s and the r i s i n g reputation has taken taste f o r photo-realism, a turn f o r the b e t t e r a f t e r years of complete n e g l e c t . Gerome's seventy The a r t i s t who emerges was of modest accomplishment but i n t e r e s t i n g and worthy of a place in the h i s t o r y of nineteenth century a r t . .7 Notes - Chapter I Fanny F i e l d H e r i n g , Gerome, Case] P u b l i s h e r s , New York, 1893. V i c t o r G u i l l e m i n , "Jean-Leon Gerome" in Memoi res de I'acaddmie de Besancon, 1904, pp.1 34-1 84. Fre'de'ric Mas son, "J.L. Ge'rdme, Notes- et fragments ine'dits." Les A r t s , 1 904. Charles Moreau-Vauthier, Ge'r6me, p£i ntre et sculpteur , P a r i s , 1906. 1 See A l b e r t Boime, "The Second R e p l u b l i c ' s Contest f o r The Figure of the Republic," Art Bui 1 e t i n , vol.53. 1971 , pp.345ff. 3 Charles Timbal , "Ge'rome: Etude bi ographi que ," in Gazette des Beaux A r t s , v o l . 14, 2e s e r i e s , 1876, pp.218ff, pp.334ff. p.219. 4 In 1851 he received a commission f o r several panels in the r e f e c t o r y of o l d St. Martins, P a r i s which was being r e s t o r e d as a l i b r a r y . In 1852 he did two murals in the Chapel of St. Jerome, St. S e v e r i n , P a r i s , by a l l accounts he was c o n s i d e r a b l y outshone by Hippolyte F l a n d r i n who a l s o did murals in St. Severin at t h i s time. He r e c e i v e d a commission (20,000 f r a n c s ) f o r a large a l l e g o r y on a passage from Bousset. This commission i s d i s cussed in Chapter I I I . J ^See A l b e r t Boime, "Jean Leon Ge'rome, Henri Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy and the Academic Legacy," Art Q u a r t e r l y , vol.34, 1971, and Gerald Ackerman, "Thomas Eakins and his P a r i s i a n Master, Ge'rQme and Bonnat," Gazette des Beaux Arts, v o l . 72, 1969, pp.235-256. 7 A l b e r t Boime, A r t Q u a r t e r l y , 1971, o p . c i t . , p . l l f . Q Hering, 1 892 , o p . c i t . , p . v i . 8 CHAPTER I I : THE At the sent urging his f i r s t NEO-GREC PAINTINGS of his teacher, major work, The Paul Delaroche, Ger&me Cock Fight ( f i g . 1), to Salon of 1847. Even though the p a i n t i n g was above the i t a t t r a c t e d a t t e n t i o n and line, wrote e n t h u s i a s t i c a l l y in La Presse: est i l s'appelle et ne, Gerome. je vous pre'dis que Aujourd'hui demain i l sera hung rather f a r praise. Gautier the "Un Theophile p e i n t r e nous je vous d i s son celebre."^ The nom, painting even charmed the v i t u p e r a t i v e Gustave Planche into w r i t i n g a favorable notice. The Salon j u r y awarded The Cock Fight a 3 third c l a s s medal. Thus, at the age become a famous p a i n t e r ; he had importantly, he had most i n f l u e n t i a l The the of the the Gerome produced in a s t y l e This s t y l e was emerged in the nor one Romantic but and first of a number of known as neo-grec everyday, even t r i v i a l , the paintings or pompei s te. lived "styles" that Classical to "High" Art characterized subject-matter neo-grecs abandoned the mythic and a n i t q u i t y p r a c t i s e d by of something in between. Its R e l a t i o n s h i p Ne'o-grec p a i n t i n g was one time. of a number of short attempted had perhaps more was J u l y Monarchy which were n e i t h e r Neo-Grec P a i n t i n g The a Salon medal, and support of G a u t i e r , who critics Cock Fight was of twenty-two, Gerome David and by i t s placing in an antique of setting. h e r o i c image of espoused by Ingres f o r an Figure 1 10 image that was s o f t e r , l e s s demanding, and in t h e i r day-to-day p u r s u i t s . rather than n a r r a t i v e , l y r i c reason i t can only t i o n , although history be called showed the Neo-grec a r t i s ancients anecdotal rather than e p i c , and for t h i s , h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g with qualifica- i t everywhere r e f e r s to the standards of painting. H i s t o r y p a i n t i n g , what the Academy deemed high conceived by David or Ingres, was of events that embodied elevated events which c e l e b r a t e d noble the viewer. a r t , as concerned with the moral the h e r o i c and conflict depiction and purpose; were meant to David's Oath of the H o r a t i i and en- Ingres' Apotheosis of Homer have d i d a c t i c energy, they are icons in every sense of the word. Academic h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g , in theory, emphasized aspects of p a i n t i n g that could be i t was rather than of the an a r t of the Colour was intellect kept d u l l , as i t was whereas p r e c i s e drawing was The surface was hidden. And highly polished. therefore because the but had to be clearly feeling, artist's spontaneous gesture of surface accessories heart. Evidence of the was and highly polished the the could defined. The the abjured In the s t y l e s of David unlike that of D e l a c r o i x , a r c h i t e c t u r e and with temporal--moment was d e t a i l s assumed importance. Ingres, associated learned, thought to engage the mind. hand, which might i n d i c a t e the inspired--and c a l c u l a t e d and those not f i n e r points be merely and of the suggested Beaux-Arts' student 11 was required to have a grasp of c l a s s i c a l literature, j u s t as a source for. e l e v a t i n g subject-matter, a r e p o s i t o r y of information the ancients. He was about the information vase drawings e t c . , so that he mis-en-scene f o r the from c o i n s , b a s - r e l i e f s , could create and and found in c l a s s i c a l art. Symmetry was of composition and the Apotheosi s; t h i s perspective, the real p a i n t i n g and world. But space, i s very use viewer occupies in the space of these p a i n t i n g s , unlike image of f i g u r e s h e i r a t i c , a u t h o r i t a t i v e nature of high f r o n t a l i t y of the French poet Yves Bonnefoy: esthetiques, la frontalite "real" frozen burden of time. the opposition space of the an the of Renaissance shallow space and toutes statuary. space that the gives pro- in the Oath and The ing to the f i g u r e s underart. Accord- "Dans le langage signifie I'eternel, de par a l a profondeur, par ou se r e i n t r o d u i t la temporalite, et le plan exprime l ' e t r e ou 1 intemporel." 1 guiding p r i n c i p l e the in a c t i o n f o r e v e r , r e l i e v e d of the line that were a homogeniety between the l i m i t e d and paint- used c l a s s i c a l as as the of high a r t . ' Academic of ancient life-size, f a c t o r , as well postulates the only they often were quotations historically subjects geometric values f i g u r e s not f i g u r e s are often an proportion ing used the proportions The as v i s u a l environment of classical In matters of composition portions but a l s o a l s o taught archae1ogica1 methods of e x t r a c t i n g meaningful accurate not The I'essenee, b r e f , shallow space denotes the e t e r n a l values 12 which the subject-matter i l l u s t r a t e s w i t h i n . i t , I t at once refers to the able us b a s - r e l i e f and medium of stone. We the world of high a r t . are reminds us of the more dur- thus d i s t a n c e d In the Apotheosi s, Ingres adds to the authority of the our eye corresponded to the level where the figures painting are in time from by asking us to look up as i f bottom edge of the cut o f f at the waist. Neo-grec art.' remains high a r t in several It d i s p l a y s polished is the r e s u l t s of research surface. invisible. i s often shallow. The quite neo-grec a r t can art and patriotism authoritative F i n i , the aesthetic Cock F i g h t , are the roses." the f i g u r e s are most important. i d e a l i z a t i o n of the of the highly brush work the space actually And than an neogrecs at Le It i s high The subject- self-sacrifice heroic or the epicurianism. f i g u r e , e t c . , have an e t h i c a l one. s t a t e , of the to a c u l t of the from p a l e t t e s a life-size. subject-matter. everywhere abandoned f o r neo-grec a r t r e f e r s the i s i d e a l i z e d and celebration r e f e r s us to a c u l t of the painting colour, e s p e c i a l l y morally e d i f y i n g , value rather s a i d of the e r u d i t i o n on ways. to H e l l e n i s t i c a r t f o r a c l a s s i c a l except the and critical background, i f i t i s not of i t s everyday in every way matter i s not in the point and dominates the human f i g u r e flat In The justification Line canvas Chalet, High a r t proper gods and Beautiful. "...1iving of t r a d i t i o n ; As 1ike Gautier Sybarites, of i r v o r y , crowning t h e i r heads with In f a c t , ne"o-grec p a i n t i n g has a l l the character*.; 13 istics of genre p a i n t i n g in a high a r t d i s g u i s e , or vice versa. Genre P a i n t i n g During the Although the July Monarchy Academy c e r t a i n l y valued h i s t o r y painting above a l l other kinds of a r t ; the notion that shunned genre p a i n t i n g century i s something of a myth. the Painting s o r t of p a i n t i n g Rome contest, in the nineteenth from c l a s s i c a l that one had i t completely or b i b l i c a l sources to enter f o r the a p r i z e which c o n s t i t u t e d Prix-de- "arrival" and competition which most Beaux-Arts' students entered. Granet and painting D r o l l i n g , among others, which was owed a great realism and deal executed both p r a c t i s e d in a h i g h l y to seventeenth A quick look at the auction realistic style mainly French, Dutch and Flemish fetched Flemish large numbers in mid-century. i f Gerome's ne'o-grec p a i n t i n g into a c l a s s i c a l p a i n t i n g , which was must be fairly seen--although we mold, he Arsene Houssaye, the young Gerome's conscious high a r t , or rather is recasting is not healthy at the must be salvaging reviving time. c a r e f u l not intention what was prices >. knew Gerome, wrote a book about Dutch p a i n t i n g painting 1830s. paintings, respectable 8 So that rooms of P a r i s , a r e l i a b l e t a s t e , shows that genre who But I n s t i t u t e in the i n d i c a t o r of fashionable in f a i r l y a genre century Dutch and both became members of the was in 1846.^ genre genre Instead he to exaggerate here--to be "reviving" l e f t of i t at the end 14 of the J u l y Monarchy. The s i t u a t i o n of Academic a r t at t h i s time examined — f o r the purposes of the two teachers who Delaroche of t h i s i s best t h e s i s — by a d i s c u s s i o n taught Gerome his t r a d i t i o n , Paul and Charles Gleyre. Ge'rome's Teachers I: Paul Delaroche Ge'rome's most important teacher was Delaroche. Delaroche's p a i n t i n g was c h a r a c t e r i z e d by a highly p o l i s h e d , and therefore Academic, handling of t r a d i t i o n a l l y matter. This s t y l e was known as j u s t e - m i l i e u , an a p p e l a t i o n ^ that comes from p o l i t i c a l Philippe's favorite romantic s u b j e c t - terminology. Delaroche was Louis- p a i n t e r and f r i e n d ; and he came to rep- resent in the world of a r t what L o u i s - P h i l i p p e stood f o r in politics. The reign of L o u i s - P h i 1 i p p e was, in the words of Alfred-Cobban ; "...so lacking in p r i n c i p l e that i t could only be known by the month of i t ' s founding, as the J u l y Monarchy.^ Lou i s-Ph i 1 i p" pe ' s p o l i c y was an attempt both the r i g h t and the l e f t by f e n c e - s i t t i n g . unfortunate that Delaroche's attempt with a l i t t l e it. precise drawing w i l l But, as Nancy B e l l It- i s , to please perhaps, to temper romanticism be f o r e v e r a s s o c i a t e d with pointed out, Delaroche's compromises had a measure of success, whereas the king's did not: Delaroche was a p a i n t e r a f t e r the heart of L o u i s - P h i l i p p e , that monarch who v a i n l y stro/e to bridge over the gap between a r i s t o c r a c y and democracy, and to r u l e on the s o - c a l l e d j uste-frii1ieu system. What the king f a i l e d to do in p o l T t i c s , his f a v o r i t e p a i n t e r succeeded in accomplishing in 1 5 art...De1aroche class . 1 ' One be came the i d o l rather doubts whether Delaroche's correspond to the p o l i c i e s consciously. of the middles t y l e was meant to of L o u i s - P h i l i p p e , at l e a s t But most of the popular a r t i s t s of t h i s not period, Delaroche, Ary S c h e f f e r and Horace Vernet, were a l l seen having solved the CI assic-Romantic c o n f l i c t . may often seem obscure to c a r r y the burden i t was to us--as as This c o n f l i c t those terms have since had of German phi 1osophy--but at the time quite c l e a r where c e r t a i n for classicism, p o l i t i c a l people stood. Ingres stood conservatism and t r a d i t i o n a l values; D e l a c r o i x and Hugo f o r a romanticism a s s o c i a t e d with republican and 1848 democratic ideals. The were seen as v i c t o r i e s of one r e v o l u t i o n s of 1830 s t y l e over the other. the j uste-mi1ieu a r t of Delaroche was i s , or course, i t s e l f But there i s a s p l i t p o l i c y of d e p o l a r i z a - a t a c t i c of the in Delaroche's a r t i s t right. personality. His large hemicycle f o r the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, A r t i s t s of A l l Ages ( f i g . The 2) i s c l e a r l y modelled on the I n g r e i s t e formula of the Apotheos i s, and t h i s p a i n t i n g i s p l a c e d , how c o n s i d e r i n g where . could i t be otherwise. Most of Delaroche's a r t d i f f e r e d d r a m a t i c a l l y from p u b l i c d i s p l a y of support f o r high a r t . Edward IV ( f i g . So seen as metaphorical of and a p p r o p r i a t e to L o u i s - P h i l i p p e ' s tion—which and In The this C h i l d r e n of 3) the s t r o n g , even l i g h t of high a r t i s eschewed f o r a dramatic c h i a r o s c u r o which probably was meant 16 to suggest the dark depths The theme i t s e l f of Richard I l l ' s murderous heart. i s Shakespearian and t h e r e f o r e (by the standards of the J u l y Monarchy) romantic. however, h i g h l y f i n i s h e d . brought The d e t a i l s are picked up, into sharp focus and dwelt Nancy B e l l The handling i s , upon. Delaroche, as w r i t e s , "was ever on the lookout f o r e f f e c t i v e i n c i d e n t , and spared no pains to make sure of accuracy of 12 detail i n costume and in f u r n i t u r e . " wards d e t a i l is a variation on the academic i n s i s t a n c e on e r u d i t i o n , although one c e r t a i n l y detail This a t t i t u d e t o - feels that Delaroche's work l a v i s h e s a t t e n t i o n on o b j e c t s f o r t h e i r own sake and not to make an a r c h a e o l o g i c a l point. manner here must be d e r i v e d from Dutch rea1ism--varnishes and furs. rough Delaroche's And The C h i l d r e n of Edward IV came in f o r some criticism "...everything from Gustave account: i s d i s c o u r a g i n g l y new: f u r n i t u r e , ' c l o t h i n g , 1 3 the faces themselves A realistic of Ingres. Planche on t h i s are new and have never handling of d e t a i l lived..." invades even the work As Robert Rosenblum has noted, Ingres had a wide v a r i e t y of s t y l e s and subjects as h i s command. blum has advanced manner to s u i t Gudule, Reciting the t h e s i s that Ingres would change h i s h i s s u b j e c t , Raphaelesque a Crown, Northern Rosen- f o r his Virgin with l a t e Gothic f o r The Duke of Alba at S t . or the model of c l a s s i c a l from the Aeneid. statuary f o r Vergil Rosenblum w r i t e s : . "Like a nine- Figure 2 Figure 3 18 teenth century a r c h i t e c t , he [Ingres] was choosing a s t y l e most r e a l i s t i c a c u t e l y aware of that s u i t e d h i s s u b j e c t . " 1 4 I 9 n r e s w a s in his p o r t r a i t s . During the July monarchy, both the government and artists who had to deal with a powerful bourgeois c o n s t i t u e n c y were weary of the endless debate: Monarchy^ and who Orleanist had chose r h e t o r i c a l - - i t was Empire, a man who r e p o r t e d l y This choice seemed r a t i o n a l motivated affairs of the world. buy and collect This r i s i n g a r t , and an.d non- by an urgent d e s i r e f o r a s o c i e t y that would allow the a f f a i r s they set that was Republic, as a compromise, L o u i s e - P h i l i p p e , claimant to the throne and r e p u b l i c ideas. the i t was of business to be the bourgeois c l a s s began to probably they and the tone r e s p o n s i b l e f o r the r i s e of a kind of p a i n t i n g that c e l e b r a t e d t h i n g s , and p o s s e s s i o n s , the visible si gn s of wealth. So the nig lr : such kind a r t and of eclecticism we genre "experiments painting--is see the ne'o-grecs f a r from innovating practising rather c h a r a c t e r i z e d most of the a r t of the J u l y 1 5 Monarchy as well as the second Empire." Ge'rome always recognized his debt to Delaroche. life he wrote that he himself belonged Delaroche had "founded ( C l a s s i c i s m and I'ecole de bon opposing schools T h i s , Gerome, assured his reader,was the "School of Good Sense" not found to the school which by the side of these two Romanticism). Late in But Delaroche d i d sens, although he was not unrelated 19 to it. 1 7 Ge'rome' s Teachers I I : Charles Gleyre Ge'rome's contact with the ecole de bon his second Delaroche's in 1 844. teacher, Gleyre. and i t was he who Ge'rome's actual ambiguous. While Gleyre had Ge'rome was his own been a student of r e l a t i o n s h i p with Gleyre remains Ge'rome's notes on only r e g i s t e r e d three months in 1845. through took over the l a t t e r ' s s t u d i o of p r a i s e f o r h i s beloved Delaroche, once. sens was His reason his e a r l y years are full Gleyre i s mentioned only in Gleyre's studio f o r f o r doing t h i s , was, account, only in order that the might be by eligible to compete f o r the Prix-de-Rome, which r e q u i r e d that con1o t e s t a n t s be r e g i s t e r e d He did not win in a recognized P a r i s i a n the P r i x that year and never j u r y apparently t o l d him f i c i e n c y of his f i g u r e s . of the nude--the end It i s important private again. So he embarked on a year's The his accounts of t h i s t h e s i s . de- study Cock F i g h t . that he did not continue his s t u d i e s time but returned to Delaroche as a f o r e r a s i n g the i n f l u e n c e of Gleyre of his formative years are beyond the scope That Gleyre was, in f a c t , important to Gerome seems beyond q u e s t i o n . The Aubert The student. Gerome's reasons from tried because of the r e s u l t of which was to note under Gleyre at t h i s 19 that he f a i l e d atelier. members of Le C h a l e t , Toulmouche, Hamon, Picou, and Jobe-Duyal were, along with Gerome, a l l Gleyre 20 students. In f a c t , i t has been put forward that neo-greci sm 21 actually originated Charles Clement's can f i n d - - a t in Gleyre's s t u d i o . Thumbing through catalogue of Gleyre's o i l p a i n t i n g l e a s t two one p a i n t i n g s which--by d e s c r i p t i o n at least--seem to be neo-grec i n s e n s i b i l i t y which were executed 22 before 1846, and thus before The Cock F i g h t . One of these p a i n t i n g s i s c a l l e d Lucrece and was the r e s u l t of a s e r i e s of planned i l l u s t r a t i o n s f o r Francois Ponsard's play of the 23 same name. Just as Gerome's p a i n t i n g earned him the t i t l e " l e chef des neo-grecs", Ponsard's him the t i t l e 1843 " l e chef de 1'ecole de bon was close far as to l a b e l to Ponsard, although we don't brief traditions L'eco1e de bon sens". As Gleyre know i f he went as himself of the ecole de bon sens, we reasonably expect that Ponsard w i l l One stage success earned i l l u m i n a t e one of the that informed the neo-grec movement. sens hundred and f i f t y years a f t e r the f a c t the ference between a j uste-mi1ieu and an ecole de bon sensibility may might seem a l i t t l e r a f f i n e . difsens Both occupy little outposts on the vast wasteland of a r t h i s t o r y between the polar extremes really of c l a s s i c i s m and has to do with the stage, which e a r l y nineteenth century was ism romanticism. and c l a s s i c i s m . The like a battelfield difference Bon sens painting in the between romantic- between Delaroche's a r t 21 and G l e y r e ' s , considered in these terms, was that Delaroche leaned towards the romantic while Gleyre leaned towards the classic. ' The ecole de bon sens attempted to reform c l a s s i c i s m i n order to crush romanticism. of In t h i s aspect i t was an agent the Academy and in 1845 Ponsard won p r i x de trage'die, which had been the I n s t i t u t e ' s founded in 1831 (note the date): "pour opposer une digue aux envahissements du 24 ^ romantisme." In order to rescue c l a s s i c i s m Ponsard and h i s f e l l o w p l a y w r i g h t , Emile Augier (with whom Gerome t r a v e l l e d to Egypt in 1856) t r i e d what seems in r e t r o s p e c t to perform an impossible aestheticise task. They wished, l i k e the c l a s s i c a l ideal. the neo-grecs, to But they went f u r t h e r than e p i c u r i a n i s m , they wished to tinge the c l a s s i c a l with s c i e n t i s m and.republican p o l i t i c s . biographer, Daniel fait S t e r n , wrote: "La sagesse de Ponsard, i l d'un e'picurien, au sens v r a i L i t t r e was a f r i e n d Second du mot, qui f a i t dans l a volupte', mais 25 a l a moderation." for As Ponsard's .'bien I'avouer, n ' e t a i t pas d' un sto'icien, mais bonheur (Stern plutot consister le l a volupte lie'e a l a r a i s o n et here quotes L i t t r e ' s dictionary-- of Ponsard's and supported him iin the Empire when h i s C h a r l o t t e Corday was banned). example, esprit argued f o r " l e s d r o i t s science et de l a r a i s o n L ucrece, i mpe'r i s sa bl e s de l a contre l a s u p e r s t i t i o n et l a fana t i sme." ^ 2 Ponsard, G l e y r e , and the young Gerome were a l l a s s o c i a t e d 22 with Sai nt-Simoni an ideas. Ge'rSme went as f a r as to lead a 27 petition demanding the a b o l i t i o n of marriage If t h i s a s s o c i a t i o n with Saint-Simonian not d i r e c t l y a f f e c t to p u l l the mythological a c t i v i t y was France who would l a t e r r e s p o n s i b l e f o r the r a p i d in c r e d i t and be buyers whose f i n a n c i a l industrialization to as a "utopian industrialization the unique honor of being socialist thought and a d i r e c t ment of high c a p i t a l i s m Cre'dit M o b i l e r , tended built Saint- s o c i a l i s t " , believed (a word he c o i n e d ) , inspiration The to the develop- t a s t e of men railways and founded like the toward not only the kind of p a i n t i n g Gleyre and Gerome p r a c t i s e d , but a l s o to- wards the kinds of p a i n t i n g in the past that i n s p i r e d painters. According these to A l b e r t Boime: "Among the various schools represented in the ..col 1 e c t i o n s of around mid-century, two seventeenth of both a formative f i g u r e of in France. the P e r e i r e brothers who that Delaroche, bethat during the Second Empire were Saint-Simonians. strongly has does imagination Many of the entrepreneurs Simon, u s u a l l y r e f e r r e d and circles o f f a high a r t h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g , i t introduced them to groups of men of t h e i r p a i n t i n g s . 1848. Gleyre's or Gerome's p a i n t i n g s t y l e yond, perhaps, i n h i b i t i n g i s necessary in entrepreneurs stand out s i g n i f i c a n t l y century Dutch and eighteenth century from the rest; French 27 painting." Although a revival we have to wait u n t i l of something of the s p i r i t the i m p r e s s i o n i s t s to see of eighteenth century 23 French p a i n t i n g , neo- grec p a i n t i n g , 1 i ke rococco ! c e l e b r a t e d l e i s u r e , elegance and refinement. p a i n t i n g s would appeal reasons. to t h i s r i s i n g An important: f a c t o r painting, These kinds of bourgeois f o r several i s simply that t h i s kind of p a i n t i n g was c o n s t a n t l y appearing on the market as o l d aristocratic collections split up. These s t y l e s reminded the new bourgeois of an o l d splendour which they wished to r e c r e a t e f o r themselves. And as I have noted, the Dutch r e a l i s m c e l e b r a t e d o b j e c t s and was thus suited of men devoted to the a c q u i s i t i o n of wealth. This c l a s s of men, e n t r e p r e n e u r i a l d u s t r i a l i s t s , were i n t e r e s t e d a p o r t r a i t of h i s f r i e n d organized the Delaroche Arts in 1 8 5 7 . to the t a s t e s Saint-Simonian i n - in the a r t s . Delaroche painted Emile Pe'reire and i t was Pe>eire who r e t r o s p e c t i v e at the Ecole des Beaux- 28 Ne'o-grecisme, when i t a r r i v e d on the scene, had a readymade and immediate audience in these s o r t s of men. The climate i n the a r t s at the Salon of 1847 was one of boredom and impatience. painting Salon v i s i t o r s seen a good f o r several years and e a g e r l y awaited long promised history Couture's Romans of the Decadence, which was the l a s t major h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g andre hadn't to e x c i t e the p u b l i c . And when Alex- Dumas saw The Cock Fight he exclaiimed: "One breathes 29 free 1y again before such works as t h i s . " Planche Both Gautier and used words 1ike , " f r a i c h e " , "calme", to d e s c r i b e Gerome's f i r s t painting. Indeed, "simplicite", Gerome himself 24 prided his work on those points: At t h i s epoch--I speak from a general point of v i e w — t h e r e was a complete absense of simpl c i t y E f f e c t (1e ch i c) was i n great favour when accompanied by s k i l l , which was not i n f r e q u e n t . And my p i c t u r e had the s l i g h t merit of being painted by an honest young f e l l o w , who, knowing nothing had found nothing b e t t e r to do than lay hold on Nature, and f o l l o w her, step by step, without strength perhaps, without grandeur, and c e r t a i n l y with timi d i t y , but with s i n c e r i t y . 3 0 : Le c h i c i s d i f f i c u l t and to d e f i n e , but given what The Fight looks like, given that Gautier and Delaroche's p a i n t i n g s , J_e_ c h i c probably Planche both meant an amount of melodrama on an a l t o g e t h e r too s l i c k might note that Ponsard's Lucrece was greeted "simple". later write: l e n t en And "On surface. with the same a salue' dans l ' a r t the Salon eager f o r novel situation de M. Ge'rome, 1'equivaPonsard- styles. i t s e l f which created a climate It was an annual the p u b l i c demanded the novel public spectacle but not the Ge'rome's neo-grecisme was an ingenious if move that Courbet was i t was "calm" 3 1 It was and One Gerome's f r i e n d , F r e d e r i c Masson, would peinture de l a re'action l i t t e r a i r e , Augier." hated excessive words of p r a i s e as Ge'rome's neo-grec p a i n t i n g , " f r e s h " , and Cock not the r a d i c a l radical. move in t h i s situation s h o r t l y to ma ke. Thus f a r I have discussed in f a i r l y place of neo-grec p a i n t i n g in t r a d i t i o n kind of audience that r e c e i v e d i t . it f o r i t s own sake and Gerome presented decipher general and But one terms the sketched the must a l s o examine the meanings of the in the neo-grec works. out images 25 The Cock Fight It in i s f a r from c l e a r that Ge'rome a c t u a l l y mind when he painted The Cock Fight Rather, one might j u s t as e a s i l y (see above quote, p.14). suppose that i t was the success of t h i s p a r t i c u l a r p a i n t i n g which more of the same. had a programe led him to produce There was also the encouragement of G a u t i e r , whom Ge>6me met while the l a t e r was gazing, rapt with admirat i o n , at h i s f i r s t painting. That The Cock Fight was an attempt to merge two or more manners of p a i n t i n g i s a l l the more evident by i t s f a i l u r e to achieve a blend between them. to s t r i k e a note between inspired divided Gerome apparently wished Ingreist classicism r e a l i s m of Delaroche. and the Dutch The p a i n t i n g emphasizes concern rather than hides i t . Champfleury this noticed t h i s and chided h i s f r i e n d , G a u t i e r , f o r o v e r l o o k i n g what he considered to be a s e r i o u s flaw in the p a i n t i n g : ...vous, G a u t i e r , vous admirez beaucoup l e s coqs, mais i l s ne sont vus par l e mdme o e i l , qui a vu l e s enfants....Les jeunes Grecs sont en marbre, l e s coqs s./oimt en c h a i r e t en os? l e s personnages sont peints -d'apres l e proce'de' Gleyre, les animaux d'apres nature.32 However, the personnages do not quite i n h a b i t the same world, despite what Champfleury slight but s i g n i f i c a n t interest. might t h i n k , and t h i s i s of The boy has an almost palpable sensuousness, and although he i s perhaps a l i t t l e too beautiful f o r t h i s world, he i s not d i s t u r b i n g l y apres nature than the cocks. The g i r l , less on the other hand, 26 with her h a i r set in glue and her limbs of white pears stone, ap- to have f a l l e n , somewhat the worse f o r wear, from the a n g e l i c world of Ingres. Poised next to the b i r d s , which could have popped out of a seventeenth i n g , she exhausts our c r e d i b i l i t y . century Dutch p a i n t - In many ways, t h i s p a i n t - ing sets the tone f o r Gerome's e n t i r e output. The vast majority of his white women are o v e r - i d e a l i z e d compared to t h e i r environments, whereas men and women of other races are more n a t u r a l i s t i c . And his d e p i c t i o n s of animals haps the most n a t u r a l i s t i c some way, t h i s are per- passages in h i s p a i n t i n g s . In h e i r a r c h y of r e a l i s t i c treatment according to sex, race and species i s a r e s u l t of his attempt realistic classical genre p a i n t i n g . The female to make nude was more r i g o r o u s l y guarded by the canons of high a r t than were men or animals. occupies Ingres paints her as La Source and she the highest place on the a l t a r of the worshipper of Beauty. She i s the very mediatrix between the Ideal and the r e a l , she i s the angel who informs high a r t . body, l a 1i gne direct Upon her draws the curves and proportions that also the course of the s t a r s . In The Cock F i g h t , Gerfime an anecdotal has placed h i s ideal r a t h e r than a d i v i n e circumstance, a c o n c e i t rather than a theme with c o n c e i t has something to do with Behi ndi tJhe.'f i gures nude in i n v o l v e d in some grandeur. This " l a vanite' de toute gloirre." stands what i s e i t h e r a tomb or a d r i e d up fountain which f u n c t i o n s as a symbol of death or s t e r i l i t y . 27 This the i s meant to c o n t r a s t with the bloom of the youths lively b a t t l e of the b i r d s . constrained, although i t might t i r e one template the t r a n s i e n t and and love. In other words, one Again, the than e p i c and to do theme i s l y r i c i s real and sentimental c h i l l i n e s s beneath the f o r us to detect t h i s , but like a l l possible s t o r i e s and brought under d i s c u s s i o n . early so, to con- ephemeral nature of youth, beauty l y r i c i s m of t h i s Mediterranean afternoon. in 1847 f a r from being One It may preference calm be i m p l i c a t i o n s of an hard receives atypical: image were a s l i g h t j o l t when The "The Cock F i g h t , but subject was in his h i s t o r y c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of Ge'rSme, who a decided rather p a i n t i n g s were read much Sarah T y t i e r ' s commentary on view was is heroic. However, there reading and her this has shown f o r i n c i d e n t s in themselves h o r r i b l e or 33 morally repulsive" have been very But one obviously finely can indeed. g e t t i n g at. from seventeenth and of l o w - l i f e , i s f a i r l y dreamy p r e s e n t a t i o n , high honed T y t i e r ' s sense of d e l i c a c y must see what she was a steal depictions Mrs. The eighteenth 34 bloody. And which in e f f e c t t h r u s t s doing, they are peasants who icons of ideal century A Gerome's l o w - l i f e into a r t , tends to accentuate the moral horror. these youths are not subject, After a l l , don't know what they beauty and are ought to be more responsible. The d i a l e c t i c of d e s i r e that The becomes an unintentional Cock Fight hommage to sadism. portrays Although the 28 girl seems to draw back from the cock f i g h t - - t h a t i s i f her gesture can be read as anything other than a t r i b u t e to Ingres' Comtesse d'Haussonvi11e--her face e x h i b i t s neither alarm nor squeamishness, none of that "feminine" h y s t e r i a one might have expected from such a s u b j e c t . c o o l , calm and d e 1 i b e r a t e - - i n she smiles i t i s a coy the boy's face we full possession of h e r s e l f . grimace of sexual w i s t f u l n e s s . f i n d open d e l i g h t and wonder. which animates h i s face i s s c i e n t i f i c combines the sexual birds. girl coyness with a life In f a c t , the i n t e r a c t i o n i s mediated by the cock f i g h t . the young man's expression the birds--that The and On ani- The Cock Fight death s t r u g g l e of between the boy and the Imagine is directed f o r a moment at the g i r l i t i s his bold ardour she t e a s i n g l y away from and not the b i r d s . If passion (a passion which mates Ponsard's characters on the s t a g e ) . r Rather she i s The actual and not backs cock f i g h t , so p l a c e d , becomes a commentary on the nature of d e s i r e . Indeed, most of Ge'rome's neo-grec p a i n t i n g s have something to do with d e s i r e , although they are s u r p r i s i n g l y in other meaningful ways as w e l l . Gerome's Other Neo-grec The Female Paintings: Nude as an Icon of High Art Throughout of rich h i s neo-grec works Gerome developes the theme d e s i r e , and in c e r t a i n p a i n t i n g s he uses t h i s theme to make a point about the nature of h i s a r t . 29 Among the more s u c c e s s f u l of these p a i n t i n g s Phryne Before the Areopagus of 1861 difficulties overcome. The ( f i g . 4). The stylistic which marred The Cock Fi ght had by now But the tension magistrates are t r e a t e d more r e a l i s t i c a l l y , the di scomfor t.that t h i s might nude. outright he steers caricature. propriate have caused Of course, t h i s treatment to the story of the p a i n t i n g , and grimaces. i s most ap- in turn the nar- the p a i n t i n g used to unfold i t . Gerome has depicted the Greek courtesan, Phryne, at that moment in her t r i a l capital f o r impiety--which was then a charge — when her advocate, Hyperides, r i p s o f f her peplos in a l a s t - d i t c h And, by the p a i n t i n g p e r i l o u s l y close to r a t i v e of the p a i n t i n g i s a commentary about styles The but Gerome has the use of broad exaggeration in t h e i r gestures and In doing t h i s been between two worlds of a r t remains. f i g u r e of Phryne i s an i d e a l i z e d , c l a s s i c a l mitigated i s his so Athenaeus t e l l s spectacle attempt to secure her an a c q u i t t a l . us, the judges were so moved by the of her p h y s i c a l beauty they could impute no pos- 35 sible crime to her. The s t o r y ' s has a power and c l e a r moral p u r i t y and gods i t i s t h e i r g i f t and message i s that p h y s i c a l that rather sign. than o f f e n d i n g beauty the But in his n a t u r a l i s t i c treatment of t h i s moment Ge'rome has chosen of l u s t and not expressions which might the astonishment i n d i c a t e that magistrates are w i t n e s s i n g some theophanic occasion. these For 30 this reason many contemporary c r i t i c s disturbing. isticly: As an E n g l i s h critic found the work a l i t t l e wrote, not a l i t t l e chauvin- "Only a Frenchman would venture to depict the 36 carnal d e s i r e which kindles the faces of the o l d judges." Theodore Thore, and t h i s defended to i s odd coming from the man who Courbet, wrote in a s i m i l a r v i e n : the young! l a d i e s of P a r i s a d o l l "M. G'erome o f f e r s undressed before dis- o r d e r l y , l i c e n t i o u s o l d s a t y r s , who smirk as though they had 37 a real woman before t h e i r eyes Like two s i m i l a r neo-grec 1859 f o r the f i r s t time." works, King Candaules of ( f i g . 5 ) and Cleopatra of 1864 ( f i g . 6 ) , Phryne Before the Areopagus d e p i c t s a moment of dramatic devoi1ement. Again, t h i s p r e s e n t a t i o n of the female nude was considered by some to be too much; Ferdinand de L a s t e y r i e wrote of Cleopatra: "Soon modest women w i l l 38 ome's p i c t u r e s . " In t h i s c r i t i c a l Gerome's courage, In version not stop before M. Geratmosphere one admires but Manet's simply takes one's breath away. these three p a i n t i n g s , a woman, drawn in Gerome's of the Ingrei s t e . 1 i g n e , i s placed by a sudden gesture into a c o n d i t i o n of nakedness. In each case the drama of the p a i n t i n g centres on t h i s .unveiling. One might suppose that Gerome has d e l i b e r a t e l y picked these anecdotes to d i s p l a y Academic bravado. For he must convince us t h a t , indeed, these beauties are s p l e n d i d enough to cause the commotions t h a t they do. This f a c t o r might have been uppermost in Ge'rome's mind, but the h i s t o r i a n must see Figure 4 Figure 6 33 that by p i c k i n g such s t o r i e s Ge'rome has t e n t i o n a l l y or not, Ingres had in a discourse about the Academic nude. made the female nude, the l o c a t i o n par of a demonstration of s k i l l e d awaken sexual f e e l i n g s , but 1i g n e ought to transform with involved h i m s e l f , i n - a b s t r a c t Beauty. draughtmanship. The nude might in an Academic r e n d i t i o n the these The excellence f e e l i n g s into a r e l a t i o n s h i p c e n t r a l place of the nude in the Academic view of a r t i s demonstrated by the naming of nude s t u d i e s as acade'mi es. know) never painted examples we Unlike a solitary Ge>6me (as f a r as I nude f i g u r e . are d i s c u s s i n g the context great deal of our spectators in the p a i n t i n g . Gerome means these mirror Ingres, i s dramatic attention., as viewers, painted And In the three and a i s forced upon the i t i s very l i k e l y s p e c t a t o r s to be images of the viewer of the p a i n t i n g . that unconfortable His gawking r areopagi'sts do The to the of Daumier's l e e r i n g Salon s i t u a t i o n s that the p a i n t i n g s portray are of h u m i l i a t i o n becomes in c o n d i t i o n s which tend the Salon nature first visitors. analogous s i t u a t i o n of high a r t e x h i b i t e d in the Salon. gesture art remind one and was to erode i t s a u t h o r i t y . s c a l e of a p u b l i c s p e c t a c l e . time in modern h i s t o r y one seen by a few And i t assumed nothing Before Since the f o r perhaps f i n d s masses of people that had or the apparatus of the s t a t e . usually a metaphor f o r the work of 39 opened to the p u b l i c in 1793, ing at images in a context Phryne's to do with the look- religion t h i s , a r t objects were i n d i v i d u a l s at a time who, speaking 34 figuratively, contemplated in a mode of perception the object and engaged themselves very much l i k e a r i t u a l . Public a r t , in churches or p u b l i c ' b u i l d i n g s , whatever e l s e one about i t , was at the s e r v i c e of an a u t h o r i t y and from s e c u l a r s c r u t i n y or use by the may say protected h e i r a t i c distance of that authority. The salon was the beginning of the erosion i t y of the work of a r t as a unique object century. How could elevation of mind that a p a i n t i n g l i k e Homer requests any of him The of A p e l l e s can muster, and a secular 1 not dignified Apotheosis of 1 before l a r g e l y because there their Aphrodite of Knidos Aphrodite R i s i n g from the Waves. A l l they i s a group of them in i s the astonishment of l u s t . A large in the Salon i s the i n - of what happens when a work i s widely reproduced photography or l i t h o g r a p h y , both cases the "I-thou" but Salon. a s i n g l e judge manages number of people looking at p a i n t i n g s verse nineteenth required response, although d i s p l a y e d context, author- in the c i r c u s - l i k e hub-hub of the eyes in the a c t u a l model f o r Praxi te.l es and in the viewer achieve the In Phryne Before the Areopagists the appropriate of the by the e f f e c t i s s i m i l a r . In r e l a t i o n s h i p between the o b j e c t the viewer i s s e v e r e l y disrupted art i s shaken by circumstances which are f u n c t i o n as s o r t of a r i t u a l and object the a u t h o r i t y of and high i n i m i c a l to i t s in a s e c u l a r , even i f extremely profane, c u l t of the b e a u t i f u l . Phyrne Before the Areopagists depicts this situation 35 metaphorically. a p u b l i c who supported GerSme places the react i n a p p r o p r i a t e l y . by the evidence Slave Market ( f i g . 7 ) . This i n t e r p r e t a t i o n i s of a much l a t e r p a i n t i n g , Roman This p a i n t i n g , one s i m i l a r works, i s s i g n i f i c a n t has icon of high a r t before because of the pose GerSme used f o r his s l a v e , i t i s Phryne seen from the r e a r . Here the gesture i s c l e a r l y meant to be read as one rassment and humiliation. the occasion of the work was the question. is found has Again, of acute C e r t a i n l y a prime motivation embarfor to d i s p l a y Gerome's f a c i l i t y drawing the nude f i g u r e , or academie. she of a number of But at t h i s merely begs the female nude, the icon of high a r t , in d i s c o n c e r t i n g circumstances. In t h i s p a i n t i n g become a commodity with a h i g h l y charged f e t i s h in which the r e l a t i o n s h i p between the owner, or buyer value, and the a r t o b j e c t i s t r a n s p a r e n t l y sexual. One would not expect in the terms in which l a m as c u l t u r a l Gerome to think of these d i s c u s s i n g them. documents because I expect on Academic a r t in the nineteenth was century erosion of the,-authority o:f'the high a r t image. not the only f a c t o r the advent of mechanical Gerome' s- r e l a t i o n s h i p with 40 major e f f e c t on the way he painted. an efin the Much more reproductions t h i s new them launched to have had that a r t . of a r t . Salon reading the attack f e c t on d r a s t i c was The I am paintings of works phenomena had a Figure 7 37 Goupil e t Compagnie Mass:, reproductions July Monarchy. One-of the e a r l i e s t this commodity was 1827. There was tions. of p a i n t i n g s began j u s t before Goupil For example, in the c o n t r a c t with Goupil f r a n c s in r o y a l t i e s In 1871 which was l u c r a t i v e market f o r 1840s founded in reproduc- Charles Landelle signed a f o r the f i r s t reproduce his work. companies that d e a l t in et Compagnie a large and the o f f e r on the r i g h t s to alone, Landelle r e c e i v e d 39,000 from the Goupil f i r m , t h i s was consider- 41 ably more than a Landelle o r i g i n a l r e l a t i o n s h i p with would f e t c h . the company but Rue de C l i c h y . business Goupils lived next door to the Geromes on p r a c t i c e s were a l i t t l e for royalties works by those questionable--but of the Second Empire. 1870s the h e i r s of Vernet, sued Goupil In 1862 only the seemed to have been a mercenary l o t whose haps, by the standards in the by G o u p i l , . Marie Goupi1--Marie's brother, A l f r e d , not ran The Gerome's the company i s well known, almost a l l of Ger8me's major p a i n t i n g s were reproduced he married A not, per- For example, S c h e f f e r and Delaroche from, the s a l e of reproductions of a r t i s t s which were in p u b l i c c o l l e c t i o n s . A l b e r t Boime has unearthed a l e t t e r which r e v e a l s the some- what s o r d i d side of t h i s episode. Goupil seems to have engaged in b r i b e r y to do so. the superintendent won the s u i t , The letter, but from of the Beaux-Arts to the f i r m , requests 42 that the company pay the government's expenses in the case. 38 The theory being that win. i f one pays f o r a t r i a l The naked commercial when i t involved aspect of a l l t h i s . e s p e c i a l l y , h i s own family a g a i n s t h i s beloved must have d i s t u r b e d volved Ge'rome. in the mechanical It brought Delaroche, home what was i n - reproduction of works of a r t . The reproductions were commodities, The one ought to. pure and simple. unique work of a r t , although bought and s o l d , always could count on being somewhat a l o o f from the f a t e of the commodity. E v e n t u a l l y the work of a r t would p a r t i c i p a t e tradition of ownership place of mass produced by an o l d master, which l i f t e d items. say Leonardo the i t out of the market- And in the case of a p a i n t i n g or Raphael, these o b j e c t s were hors de commerce, and even in the nineteenth century i t was impossible to imagine a f f i x i n g reproduction divested a p r i c e to such r a r i t i e s . The the work of a r t of t h i s t r a d i t i o n and i t s aura of being a unique o b j e c t in the world. tion i s not unique The reproduc- i n time or p l a c e , the viewer or user does not meet i t on i t s own t e r r i t o r y , rather the work of a r t enters the viewer's time and.place, where i t can c l e a r l y have no r i t u a l authority--no "rareness". This s i t u a t i o n , along with changing factors in t a s t e , which were d i s c u s s e d above, changed the way a p a i n t i n g As Walter Benjamin observed: looked. "To an even g r e a t e r degree the work of a r t becomes the work of a r t designed f o r reproduc43 ibility." less The unique work takes on the f u n c t i o n more or l i k e a mold in a f a c t o r y , o r , more t e l l i n g l y , l i k e the 39 negative of a photograph. rn i 1 ieu and ne'o-grec This f a c t o r styles. lies behind the j us t e - They were o s t e n s i b l y compromises in the b a t t l e between c l a s s i c and willing romantic and between i d e a l i s m and r e a l i s m , . b u t they were a c t u a l l y forced into being what they were. Delaroche was painting The real ism.of .Vernet and p r e d i c a t e d p a r t l y by a d e s i r e using a h i g h l y f i n i s h e d an abandonment of t r a d i t i o n a l presentation. to temper s u r f a c e , and was romantic thus also high a r t subject-matter and I t i s no a c c i d e n t that the high a r t format seems untenable at that moment when the a u t h o r i t y of the unique work of a r t becomes questionable in terms of the reception of images. Nor i s i t a c o i n c i d e n c e that a public realistic handling of romantic subject-matter comes at the same time as mechanical reproduction. production process demanded that the image be c l e a r and ible. to At t h i s reproduce One can e a s i l y see that the r e - stage in i t s h i s t o r y t h i s process was the e f f e c t of c o l o u r or brushwork and thus redundant f o r the purposes Ge'rSme was then caught leg- unable they were of r e p r o d u c i b i l i t y . in a double arch defender of Academic a r t and bind. He was his p a i n t i n g style the was meant to curb the d e c l i n e of high a r t by r e i n v i g o r a t i n g i t . He could hardly be expected and Goupil and to have known that the Salon Company were the f o r c e s behind t h i s and not r e a l i s m and impressionism, two decline s t y l e s which, f o r a time, d i d rescue the a u t h o r i t y of the unique object. 40 The Ne'o-Grec "Fashion" and the "inte'rieur" The School that Gerome founded in 1847 ( i f we do not give Gleyre and Ponsard previous c r e d i t ) was fairly small group of p a i n t e r s . and thus f a r the whereabouts limited to a Their works i s rare today, of the most famous ne"o-grec work by a p a i n t e r other than Ge'rome, Hamon's Ma soeur n'yest pas i c i ( f i g . 8 ) remains unknown. The'ophile Gautier wrote "ne'o-grec" poems and his version of the King Candaules story probably i n s p i r e d ject. the Gerome p a i n t i n g of the same sub- The high point of the fashion was architecture. Prince Jerome Napoleon " peian house in 1856. 1 i t s appearance in began work on a Pom.^ Gerome and Cabanel were commissioned do some wall panels, and the former's Inten'eun' grec hung in the completed pompeian (fig.9) house as not only an image of the i n t e V i e u r but as an image of l i f e terieur. A painting to w i t h i n the i n - by Ge'rome's f r i e n d , Gustave Boulanger, d e p i c t s the atrium of the Prince's mansion during a r e h e r s a l of Emile Augier's bon (fig.10). sens or ne'o-grec p l a y , The Lute Player Among those represented are G a u t i e r , Augier him- s e l f and the P r i n c e ' s m i s t r e s s , the a c t r e s s Rachel the s u b j e c t of one of Gerome's few p o r t r a i t s (who in which was she appears dressed h 1 a ne'o-grec) . The neo-grec f a s h i o n - - i f stage of a fashion--seems i t ever r e a l l y reached the to have died out s h o r t l y thereafter and the bored Prince sold his house in 1865, a f t e r a scant seven years of somewhat scandalous use. Figure 9 42 The Pompeian house must r e a l l y be seen in the of several other concurrent his house others built f o r extravagant fashions. While the Prince similar, period f a n t a s i e s . i n t e r ieurs: should The built vogue be a seen as a s o c i a l phenomena which the neo-grec sty!e was nineteenth century on context a part of. parvenu boougeois l a v i s h e d t h e i r the c r e a t i o n of i n t e r i e u r s , s t u f f e d with In the wealth e x o t i c a and art, and ofteni,: as in case of. Prince Jerome, the e n t i r e decor was a fantasy world. Walter Benjamin has c t i o n of the these astute remarks about the inte'rieur in the nineteenth fun- century: With the J u l y Revolution the bourgeois had r e a l i z e d the aims of 1789 (Marx).... For the p r i v a t e c i t i z e n , f o r the f i r s t time the l i v i n g s p a c e became d i s t i n g u i s h e d from the place of work. The former c o n s t i t u t e d i t s e l f as the i n t e r i o r . The o f f i c e was i t s complement. The p r i v a t e c i t i z e n who in the o f f i c e took . r e a l i t y i n t o account, r e q u i r e d of the i n t e r i o r that i t should support him in his i l l u s i o n s . . . . From t h i s sprang the phantasmagorias of the Interior. This represented the universe f o r the private c i t i z e n . In i t he assembled the d i s t a n t in space and in time.... The i n t e r i o r was the place of refuge of a r t . The c o l l e c t o r was the true i n h a b i t a n t of the i n t e r i o r . He made the g l o r i f i c a t i o n of. things his concern. To him f e l l the task of Sisyphus which c o n s i s t e d of s t r i p p i n g things of t h e i r commodity character by means of his possession of them. But he conferred upon them only a f a n c i e r ' s value, rather than a use value. The c o l l e c t o r dreamed that he was in a world which, was not only f a r o f f in distance and time, but which was a l s o a b e t t e r one, in which to be sure people were j u s t as poorly provided with what they needed as in the world of everyday, but in which things were f r e e of the bondage of be i ng u s e f u l . Several of Gerome's neo-grec p a i n t i n g s c e l e b r a t e the e x o t i c 43 inte'rieur, notably the Inte'rieur grec, King Canduales, and Socrates Seeking A l c i b i a d e s at the House of Aspasia ( f i g . 11 ) which i s s o r t of a hommage to the eternal p a i n t i n g s d e p i c t domestic never-never scenes and domestic events land of the l e i s u r e d as Ponsard's salon. Neo-grec plays emphasized c l a s s of a n c i e n t times the importance by "1'abondance et 1 'importance in the of the just inteVieur des scenes domestiques, l a Ac maison, l e f o y e r , l a fami l i e . . . " The opulent homes and a r t c o l l e c t i o n s of A l b e r t G o u p i l , the P e r e i r e b r o t h e r s , P o r t a l e s and others r e f l e c t cultural event as d i d the P r i n c e ' s neo-grec G i r a d i n ' s Roman p a l a c e , the Marquis this house, Emile de de Quisonas' Gothic ^ c a s t l e , Jules de Lesseps.' T u n i s i a n chateau, and Mme. 46 Paiva's Renaissance hotel. to t h i s world of e c l e c t i c co 11 e c t i n g .and f a n t a s y . The immitate The homes of a r t i s t s new amount of b r i c - a - b r a c from that Zola had stuffed and w r i t e r s tended the four corners of the globe into h i s house at Medan shocked the a s c e t i c Ce'zanne, who immediately i d e n t i f i e d Zola's crammed / . 47 i n t e r i e u r with parvenusim and bourgeois P h i l i s t i n i s m . The contents of A l b e r t Goupil's house merited two lengthy 48 • a r t i c l e s in Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Gerome's house was similarly rich Ge'rome in 1 884 in c o l l e c t e d objects. M.H. Speilmann and has d e s c r i b e d the p a i n t e r ' s C l i c h y visited studio: The antechamber forming the h a l l was f i l l e d a la C h i n o i s e and f i l l e d with bronzes, ornaments, china, b r i c - a - b r a c of every kind, with b r i l l i a n t s t u f f s and shaggy frowning masks--and every o b j e c t 44 Figure 10 Fi gure 11 45 p e r f e c t of i t s . c l a s s .... carpets , h a n d r a i l s , s t a i n e d - g l a s s windows, musical instruments, bronze pagodas and dragons, and s u i t s of armour, bewildered the v i s i t o r with t h e i r v a r i e t y and p r o f u s i o n . Amid t h i s i s the man who w i l l be best remembered f o r his modern antique sculpture!9 Gerdme's p a i n t i n g s emerge from t h i s place and are a product of i t as much as anything e l s e . As Benjamin observed, the i n t e r i e u r was an extension of the i n t e r i o r of i t s owner or i n h a b i t a n t . Arsene Houssaye, who bought the Pompeian house with J u l e s de Lesseps, has given us a poem which c e l e brates the deep s p i r i t u a l rapport that could take place be- tween the owner of a house and i t s decor, the o b j e c t s which constituted the l i f e of the i n t e V i e u r . to a sphinx which was facing The poem i s addressed in the atrium (probably behind the pond in the Boulanger the plant painting): Rabbin, prophete, o r a c l e , brahme, Les s i b y l i e s de l a f o r e t , L'eau qui chante, le vent qui brame, Ne m'ont jamais d i t le s e c r e t . --0 sphinx, daigne m'ouvrir ton l i v r e A 1 a page de 1 a Ra i son : --C'esJ dans sa MAISON q u ' i l faut v i v r e , La FENETRE sur 1 h o r i z o n , 1 La MAISON, c'est mon corps. La j o i e Y f l e u r i t comme un pampre v e r t . La FENETRE ou l e j o u r flamboie* C'est mon ame--le c i e l ouvert.^ This poem's e c l e c t i c concern stance to employ d i f f e r e n t is similar styles to the neo-grec to a s i n g l e end. 46 King Candaules and The Decline Gautier of had ( f i g . 1 2 ) : of 1840 Antiochus and Neo-Classicism thought that had of Le to hear the young Gerome and see why Gerome and Straton i ce. of the ing ed but replaces one art. the calculated Stratonice The of but realistic by quotation paint- The absorbed in is f i r m l y ground- anxiety calm and is substituted Ingres has amid passion with p r i d e , a n x i e t y , of are Ingres p a i n t i n g of the n a r r a t i v e are of the king rather f o r the haunting and vastly different d e a l t with i n - that approaches madness. actions not of self- self-interest. must admit that the of S t r a t o n i c e transformation One Stratonice. self-sacrifice However, one The art. i s a neo-grec In Gerbme's p a i n t i n g , the presence of Nyssia Gerome deals classicism in a p o s i t i o n f i g u r e s who although both stem from d e s i r e . sacrifice he was neo-grec would have been impressed must remove the implications c e s t , and f o r the his f r i e n d s d i s c u s s d e l i r i u m of Antiochus. self-absortion The Chalet Stratonice i t i s an overwrought c e l e b r a t i o n of an i n - dramatic moment. in high inspiration Gerome's King Candaules i s c l e a r l y a i n s o f a r as a high Gleyre Ingres masterpiece. terieur, Ingres' Antiochus and been a key movement, as a frequenter can Stratonice: of the detail used his a c c e s s o r i e s authoritative shows evidence of the classical i d e a l s of the decline or French Academy. i s almost overwhelming, yet to some p s y c h o l o g i c a l neo- Ingres purpose. The has red 48 columns accent the passionate mood of the p a i n t i n g . "nervous,, quivering f l u i d i t y " serves as an of of the drapery image of the d e l i c a t e Antiochus, who hovers The patterns f l u t t e r i n g s of the heart somewhere between madness and death 52 for the unrequited love of his step-mother. By c o n t r a s t , Ge'rome's p a i n t i n g , in which worry r a t h e r than p o r t r a y e d , presents a Lydian own passion i s inte'rieur seemingly for i t ' s sake. B u f f e t e d by romanticism, the Salon and the advent of ' mechanical r e p r o d u c t i o n , and and of e p i c u r i a n l e i s u r e , n e o - c l a s s i c i s m seems in re- scenes the bourgeois ' t a s t e f o r r e a l i s m t r o s p e c t to have been destined to turn i n t o ne'o-greci sme. " f r o z e n " e t e r n a l values that Academic p a i n t i n g t r i e d press in i t s shallow bration of the b a s - r e l i e f format gave way to The ex- to a c e l e - i n te'r i e ur , that f a n t a s t i c and magical where o b j e c t s are removed from the "burden of being place useful". 49 Notes - Chapter II Gautier's review appeared in La Presse, 31 March, 1847. I quote from Charles Timbal, "Gerome," in the Gazette des Beaux A r t s , (2e s e r i e s ) , v o l . 14, 1876, p.219. 2 PI anche, in h i s , "salon of 1 84 7," Revue des deux mondes, v o l . 18, A p r i l , 1 867, pp.354-366 , r e f e r s to Ge'rome's "grace" and " f r a c h e u r " . p.363. 3 Couture s Decadence of the Romans won the f i r s t - c l a s s medal. The t h i r d - c l a s s medal was considered.a great honor, i f not a s i n g u l a r one, I don't have exact f i g u r e s f o r the Salon of 1847 but s e v e r a l medals of each c l a s s were awarded; each year, the average between the years of 1815,and 1848 being 33, 11 in each c l a s s . But c o n s i d e r i n g tUiat upward s of 4000 p a i n t i n g s were submitted to the 1 847 Salon' and of these h a l f accepted by the j u r y , to even be noticed, was considered a triumph. (This information from Harrison C. White and Cynthia A. White, Canvases and Careers: I n s t i t u t i o n a l Change in the French P a i n t i n g World, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1 965.1 Table 5, p.48. 4 The extent and power of v a l u i n g e r u d i t i o n as a necessary v i r t u e in the a r t i s t can be demonstrated by p o i n t i n g to instances where i t occurs in the c r i t i c i s m o f - - s u r p r i s i n g 1 y enough--Thore" and B a u d e l a i r e . I give two examples from . c r i t i q u e s of Gerome p i c t u r e s . Thore' on Phryne Before the T r i b u n a l : "GerQme i s p r a i s e d as a learned a r c h a e o l o g i s t of a n t i q u i t y ; there i s nothing antique, nor above a l l , A t t i c , in t h i s wretched composition of Phryne. If the scene, such as the p a i n t e r has t r a n s l a t e d i t , had taken place during the period of the Roman decadence, which has c e r t a i n a n a l o g i e s with our own, i t would perhaps be a c c e p t a b l e . But, in Greece, in the 4th century before our e r a , i t i s a f a l s e i n t e r p r e tation." Thord's main c r i t i c i s m on t h i s score i s Phryne's gesture of p ude ur , which he f i n d s un h i s tor i ca 1 . Thore', not Ge'rome was mistaken in t h i s . (Quoted from Theophile ThoreBu'rger, "Salon de 1861," r e p r i n t e d i n Linda N o c h l i n , ed., Realism and T r a d i t i o n in Art 1848-1900, Englewood C l i f f s , New J e r s e y : P r e n t i c e - H a l 1 , Inc., 1 966 , p.12. Baudelaire on The Death of Caesar: "Caesar cannot be made into a Moor; his skin was very f a i r ; b e s i d e s , i t i s by no means s i l l y to r e c a l l that the d i c t a t o r took as much care of h i s person as the most r e f i n e d dandy. Why then t h i s earthy colour with which his face and arms are v e i l e d ? I have heard 50 i t suggested that i t i s the c o r p s e - l i k e hue with which death s t r i k e s the face. In that case how long a time are we to suppose i t is since the l i v i n g man became a corpse? Those who put forward such an excuse must r e g r e t the absence of putrefaction. ..." i "The Salon of 1 859 ," r e p r i n t e d in The M i r r o r of A r t : C r i t i c a l Studies By Charles B a u d e l a i r e , t r a n s l a t e d and e d i t e d by Jonathan Mayne, New York: Phaidon Publisherslnc.,1955,p.255. 1 5 Yves Bonnefoy, "Le temps et 1 i n tempore! i dans l a p e m t u r e du Quattrocento," Mercure de France, f e v r i e V , 1958. As c i t e d by Michel Thevoz, "Peinture et I d e o l o g i e , " in K u n t s m u s e u m Winterthur, Charles Gleyre ou Tes i l l u s i o n s perdues, 1974-1975, p.79. 1 v C.H. Stranahan, A H i s t o r y of French P a i n t i n g , New York; S c r i b n e r s , 1897, p.313. No source given f o r quote. Also: "They c o n s t i t u t e d a kind o f . a p o s t l e s h i p around Gerome of a r t i s t s of most d e l i c a t e c o n c e i t s , and formed in a r t 'a s o r t of l i t t l e Athens' in which Theophile Gautier fondly made himself at home." I b i d . , p.329. 7 Dr611ing in 1833, Granet in 1830. 8 Three main sources f o r t h i s kind of information are: Charles Blanc, Le t r e s o r de l a c u r i o s i t e ', 2 v o l s . P a r i s : Jules Renouard,1857 - 1858; Gerald R e i t l i n g e r , The Economics of Taste: V o l . 1, The Rise and F a l l of P i c t u r e P r i c e s 1760-1960, London: B a r r i e and R o c k l i f f e , 1961; and White and White, o_p_. c i t. White and White have s y s t e m a t i c a l l y analysed the information in Blanc (which contains records of a l l Paris auctions from 1737 to 1857). C a t e g o r i z i n g the p a i n t i n g s by genre and n a t i o n a l i t y , the Whites have made some i n t e r e s t i n g Tables. According to t h e i r c a l c u l a t i o n 37 percent of the p a i n t i n g s s o l d between 1838-1857 in Paris auctions were genre, as opposed to 30 percent f o r h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g s and 33 percent f o r landscape p a i n t i n g s . Fortytwo percent of these p a i n t i n g s were French, 31 percent Dutch, 14 percent Spanish. In the same period the average p r i c e f o r a Dutch genre p a i n t i n g was 11,954 f r a n c s , as opposed to 3,867 francs f o r a French genre p a i n t i n g or. 6,191 francs f o r a Flemish genre p a i n t i n g . This demonstrates, I think, that not only were genre p a i n t i n g s popular, but Dutch genre p a i n t i n g s p a r t i c u l a r l y so;. .. 9 > ' Arsene Houssaye, H i s t o i r e de l a peinture de 11a flamande et c hoi 1 andai se P a r i s : F. "San to r i urn, 1 846 . 51 ^ A l f r e d Cobban, A H i s t o r y of Modern France: Volume 2: 1 799- 1 871 , Penquin Books: Harmondsworth, Middlesex,Engl and, 1965 , p. 131. ^ N a n c y B e l l (Mrs. A r t h u r ) , Representative P a i n t e r s of the XlXth Century, Sampson, Low Marston and Company, London, 1899, p.69. Ibid. 1 3 From Planche s "Salon of 1831," as c i t e d i n Grand P a l a i s , P a r i s , French P a i n t i n g 1774-1830: The Age of Revolution 1 974-1 975 ,p. 389. 14 Robert 1967, p.11. Rosenblum, Ingres, Harry N. Abrams: New York, 15 Indeed, t h i s kind of p a i n t i n g occurs in the F i r s t Empire as w e l l . Robert Rosenblum d e s c r i b e s something, x a l Led the s ty 1 e troubadour, which were medieval scenes with a high f i n i s h : "Just as other students of David t r i e d to r e c o n s t r u c t with growing accuracy the a r c h a e o l o g i c a l data r e l e v a n t to t h e i r scenes of Greek and Roman h i s t o r y , so too did these l i t t l e masters of the s t y l e troubadour--Richard, Jean-Antoine Laurent, Jean-Baptiste Vermay, P i e r r e - S y l v e s t r e Coupin.de l a Couperie-attempt to i n c l u d e a maximum of p r e c i s e information about costume, f u r n i t u r e and decor f o r the p e r i o d they i l l u s t r a t e d . " From, " P a i n t i n g Under Napoleon, 1800-1814," in French P a i n t i n g 1774-1830: The Age of R e v o l u t i o n , p.169. In h i s "preface" to Hering, 1892, op.cit. p.vi. ^ S t r i c t l y speaking, I suppose, 13 'e'col e de bon sens, r e f e r s to a kind of w r i t i n g f o r the stage, but the stage and the world of p a i n t i n g were r e l a t e d - - b o t h d e a l t with s t o r y , gesture and tableaux, and often a movement in one are' would a f f e c t the other. The p l a y w r i g h t , Casimir Delavigne •wrote a play Les Enfants d'Edouard, 1883 i n s p i r e d by and dedicated to Delaroche. 1g "On my r e t u r n from I t a l y , I entered the a t e l i e r of M. G l e y r e , who had succeeded M. Delaroche. Three months of s t u d y nude f i g u r e s . " Quoted in Fanny F i e l d Hering, "Gerome," in The Century Magazine, v o l . 38, February, 1889, p.488. This i s his only r e f e r e n c e to Gleyre. (Note that although Gleyre had taken over Delaroche's s t u d i o when the l a t e r went to I t a l y 52 in 1843, Delaroche had turned over many of his students to Drolling.) This i s s p e c u l a t i o n , but perhaps Gerome blamed Gleyre f o r t h i s f a i l u r e to win the Prix-de-Rome. 1g Delaroche did not have an a t e l i e r , at t h i s time, but took his f a v o r i t e pupil on as an a p p r e c n t i c e , Ger3me claims that he worked almost a year on the former's Charlemagne c r o s s i n g the A l p s . Hering, 1 889 , o_p_. ci t. , p.363: "M. Gerome a dignement prof i te' .des lecons de M. Gleyre." Of course, Champfleury and Planche would have expected to see the lessons of Gleyre in Ger6me's work as he had entered his f i r s t Salon as a student of Gleyre. 21 By A l b e r t Boime in I n s t r u c t i o n of Charles Gleyre and the E v o l u t i o n of P a i n t i n g in the Nineteenth Century," in Charles Gleyre ou l e s i l l u s i o n s perdues, o p . c i t . p.104: "Under Gl eyre's i n f l u e n c e , Ge'rome and several f e l l o w students, produced many works of antique genre, and they were h a i l e d as a new school , the ' Ne'o-grecs ' ." 22 In "Catalogue des Ouvres de Gleyre," In Charles Gleyre ou les i l l u s i o n s perdues, o p . c i t . p.172: Number 42, Lucr^ce ea m i l i e u de ses femmes painted in 1843 or 1844 and Cleonis et Cydippe, given to Arsene Houssaye in 1845. 23 Referred to by A l b e r t Boime in h i s , "The I n s t r u c t i o n of Charles Gleyre and the E v o l u t i o n of P a i n t i n g in the Nineteenth Century," o p . c i t . p.104. Ponsard's Lucrece was f i r s t performed in 1 843. 24 From the i n t r o d u c t i o n by Daniel Stern to Francois Ponsard, Ouvres Completes, Vol.1, Michel Levy F r e r e s : Parts 1 865 , p.x i i i . 25 ... I b i d , -p.. xxxvi i T Ibid, p.xxviii ""'Boime s t a t e s that Gleyre was a f o l l o w e r of Saint-Simon in a r t i c l e r e f e r r e d to above (a.21): "An ardent r e p u b l i c a n deeply attached to the S a i n t - S i m o n i s t s ( h i s a t e l i e r was eveni r e f e r r e d to as a " R e p u b l i c " ) , Gleyre f a n t a s i z e d about a utojjian s o c i e t y . " (p.102) Stranahan, op_. c i t. , p.313, says: "He [Ge'rome] . . . i n 1848, headed a d e l e g a t i o n to p e t i t i o n f o r the a b o l i t i o n of marriage.", a remark which has lead A l b e r t Boime in h i s , "JeanLeon Gerome, Henri Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy and the Academic 53 Legacy," Art Q u a r t e r l y , V o l . 34, 1971, p.22, n.14 to s t a t e : "Gerome, who seemed to have espoused Saint-Simonian ideas e a r l y in l i f e , . . . . " I would 1ike to b e l i e v e t h i s , since several things point to i t : the. brand, of-e.picurianism that was ne'o-greci sm was Saint-Simonian, many of the c o l l e c t o r s which Ge'rome knew and befriended were a l s o Sain.t-Simonians in varying degrees. However, j u s t because Stranahan says that Gerome headed t h i s anti-marriage d e l e g a t i o n , which would c e r t a i n l y i n d i c a t e r a d i c a l b e l i e f s , doesn't make i t so--she i s not a r e l i a b l e source. 28 A l b e r t Boime, " E n t r e p r e n e u r i a l Patronage in Nineteenth Century France," in E n t e r p r i s e and Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century France, e d i t e d by Edward C. Carter II et a l . , John Hopkins U n i v e r s i t y Press: Baltimore, 1 976 , p.140. 29 As cited in Hering, 1892, op.cit. p.19. 30 Gerome, as c i t e d in Hering, 1889, o p . c i t . , p.488. 31 Figaro Frede'ric Masson, "J.-L. Ge'rome: p e i n t r e de l ' o r i e n t , " I l l u s t r e ' ; P a r i s , v o l . 12, no. 136, July,1901, p.8. F r o m Champfleury, Salons: 1846-1 851 , 1894 e d i t i o n , p.105 As c i t e d by Michael C. Spencer,. The Art C r i t i c i s m of The'ophile Gauti e r , Geneva, 1 969 , p.57. 32 33 As c i t e d in Hering, 1 892 , o_p_. ci t. p.16. From T y t l e r ' s Modern P a i n t e r s and Their P a i n t i n g s . Hering f i n d s t h i s an "extraordinary accusation." 34 R e i t l i n g e r notes: "In the 1820's there was already a tendancy f o r m i d d l e - c l a s s gen re pi c t u r e s , s o f t in tone and f r e s h in c o l o u r , to gain ground from the grubby p a i n t i n g s of low company, which had been so popular in the eighteenth century among the c l a s s e s who were not o b l i g e d to meet the o r i g i n a l models" o p . c i t . , p . l 3 9 f . 35 Athenaeus XIII. 590e,f. (Loeb e d i t i o n ) 36 J. Beavington Atkinson, " E x h i b i t i o n s of the Year," Fine Arts Q u a r t e r l y , vol . 1 n. s., October, 1 866, p.364. 37 As c i t e d in Linda Nochlin(ed.) Realism.and T r a d i t i o n in A r t : 1848-1900, Englewood C l i f f s , New Jersey: P r e n t i c e - H a l l , 1 966 , p. 12f. From Thore'' s "Salon of 1861 ," in Le Temps and 54 r e p r i n t e d in Salons de W. BuYger: 1861 a 1 868, Thore", P a r i s , 1 870. 38„ vol Review of the Salon of 1864 3, January, 1865, p.231. p r e f . by T. Fine Arts Q u a r t e r l y , 39 Thore' a s s o c i a t e d Phryne's gesture with pudeur, but i f t h i s i s the case i t i s r e a l l y a r e v e r s a l of pudeur; she cannot bear to look or look at the A r e o p a g i s t s who are l o o k i n g , but she in no way t r i e s to avoid being seen, f o r her hands could certa i n ly been more u s e f u l l y deployed i f that were the case, I have t r i e d to f i n d a source in c l a s s i c a l or renaissance a r t f o r t h i s pose. Strahan (Shinn) claims that the pose i s a Ge'rome o r i g i n a l . At l e a s t we know that i s not so. The pose can be found in a Nadar photograph of the woman upon whom Murget based the c h a r a c t e r of Musette, ( f i g . 1 3 ) . 40 Although I am not f o l l o w i n g him to the l e t t e r , t h i s s e c t i o n of the t h e s i s owes a great deal to Walter Benjamin's important essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," in II1 urn in at ions', e d i t e d with an i n t r o d u c t i o n by Hannah Arendt and t r a n s l a t e d by Harry Zohn, Schocken Books: New York; 1969. 41 This i n f o r m a t i o n from Boime, "Entrepreneurialo p . c i t . , p.199 , n.123. 42 Patronage," I b i d , p.200, n.124. 43 "The Work o f A r t in the Age of Mechanical o p . c i t . , p.224. Reproduction," 44 Walter Benjamin, Era of High Capi t a l i sm, 1973, p . l 6 8 f . 45 Daniel Charles. B a u d e l a i r e : A l y r i c poet i n the t r a n s l a t e d by Harry Zohn, NLB: London, S t e r n , o p . c i t . , p. xi 46 Referred to in R i c h a r d s o n , o p . c i t . , p.225. Richardson quotes Gustave C l a u d i n : " A l l modern French a r c h i t e c t s s p e l l out and vaguely dream of a s t y l e which one be tempted to c a l l the Neo- Greco Go thi co-Pompacbur-Pompei an ." 47 ease ' V o l l a r d quotes Cezanne as f o l l o w s : "I was not at my there any longer [Medan] with the f i n e rugs on the f l o o r , Figure 56 the servants and Emile enthroned behind a carved wooden desk. It gave me the f e e l i n g that I was paying a v i s i t to a m i n i s t e r of s t a t e . He had become (excuse me, M. Vol lard--1 don't say i t in bad part) a d i r t y bourgeois." Ambroise V o l l a r d , Paul Ce'zanne: His L i f e and A r t , ( t r a n s l a t e d by Harold L. Van Doren), Crown P u b l i s h e r s : New York, 1937, p . l 0 3 f . 48 Henri Lavoix, "La C o l l e c t i o n A l b e r t G o u p i l , " in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, (2e p e r i o d e ) , V o l . XXXI, p.322ff. and V o l . XXXII, pp.287-307. 49 Speilmann, o p . c i t . p.202. 50 This poem, from the man who wrote a neo-grec pi ay, Les Danseuses de Pompeia, "presque tout I'act ou 1'on m e t t a i t en scene de tableau de Gleyre," i s _ p r e f a c e d by the f o l l o w i n g remarks: " J ' a i encore chez moi fesphinx de atrium. Ce beau sphinx semble garder le s e c r e t de 1 An t i qu i te'. Souvent je le questionne encore dans son i m p a s s i b l i 1 i t e . " Arsene Houssaye, Confessions, Tome V, P a r i s , 1891, pp;176-177. The poem c l e a r l y owes much to Baudelaire's notion of correspondences, but here mixed with a most un-Baude1 a i r i a n respect fo r " r a i s o n " . 1 51 The s t o r y of King Candaules i s found in Herodotus, Book I, 8-13 and i n G a u t i e r ' s Le Roi Candule which was s e r i a l ized in 1844. The s t o r y i s as f o l l o w s : Candaules, king of L y d i a , f u l l of pride in the beauty of his wife Nyssia, has ordered his r e l u c t a n t f r i e n d , Gyges, to hide in the royal bedchamber in order to see Nyssia d i s r o b e . But Nyssia sees Gyges l e a v i n g the room and r e a l i z e s what has happened; t h i s i s the moment which Gerome has d e p i c t e d . The next day, Nyssia gives Gyges a c h o i c e ; he may k i l l himself or defend her honour by k i l l i n g Candaules. Gyges became the next king of L y d i a . Besides the obvious comparisons that can be made between t h i s p a i n t i n g and Ingres' Straton i ce there i s a s i m i l a r i t y in the s t o r i e s . In Ingres' work, Antiochus l i e s p i n i n g f o r the love of his step-mother, S t r a t o n i c e . Antiochus' f a t h e r , r e a l i z e s the s i t u a t i o n and gives his wife to. his son. Both s t o r i e s have submerged homoerotic themes, in which the woman stands f o r some unresolved love between the-.men. One might a l s o note that Nyssia, l i k e Phryne and Cleopatra considered as an icon of high a r t , i s shown in the n a r r a t i v e as being on d i s p l a y . These n a r r a t i v e s are metaphorical of the s i t u a t i o n of high a r t in the nineteenth century Salon where the e x h i b i t i o n value of a work of a r t replaced the r i t u a l value. 52 Robert Rosenblum, Ingres , op. c i t. p.137. 57 CHAPTER THE III: ETHNOGRAPHIC PAINTINGS P a i n t i n g the o r i e n t had been a part of French a r t f o r some years before Ge'rome began to t r a v e l the mid his fifties on. Napoleon had Egyptian campaign in 1798. there r e g u l a r l y taken a r t i s t s with him Chateaubriand his 1 802. Hugo published his Orien t a l e s Voyage en O r i e n t in 1835. Vernet and who of the nineteenth the paths Delacroix 1 first trip de Mornay. to Tangier party of the new was to f o l l o w interests. undertaken ambassadorto Morocco, it: "The govern- in A l g e r i a , and (both avant-.garde and here again conservative) mapped out by e n t r e p r e n e u r i a l ventures."^ b e l i e v e d that in the despot their Dionysius of Syracuse, country to begin it: half the Second Empire .made great Under the aegis of a group of French who was As A l b e r t Boime puts of the a r t i s t s artists commercial in 1832 to get Frenchmen to i n v e s t the t r a i l Lamartine in the f i r s t The,painters tended ments of the J u l y Monarchy and efforts life that were opened up by French as part of the o f f i c i a l the Comte in 1828, of the French of middle-eastern century.. published Decamps, M a r i l h a r t , G i r o d e t , D e l a c r o i x are j u s t a few painted scenes on had romanticised the east in his Genie du c h r i s t i a n i s m e , which was in from Saint-Simonians, Mohammed A l i thay had Egypt was industrialization. the f i r s t found non-white As E r i c Hobsbawm puts 58 The e x t r a o r d i n a r y sect of Saint-Simonians, e q u a l l y suspended between the advocacy of s o c i a l i s m and of i n d u s t r i a l development by investment bankers and engineers, t e m p o r a r i l y gave him [Mohammed A l i ] t h e i r c o l l e c t i v e a i d and prepared.his plans of economic development. They a l s o l a i d the foundations f o r the Suez canal ( b u i l t by the Saint-Simonian de Lesseps) and the f a t a l dependance of Egyptian r u l e r s on vast loans negotiated by competing groups of European s w i n d l e r s , which turned Egypt into a centre of i m p e r i a l i s t r i v a l r y and a n t i - i m p e r i a l i s t r e b e l l i o n 1ater on. 2 Gerome never shows us t h i s first Egypt, voyage there, with Emile Augier colony of European c a p i t a l i s m . which by the time of his in 1857, Instead had become a he gives us the romance of the o r i e n t , w a r r i o r s , harems, s t r e e t - s c e n e s of p r e - c a p i t a l ist commerce, dancers, Gerome's o r i e n t a l the s t y l e desert nomads, and men scenes cannot be c a l l e d i s h i g h l y f i n i s h e d and one at prayer. Romantic p a i n t i n g s , always senses are g e t t i n g something of a travelogue rather than are meant to s t i r the heart with graphic" p a i n t i n g s . of a n c i e n t l i f e , of the o r i e n t . with an the ethnographic adventure. were so-cal1ed "ethno- works were genre p a i n t i n g s If the neo-grec p a i n t i n g s present the in time, image of the d i s t a n t a r t values or any world images which As the ne'o-grec works were genre p a i n t i n g s image that i s d i s t a n t present an that we vague longings f o r Almost two-thirds of Gerome's output But viewer the ethnographic in space. Despite any ones high claim these p a i n t i n g s have to partake of the Imagination, they, much more than the other in a kinds of p a i n t i n g Gerome produced, have--or • 'ha!d--a commodity status. Although Gerome employ.s of the Academic a r t i s t , the techniques and skills these p a i n t i n g s - - w i t h exceptions-- 59 were not attempts for to make high a r t , rather the art-market. several There are l i t e r a l l y stood out at the time and s t i l l they were p i c t u r e s hundreds of them; do as f i n e p a i n t i n g s . However, Ge'rome seems to have had a mechanical wards them. Looking through them one a t t i t u d e to- sees the same models, the same costumes and o b j e c t s , the same b i t s . o f a r c h i t e c t u r e --as i f Ge'rome had abandoned any notion originality finds he may have had of f o r the l e s s e r demands of i n v e n t i v e n e s s . it difficult to b e l i e v e that many of these One paintings meant anything at a l l to Ger6me, they are so r e p e t i t i v e . Just how many times can one transparently p i c t u r e s and p a i n t i n g a dancing almeh--who i s a Parisian grisette--beforeone not making a r t . Whether they were s u c c e s s f u l historical is, i s manufacturing paintings attempted or not, the ne'o-grec to achieve a t a b l e a u ; a memorable image that would s t i k k not only mind but the mind of the c u l t u r e . make no such a t t e m p t — w i t h morceaux--bits and pieces that in the The ethnographic notable exeeptions--and and viewer's paintings are rather of a world that i s never d i s c l o s e d 3 in its entirety. But d e s p i t e the mechanical way in which Gerome put many of these p i c t u r e s together, or rather because of t h i s a s p e c t , the ethnographic p i c t u r e s are highly, i n t e r e s t ing, e s p e c i a l l y as Ge'rome works out a new paintings through way of making h i s t o r y his p r a c t i c e s as an ethnographic artist. 60 The Content of Gerome's Ethnographic P a i n t i n g I: Physiognomic Types Gerome's f i r s t eastern voyage was undertaken when the a r t i s t was twenty-nine Edmund Got (a s t a r of Arsene year's o l d . With the a c t o r Houssaye's Comedie-Francais) , Gerome headed down the Danube to Moldavia from there to Moscow. in 1853, But the outbreak intending to go of the Crimean war forced Gerome and Got to be detained at Galatz f o r two weeks before they could return to P a r i s . Gerdme sketched came h i s f i r s t Russian Having s o l d i e r s , and from these sketches ethnographic work, Recreation in a Russian Camp ( f i g . 1 4 ) , which no doubt, 120 years' design on Canada's new f i f t y But Gerfime's specifically l i t t l e to do, intention later i n s p i r e d the d o l l a r bank note. in making t h i s journey was not to gather m a t e r i a l f o r an ethnographic that such a p a i n t i n g fortuitous resulted painting-- from the journey was a r e s u l t . o f circumstances. Rather, h i s i n t e n t i o n was to gather ethnographic m a t e r i a l , not f o r i t s own but as research f o r a p r o j e c t of quite a d i f f e r e n t Gerome had r e c e i v e d a handsome commission Francs), to do a large sake, order. (20,000 (7x10 meters) ma chine from a passage 4 of Bousset. This was to be a large Apotheosis ( t h i s p a i n t i n g has never been reproduced the storage f a c i l i t i e s Ge'rome t e l l s Apotheosis of Augustus and i s c u r r e n t l y in of the Muse'e d'Amiens), which as us, was to be cast i n the high a r t mould of Ingres 5 of Homer. This p a i n t i n g , which could be s t u d i e d from Gautier's exhaustive d e s c r i p t i o n of i t , has an i n t r i n s i c 61 Figure 14 62 i n t e r e s t as what would be Ge'rfime's tional high a r t . ing behind He l a s t attempt at t r a d i - But of even greater i n t e r e s t i s the GeV6me's voyage of research f o r t h i s p a i n t i n g . had undertaken h i s t r i p in order to gather or "physiognomies" f o r the p a i n t i n g . Like other "types" nineteenth century Europeans, Gerome b e l i e v e d that beyond the of Western Europe, peoplesj being t i o n , had r e t a i n e d the customs "untouched" by and racial t h e i r ancestors f o r thousands of years. observed, quelques-uns des civiliza- appearance of As Charles traits descendants d'Aminius et de leurs Timbal Chateaubriand changed since New necessary widespread. And Renan f e l t not that i t As Rocheblave has noted, revived r e l i g i o u s one's d i s b e l i e f fairly there to imbibe the atmosphere f o r his book, La Vie de Jesus. in the o r i e n t d'Attila b e l i e v e d that P a l e s t i n e had Testament times. to t r a v e l esperait peres..."^ This a t t i t u d e about the o r i e n t was was borders Ge'rome wanted to go to Russia because " i l r e v o i r sur le visage des Renan and reason- p a i n t i n g - - i f one interest suspends long enough to consider Ary S c h e f f e r ' s p a i n t - ings a "reviva1"--as the French imagination c o n f l a t e d the o r i e n t opened up by c a p i t a l i s m with that of the B i b l e : J u i f s d'Alger, des Be'douins, des Armeniens ont depuis l e u r s s i l h o u e t t e s autour Je'sus, ou dans l e cortege "Des profile de l a creche de l ' E n f a n t - de 1'Entree a Je'rusa 1 em. " 7 For F l a u b e r t , modern T u n i s i a n s were a n c i e n t Phonecians f o r the purposes of the d e s c r i p t i o n of physiognomies in 63 Sa1ammbo. Gautier summed, up the European a t t i t u d e towards these non-Europeans when he wrote ( i n a d i s c u s s i o n of Gerome's ethnographic work): "The since the time of Moses: f e l l a h s and Copts have not changed such as you see them on the f r e s c o e s of the palaces or tombs of Amenoteph, of Toutnes, Sesourtasen — s u c h are they D e l a c r o i x a l s o saw today." and of Q the a n c i e n t s in his Tangier: Just think,...how wonderful i t i s to see walking the s t r e e t s or mending sandals, people e x a c t l y l i k e Roman consuls — C a t o, Brutus and t h e i r i l k — who have even the d i s t a i n f u l l a i r the masters of the world must have had in the great days of Rome. q Gerome's ethnographic portrayal p a i n t i n g s were p r a i s e d of the "types" or "physiognomies" races of the east. in the a r t of p a r t i c u l a r i z i n g races, and of transforming i n t o powerful individualized Gautier admired reason: The physiognomies." ^ 1 characteristic of mixed b-lood,from --so e x a c t l y observed pological types the most proAnd types — f e l l a h s , Copts, Senaar and Kordofan that they could be used t r e a t i s e s of M. S e r r e ' s . " process which.Blanc and Ge'rome used impression The the same models several interested is rather Did Ge'rome r e a l l y , question i s a d i f f i c u l t that he was in the anthro- Gautier suggest as Blanc would have i t , "transform" i n d i v i d u a l "types"? from 11 odd and merits a c l o s e r examination. into The'ophile Ge'rome's ethnographic works f o r much the same "Different Arabs, negroes of the " a n c i e n t " Charles Blanc wrote: "Gerome, among other m e r i t s , has not his equal foundly for their one physiognomies to answer. times, thus g i v i n g in a type. the But did he 64 choose a model because he thought that he or she was typical-- or merely a s t r i k i n g lean individual? towards the former p o s s i b i l i t y . I think one should In Gerome's era i t was common d i s c u r s i v e mode to e x t r a c t the. general cular in any partly given area of o b s e r v a t i o n . from the a parti- This a t t i t u d e was the r e s u l t of the enormous i n f l u e n c e of p o s i t i v i s m which maintained one process and regularities that the methods of the n a t u r a l of e x t r a c t i n g general world--could sciences- laws, s i m i l i t u d e s , fromthe observable events of the n a t u r a l be a p p l i e d to a l l areas of i n t e l l e c t u a l activity; 12 h i s t o r y , philosophy, Ethnographic nineteenth century sociology, etc. p a i n t i n g should fascination Balzac p r i d e d himself on being thus beseen asr.a part .of the f o r the t y p i c a l able to p r a c t i s e that a r t of the modern city-dweller., that i s the a b i l i t y c h a r a c t e r and Writers l i k e circumstances physiognomy. to imagine the of strangers seen on the street. the Goncourts always i n c l u d e in t h e i r d e s c r i p - t i o n s of p h y s i c a l appearances remarks which i n d i c a t e that they felt one could "know" a man Gerome's physica1 one who appearance and wrote about him, "...me p l a i t , energique, bearing appealed f o r he seemed in l i f e the Bashi-bazouks he painted. Gerome: through his physiology. to to be everylike Edmond Goncourt wrote of l u i [Ge'romeJ, avec son sa f i g u r e cabosee son physique regard au grand blanc, e n f i n , avec toute la cette physiognomie, qu'on d i r a i t , h e l a s ! 13 physiognomie d'un t a l e n t farouche." (compare f i g s . 15 & 16) 66 A high i n t e r e s t in physiognomic g e n e r a l i z a t i o n led Ge'rSme east in the first maintained throughout the The races of the place and "the he may human c l a y , what this interest is ethnographic paintings. o r i e n t were seen by nineteenth Europeans in a v a r i e t y of ways. peoples so was century Gerome tends to ennoble these have f e l t , like less a l t e r e d by Gautier that civilization, in the east, seems here 14 to r e t a i n the s t i l l , visible For o t h e r s , the imprint orient attracted of the divine because i t was hand." a, "une 15 societe barabare, mais v i v a n t e , " formed during the the Second Empire. quite men romantic e r a , c l e a r , he remained in the alternative of the ted to the splendid Second Empire. individual Bedouins who Rimbaud, who are but but free." did p r e c i s e l y Modern c a p i t a l i s m virile, who fantasies could self-sufficient had Gerome the often the no of e x o t i c fantasies orient stifling longer be offered atmosphere sophistica- a despot masses... I.shal1 return And there i s the condition. to example of that. created the conditions which made i n t e r i e u r , and lands were,for those who travel could a f f o r d i t , attempts to escape, i f t e m p o r a r i l y from t h i s modern who ft the modern al i enated .ci ty-dwe 11 er ; the to and orient, throughout wished to excape "It will 1 the For Flaubert P a r i s when he wrote: oppresses the strong seems to have i d e n t i f i e d ) and of sensuous, imprisoned women. an image of the Gerome's can vases make his a t t r a c t i o n is interested (with whom he This 67 The Ethnographic P a i n t i n g s and Photography Some people seemed to think that Gerome's ethnographic p a i n t i n g s f u n c t i o n e d l i k e photographs and t o l d the same t r u t h s . 1 7 C e l i a Stranahan c a l l s them " o f f i c i a l reports". Galichon wrote of The P r i s o n e r of 1863 Van Gogh admired) as i f he b e l i e v e d And Emile ( f i g . 1 7 ) (a p a i n t i n g i t was an a c t u a l record of an event Ge'rome had witnessed: . . . l e c a p t i f oppose 1 ' i m p a s s i b i 1 i t e de l ' o r i e n t a l , pour ne point r e j o u i r le coeur de son r i v a l heureux q u i , a s s i s I la proue, la main appuyee sur son f u s i l , le garde avec I ' a i r hautain du musulman. Tout 1' o r i e n t est l a , av.ec son f a t a l i s m e implacable, sa soumission pass i Ve, sa t r a n q u i l i t e ' i n a l t e r a b l e , ses i n s u l t e s e'honte'es" et sa cruaute' sans remords. En rendant simplement ce q u ' i l v o y a i t , M. Gerome a f a i t un oeuvre eminemment morale et phi 1osophique.' 8 Gerome may have seen t h i s event, as Galichon then again he may verisimilitude not. It i s , however, rather ironic that should be seen as a v i r t u e of one of the few ethnographic p a i n t i n g s that attempt a t i g h t l y Ge'rome's o r i e n t , although c e r t a i n l y e x t e n s i v e t r a v e l s and his personal from h i s P a r i s i a n i t which suggests, but composed based f i r m l y on his o b s e r v a t i o n s , emanated s t u d i o , and has more than a l i t t l e is a r t i f i c i a l . In h i s d e d i c a t i o n F e l l a h , to Ge'rome, Edmund About tableau. about of h i s n o v e l , Le d e s c r i b e d Gerome's working method: But the h o s p i t a l i-ty. of the Ismail Pasha had swathed me in bands which paralyzed my movements not a l i t t l e . I had no longer a r i g h t to p u b l i s h ex-professo contemporaneous Egypt. Your example, my dear Ge'rome, has at once f a s c i n a t e d and reassured me. No law f o r b i d s an author to work en_ pe i n t u r e ; that i s to say, to assemble in a work of the imagination a multitude of d e t a i l s taken from nature 68 69 and s c r u p u l o u s l y t r u e , though s e l e c t e d . Your masterpieces, small and g r e a t , do not a f f e c t to t e l l e v e r y t h i n g ; but they do not present a type, -j a t r e e , the f o l d of a garment which have not seen. g The s e l e c t i v e a t t i t u d e which About d e s c r i b e d r e s u l t s in the morceau q u a l i t y of many of the ethnographic pictures. Despite Gerome's penchant f o r formal composition, t h i s morceau quality graphs i s also the r e s u l t of his extensive use of in making his o r i e n t a l genre paintings. Gerome would sketch, c o l l e c t and photograph ern voyages while, the f i n i s h e d photo- on his east- p a i n t i n g s were done back in Paris. He was not, however, by any means the f i r s t a r t i s t to work t h i s way. As f a r as I know, t h i s honour must belong to Horace Vernet. Vernet and taking daguerreotypes of 1839. T h i s was Fre'de'ric Goupi 1-Fesquet were in the middle-east as e a r l y as November a mere eleven months a f t e r Daguerre announced the d i s c o v e r y of his photographic first actual process. record of.Gerome's use of photographic had Our equip- ment i s r a t h e r l a t e , 1867. But he may have taken with him For he was an ardent admirer before that date. the medium from his youth Vauthier t e l l s us t h a t : until the end avec "Dans sa jeunesse, i l a v a i t et sa propre admiration ne f i t que les anne'es." GerSme's l a s t of of his days. Moreau- a 1 ' enthousiasme soul-eve par l e s premiers e s s a i s daguerre'otype cameras address to the assiste de augmenter Institute 20 was a defense The of photography. example of the photograph Gerome's p a i n t e r l y manner o b v i o u s l y permeates from almost the f i r s t ethnographic 7Q work on. The photograph seems to have given a r t i s t s l i k e Vernet and Gerome an o p p o r t u n i t y to paint f e l t were c l o s e r to v e r i s i m i l i t u d e of an Academic artist. on t h e i r work — which was images which they than the techniques The e f f e c t which a substantial the photograph change from the had fini of David or Ingres or even that of Dutch r e a l i s m — w a s what gave t h e i r images anything e l s e , that "commonness" which caused t h e i r e c l i p s e of modern t a s t e . has, more than from the constellation The c l a r i t y of Ge'rome's s t y l e combined with his abandonment of serious g e n e r a l i z a t i o n — b y which I mean, say, Ingres' submission to a sensuous l i n e which pre- vents one from m i s t a k i n g an Ingres p o r t r a i t , despite the clarity of d e t a i l , f o r a photograph--immediately casts h i s paintings images the in with the. pro.l i f e r a t i o n of e a s i l y that had begun to dominate the v i s u a l environment in n i n e t e e n t h century. Gerome's photographic s t y l e was graphic p a i n t i n g s . ence. There are several developed in his ethnoreasons f o r t h i s occur- Gerome used photographs to make the o r i e n t a l p a i n t i n g s and one can imagine how seemed to imitate t h e i r appearance That t h i s should happen f i r s t factors. natural genre i t might have as he used them f o r models. in ethnographic p a i n t i n g s than elsewhere can be explained rather by commonplace h i s t o r i c a l The same thing had happened to Vernet's p a i n t i n g through h i s ethnographi c work.. is reproducible And Gerome's o r i e n t a l i sme of the Vernet, rather than the D e l a c r o i x , tradition. 71 Besides being taken with the e x o t i c east f o r i t s own sake, Vernet and Gerome, and a r t i s t s practical like them, had a reason f o r t h e i r e x t e n s i v e work in the o r i e n t . They were a t t r a c t e d "Lumiere, forme, by the l i g h t , as Rocheblave wrote: c o u l e u r , tout l e s f r a p p a i t d'un t nouveau, v i f , e'clatant, l e s p r e n a i t aux During his y o u t h f u l aspect \ A sens et a 1 ' ame." stay in Rome GerSme had t r a v e l l e d 21 the c o u n t r y - s i d e , s k e t c h i n g out-of-doors: "Je me mis a f a i r e des paysages, de 1 a r c h i t e c t u r e , des animaux, toujours en 1 22 plein air...." He never seems to have done t h i s There are however, pl(ei,,n- a i r passages paintings. in France. in the ethnographic Ackerman points out a " i m p r e s s i o n i s t " handling of the landscape seen through the window in Arnaut Smoking 23 ( f i g . 1 6 ) , and suspects another hand. However, t h i s ing i s n e i t h e r a unique nor the best example of t h i s of t h i n g in Ge'rdme's work. In Conducteur ( f i g . 1 8 ) , f o r example, the garden a. d i s t i n c t l y in reamined And primarily interested Gerome's i n t e r e s t his work through sake was de Chameaux has However , Gerome '. s interest not a large one and in i n t e r i o r s and he architecture. in the l i g h t or the o r i e n t the photograph sort seen through the door 24 "Monet" q u a l i t y to i t . landscape f o r i t s own paint- effects r a t h e r than through pl.e'i n ai r i sme. In 1839 Daguerre's the exposure machine was It wasn't u n t i l 1851 time f o r a photographic p l a t e in between f i f t e e n that the c o l l o d i o n and t h i r t y minutes. process reduced the 72 minimum exposure that a new time to t h i r t y seconds, and not u n t i l c o l l o d i o n process reduced exposure 1878 time to a 25 fraction all of a second. the c u l t u r a l The amateur photographer, a t t r a c t i o n s that the o r i e n t o f f e r e d , must have been impressed by i t s t e c h n i c a l The despite a t t r a c t i o n s as w e l l . stronger l i g h t would have kept exposure times briefer than in France, thus making the camera more v e r s a t i l e , especially in the winter when Paris I don't wish i s often o v e r c a s t . to suggest that t h i s was the primary reason f o r the e a r l y presence of the camera, a l l i e d work, in the o r i e n t . portant f a c t o r s . able a t t r a c t i o n Southern Other reasons were c l e a r l y more im- But the. l i g h t of the o r i e n t was j u s t as the good weather and strong l i g h t of industry voyages--the canvases in t r a v e l the r e l a t i v e site in the e a r l y years of t h i s c e n t u r y . Besides the p r a c t i c a l tive, a consider- C a l i f o r n i a made i t an e s p e c i a l l y a t t r a c t i v e f o r the cinema eastern to the p a i n t e r ' s reasons f o r using cameras on his difficulties conditions of c a r t i n g about that were often quickness of the photograph wet fairly primi- over sketching as a means of b u i l d i n g an i n v e n t o r y of m o t i f s f o r use in paintings--the p a r t i c u l a r i z i n g v e r a c i t y of the appealed to Gerome f o r i t s own sake. the g e n e r a l i z i n g up d e t a i l ability photograph Unlike the .eye, or s t y l e of high a r t , the photograph without d i s c r i m i n a t i o n . to c e l e b r a t e a room f u l l The photograph has the of b r i c - a - b r a c by p r e s e n t i n g a vast array of objects a l l at once. graphic p i c t u r e s are t i e d picks And Gerome's ethno- to his o b j e c t - h u n t i n g or collecting. 73 His Dance of the Almeh of 1 8 6 3 . ( f i g . 1 9 ) — w h i c h hommage to Chardin in the lower l e f t hand has a corner--is p r i m a r i l y a record of the a c t i v i t y of Gerome the He owned every o b j e c t in the p a i n t i n g . photographed it The collector. dancer was in C a i r o , Gerome bought her costume and back to P a r i s and with h i s assembled s o r i e s , using P a r i s i a n models and little costumes and his photographs, took acces- he created 27 his o r i e n t a l interior. The e f f e c t of the photograph his work was drastic--it i s extremely easy to mistake a Ge'rome reproduction f o r a photograph. about the e f f e c t of the photograph but he might have said on Charles Blanc wrote on the work of Vernet, the same of Gerome: Vernet's eye was l i k e the lens of a camera, i t had the same a s t o n i s h i n g c h a r a c t e r , but also l i k e Daguerre's machine, i t saw a l l , i t reproduced a l l , without s e l e c t i o n and without s p e c i a l emphasis. It recorded the d e t a i l s j u s t as well as the whole — what am I saying?—much b e t t e r , because with Horace Vernet the d e t a i l always took on an exaggerated importance, so that i n v a r i a b l y i t reaches a point where no t r o u b l e i s taken to subordinate i t , to give i t i t s proper place and v a l u e . 2 8 Ge'rome's photographic technique serves to hide the ness of h i s procedure and like "we stagi- serves to convince--say, someone Emile Gal i chon — that, we are seeing a document, that are t h e r e " . Whereas D e l a c r o i x ' o r i e n t was e x o t i c , Gerome's becomes merely foreign. works were seen as " a n t h r o p o l o g i c a l in a way they were the v i s u a l books which were designed l e a s t t h i s was how romantic and His ethnographic t r e a t i s e s " or t r a v e l o g u e s , e q u i v a l e n t s of w r i t t e n f o r the "armchair" voyager. Gautier p e r c e i v e d them: travel At Figure 19 75 Photography, pushed today to the p e r f e c t i o n that you know, r e l i e v e s the a r t i s t from copying a r c h i t e c t u r a l and s c u l p t u r a l d e t a i l s , by producing p r i n t s of absolute f i d e l i t y , to which the happy s e l e c t i o n of the point of view and moment of time can give the g r e a t e s t e f f e c t . Is that not also the d i r e c t i o n in which Ge'r6me has taken h i s work. His powerful s t u d i e s as a h i s tory p a i n t e r , h i s t a l e n t as a draughtsman, f i n e e l e g a n t , exact y e t with l o t s of s t y l e , a s p e c i a l f e e l i n g which we would c a l l ethnographic and which w i l l become even more necessary to the a r t i s t in these days of u n i v e r s a l and rapid t r a v e l when a l l people of the planet w i l l be v i s i t e d in whichever d i s t a n t a r c h i p e l a g o they may be hidden, a l l these things make Ge'r6me more s u i t a b l e than any other to render that simple d e t a i l which up to now they have n e g l e c t e d , f o r landscape, monument and c o l o u r ; modern e x p l o r a t i o n s of the O r i e n t — a n d man!^" Gautier's tangled prose one is rich in c u l t u r a l of which i s h i s transparent b e l i e f a l l i e s with u n i v e r s a l travel. assumptions, in p'rogress which he For G a u t i e r , Ge'rome's ethno- graphic works are sort o f " e x p l o r a t i o n s " of f o r e i g n lands. Because of t h i s aspect of these p a i n t i n g s and the a c t i v i t y of the c o l l e c t o r of types and o b j e c t s that they r e c o r d , they, l i k e related the neo-grec to the c r e a t i o n p a i n t i n g s can be seen as a c t i v i t i e s of the nineteenth century i n - te r i e ur. The Content The of Ge'rome's Ethnograph i c Pa i n t i ng 11: Interieur As I noted in Chapter I I , Gerflme's s t y l e of l i v i n g - - n o t by any means u n i q u e — i n v o l v e d the c r e a t i o n of an i nte'ri e ur which was crammed from f l o o r to c e i l i n g with objects c o l l e c t e d 76 from the four corners of the world. r e f e r to the inte'rieur but torical The neo-grec works often in the modes of fantasy and r e c o n s t r u c t i o n using much of the vocabulary academic high a r t . even more d i r e c t l y they were made. But the o r i e n t a l genre p a i n t i n g s his- of refer to the s e n s i b i l i t y of the house in which For one thing they are genre p a i n t i n g s , made f o r the walls of the bourgeois waver between high a r t and home; in t h i s they do genre a r t in the way not that the on n_eo-grec p a i n t i n g s do. More importantly they record Gerome's ownership of things and documentation r e p l a c e Academic e r u d i t i o n and nude of high a r t i s re- the i d e a l placed by the appropriate As Walter nineteenth type. Benjamin observed, century the i n t e r i o r depended upon the c o l l e c t i o n b r i c - a - b r a c , upon which the c o l l e c t o r cier's value" rather than a use-value. matter what other purposes and in p a r t , an operation of termed the era of high commodity during t h i s of could confer a "fanCollecting, pleasures may be no involved, i s , rescue. Ge'rome's career took him we "phatasmagoria" of the r i g h t through what i s oftened capitalism. It is the status of period which ought to i n t e r e s t the us, i f b e l i e v e , as Benjamin does, that the c o l l e c t o r of e x o t i c a i s somehow t r y i n g to transform According to Marxist this status. h i s t o r i a n s , with the advent of c a p i t a l i s m the s t r u c t u r e of commodity r e l a t i o n s h i p s on the market-place became the dominant model f o r s o c i e t y as a whole. 77 As George Lukacs puts i t : "...the development of the com- modity to the point where i t became the dominant society form in did not take place-'unti 1. the advent of modern 31 capitalism." This occurs because the s o c i a l the s e l f - r e g u l a t i n g market turned r e l a t i o n s h i p s between men between things or commodities. into relationships As Lukacs puts i t : the market economy has been: f u l l y "Where developed — a man's a c t i v i t y becomes estranged from h i m s e l f , i t turns into a commodity which, s u b j e c t to the non-human o b j e c t i v i t y of the laws of s o c i e t y , must go i t s own way any other consummer a r t i c l e . " independently of man 32 Because just i t s price like i s the r e s u l t of a market where "supply and demand" determine the flow of goods the commodity contains in i t s e l f value—that i s , what one does with i t — a n d both a use- an exchange-value-- that i s , i t s value as determined in terms of other commodities. Marx described ...is this the d i r e c t r e l a t i o n s h i p as f o l l o w s : "The commodity un i ty of use-value and exchange-value, and at the same time i t i s a commodity only in r e l a t i o n to other 33 commod i t i e s . " When a s o c i e t y comes "to s a t i s f y a l l i t s needs of commodity exchange", the s o c i a l relations between in terms men 34 "assumes...the Thus fantastic commodities form of a r e l a t i o n between take on a f e t i s h f u n c t i o n as the form of s o c i a l - r e 1 a t i o n s becomes viewed as the content. be best i l l u s t r a t e d things". by modern a d v e r t i s i n g which This can promises 78 that the purchaser of c e r t a i n m a g i c a l l y , to transform t h e i r cannot, person social use them relations. But one f o r example, r e a l l y make one's spouse a pleasant to l i v e with by buying The nineteenth century coloured by a romantic talist commodities can decaffinated coffee. interest in the o r i e n t was imagination of the east as p r e - c a p i - or p r e - i n d u s t r i a l . It was to the b e l i e f that the r a c i a l t h i s a t t i t u d e which led "types" found there r e t a i n e d in t h e i r physiognomies something as yet u n a l t e r e d by modern European society. Given which was t h i s h i g h l y charged imagination brings back o r i e n t a l i n t e V i e u r becomes almost By purchasing and a magical to create--by operation of rescue. b r i n g i n g back to P a r i s , weapons, costumes, sustituting interieur, a fancier's like Gerome wished value f o r a a refuge, a s p e c i a l in which they could r e t a i n "barbare, of the e x o t i c a to f u r n i s h his c a r p e t s , objets d ' a r t of the e a s t , a man things orient-- seen as a kind of paradise--the a c t i v i t y c o l l e c t o r who in his own of the use-value-- place f o r these the aura of t h e i r origins, mais v i v a n t e " . This a c t i v i t y inevitably bestows on the c o l l e c t e d o b j e c t s a f e t i s h - v a l u e , in which they are meant to stand f o r the values and customs or the c u l t u r e s they o r i g i n a t e Gerome, however, had was tion a special also a p a i n t e r and advantage as a c o l l e c t o r , could perform by d e p i c t i n g h i s c o l l e c t i o n in t h e i r n a t u r a l environment. from. a second magical in scenes The he opera- which showed them photographic s t y l e was an 79 e s p e c i a l l y appropriate these objects served strategy t h e i r own in Gerome's attempt to time and place while they give still to create his in te r i e ur. As i s well known, " p r i m i t i v e " people often photograph with superstitition and is that Europeans reacted much the photographs. Balzac, fear. the Less well-known same way f o r example, was react to sure to the first that his image could not appear on the photographer's p l a t e without d i v e s t ing him of something of himself. "theory" as Nadar e x p l a i n s Balzac's follows: According to Balzac each material o b j e c t from whatever d i r e c t i o n i t i s viewed, i s composed of a number of i n f i n i t e s i m a 11y t h i n l a y e r s or " s p e c t r e s " . Since i t i s impossible to make something out of nothing, the image on the p l a t e could not be produced without detaching something from the body which is being photographed: thus each daguerrian operation involves a t t a c h i n g to the p l a t e of one of these " s p e c t r e s " and the consequent loss of part of the essense of what i s being photographed.-^ 5 A s u p e r s t i t i o u s a t t i t u d e towards the photograph i s implied in the language. We "take" a p i c t u r e with a p a i n t e r paints or "makes" a p i c t u r e . was felt, object and still In other the words, i t i s I suppose, that a photograph of an i s c l o s e r to the p h y s i c a l , t a n g i b l e r e a l i t y of that o b j e c t than a p a i n t i n g or drawing of i t . teenth a camera, whereas century 1870 A typical view of the camera's power can number of The be nine- found in Westminster Review: No mi nature...wil1 , so f a r as r e l a t e s to mere resemblance, bear comparison to 'a Daguerrotype. The a r t i s t can soften down e f f e c t s , and present the s i t t e r in the most f a v o r a b l e aspect. The Sun, 80 however, i s no':, f l a t t e r e r , and gives the l i n e a ments as t h e y ' e x i s t , with, the most inexorable f i d e l i t y and the most cruel p r e c i s i o n . " Even today, the camera seems to have a magical M i d d l e - c l a s s fami 1ies take photographs homes, t h e i r p a r t i e s , mas, etc.), function. of each other, t h e i r t h e i r sacred events (weddings, Christ- the world at large on t h e i r v a c a t i o n s : and they do t h i s not f o r a r t or out of an a e s t h e t i c p a s s i o n , but to perform an operation which goes beyond the merely commemorative in which the "photographed" "owned" by the photographer. used to o b j e c t i f y or r e i f y graphed. In t h i s way The i s meant to become photograph was and i s the events which are photo- the m i d d l e - c l a s s photographer f a m i l y h i s t o r y compulsively stands o u t s i d e of the events around a relationship of social him and turns his re 1 a t i o n s h i p with them into to t h i n g s , i . e . photographs. The bourgeois photographer may be t r y i n g to bestow a commodity status upon th.e events and but Gerome as a p a i n t e r , was scenes he photographs, engaged in a p a r a l l e l that moved i n the other d i r e c t i o n . process His ethnographic paint- ings show us the human context of the o b j e c t s he collected in the o r i e n t and to c e l e - he uses the photographic s t y l e brate them as r i c h l y as p o s s i b l e in p a i n t i n g . graphic p a i n t i n g s contain t r a c e r i e s of two of c o l l e c t o r and photographer, which are an attempt of the o r i e n t . one The ethno- o p e r a t i o n s , that complementing the o t h e r , to r e i f y and then to rescue the world 81 As a documentarian Gerome engaged in the r e i f y i n g v i t y of o b j e c t i f y i n g the east by taking by c o l l e c t i n g o b j e c t s . acti- photographs there and But as a p a i n t e r , back in h i s P a r i s inte'rieur, he engaged in a new operation which i s a r e v e r s a l of the former and t r i e d h i s c o l l e c t i o n by painting i t i n i t s environment. the primary r a i s o n the real to bring to l i f e d'etre In f a c t , t h i s operation f o r these p a i n t i n g s was and i t was reason why Gerome never a c t u a l l y painted in the e a s t , although he c e r t a i n l y would have found studio space in Cairo or A l e x a n d r i a . had to The ethnographic p a i n t i n g s be made in P a r i s , because i t was there the that Gerome maintained inte'rieur which was l o c a t i o n and source of h i s s e n s i b i l i t y as an a r t i s t . This a f t e r a l l , was the l o c a t i o n of Ge'rome's ownership of h i s o r i e n t a l , e x o t i c a , and ownership i s , of course, the most intimate of p o s s i b l e r e l a t i o n s h i p s with an o b j e c t . 82 Notes - Chapter III 'Albert Boime, " E n t r e p r e n e u r i a l Patronage in Nineteenth Century France," in E n t e r p r i s e and Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century France, ( E d i t e d by Edward C. Carter II et a l . ) . The John : Hopkins U n i v e r s i t y Press: B a l t i m o r e , 1976, p.205 (n.T80). 2 E.J. Hobsbawm, The Age of R e v o l u t i o n : Europe 1789-1848, Weidenfeld and N i c o l s o n : London, 1962. p.144. 3 I owe t h i s d i s t i n c t i o n to Michael F r i e d who, in his "Manet's Sources," ( A r t Forum, V o l . 7, No. 28, March, 1969, pp72-73) d i s c u s s e s the d i f f e r e n c e between Manet and Courbet's approach to composition using the terms morceau and t a b l e a u . "Courbet's p a i n t i n g s tended to be seen by fii s admirers and his d e t r a c t o r s a l i k e e i t h e r as agglomerations of superby painted pieces of r e a l i t y - - e . g . , a head, a h a n d , a dog, a woman's body, a stone o u t c r o p p i n g , a breaking wave--or as e n t i r e large morceaux in t h e i r own r i g h t . " The concept of the tableau has to do with powerful and memorable comp o s i t i o n s , with the t o t a l e f f e c t of a p a i n t i n g on the viewer: "...one's experience of them...their v i t a l i t y , t h e i r immediate, instantaneous power to a t t r a c t or r e p e l . " Fried asserts that Manet's Olympia and h i s Dejeuner sur l'herbe are such tableaux. In Ge'rome's work I would suggest that the neogrec p a i n t i n g s are tableaux, attempts to.make a memorable image through Academic composition techniques. The ethnographic p a i n t i n g s often attempt t h i s , as in the case of The P r i s o n e r , but even more often they do not. A tableau e f f e c t seems to be achieved by a c o n f r o n t a t i o n with the viewer. In the Manet paintings,, V i c t o r i n e s t a r e s at us b o l d l y , a f f e c t i n g an immediate "I-you" r e l a t i o n s h i p between the p a i n t i n g and us. In Academic p a i n t i n g the same "conf r o n t a t i o n " i s achieved by the use of shallow space and/or " l i f e - s i z e " f i g u r e s which push the space of the p a i n t i n g back into the actual space that the viewer occupies. In a morceau the viewer i s reduced to the status of an uninvolved s p e c t a t o r . 4 The passage c e l e b r a t e s the iPax Romana of Augustus and notes that the b i r t h of C h r i s t was a p p r o p r i a t e to t h i s era of peace. I quote i t in f u l l : Les restes.de l a republique p d r i s s e n t avec Brutus et C a s s i u s ; Antfoijhe et CeVsar., apres a v o i r ruine Lepide, se tournent 1'un contre 1'autre; toute l a puissance romaine se met sur l a mer. Cesar gagne l a 7 83 b a t a i l l e A c t i q u e ; l e s f o r c e s de l'Egypte, et de 1'Orient, qu'Antoine menait avec l u i , sont d i s sipe'es; tous ses amis 1 abandonment, et meme sa C l e o p S t r e , pour l a q u e l l e i l s'e'tait perdu... Tout cede a l a fortune de Ce'sar: A l e x a n d r i e l u i ouvre l e s p o r t e s ; l'Egypte devient une province romaine; Cle'opatre, qui de'sespere de l a pouvoir c o n s e r v e r . s e tue elle-meme apres Antoine; Rome tend les bras a C£sar, qui demeure, sous l e nom d'Augustus et le t i t r e d'empereur, seul jnattre de tout I'empire; i l dompte vers l e s Pyrene'es l e s Cantabres et l e s A s t u r i e n s re'vol te's; l ' E t h i o p i e l u i demande l a paix; l e s Parthes epouvantes l u i renvoient l e s e'tendards p r i s sur Crassus, avec tous l e s p r i s o n n i e r s romains; les Indes recherchent son a l l i a n c e ; ses armes se font s e n t i r aux Rhetes ou G r i s o n s , que l e u r s montagnes ne peuvent d£fendre. La Pannonie l e r e c o n n a i t , l a Germaine l e redoubte, et l e Weser r e c o i t ses l o i s . Viciorieux par mer et par t e r r e , i l ferme'le temple .de* Janus. Out l'univers v i t en paix sous sa.puissance, et JesusC h r i s t v i e n t au monde. 1 v As c i t e d by Gautier in his Les Beaux-Arts en Europe, Michel Levy F r e r e s : P a r i s , 1855. p.218f. The reason I quoted the whole passage was to point out that somehow a l l the main p a r t i e s mentioned by Bousset, as well as r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s of the nations i n v o l v e d : f i n d t h e i r way into Gerome s p a i n t i n g , and i t was the need to gather ethnographic m a t e r i a l which led him on t h i s voyage; As. f o r the choice of subject-matter i t s e l f . First i t f o l l o w s the Academic t r a d i t i o n of using AncientRome as an i c o n o l o g i c a l i d e a l i z a t i o n of modern France; the Republic for the Revolutionary P e r i o d ; Caesar f o r Napoleon; Augustus for Napoleon I I I . Secondly, Bousset's passage notes the b i r t h of a new world order, and i t was f e l t by many Frenchmen in mid-century that t h e i r era was such a turning point in world h i s t o r y , only science and progress, not a d i v i n i t y were to be the agents of a new dawn. 1 5 This i s more than apparent from Gautier's d e s c r i p t i o n of the p a i n t i n g . And Ge'rome t e l l s us t h a t : . . . " i t (the p a i n t i n g ) lacked i n v e n t i o n and o r i g i n a 1 i t y , reca11ing by the d i s p o s i t i o n of the f i g u r e s , and unhappily by t h i s point only The Apotheosis of Homer by Ingres, of which i t i s , so to speak, a paraphrase." C i t e d in Hering, 1889, o p . c i t . p.489. Timbal, o p . c i t . p.230. 84 S . Rocheblave, L'Art et le Gout en France de 1600 a 1900 , Li bra i r e Armand C o l i n : Paris 1 930 e d i t i o n , p.289. 7 g As c i t e d in Hering, 1892, o p . c i t . p.25; From • :-, Gautier's "Gerome: P i c t u r e s , Studies and Sketches of T r a v e l , " I have been unable to f i n d t h i s a r t i c l e . g From a l e t t e r to D e l a c r o i x ' f r i e n d P i e r r e t , as c i t e d in P i e r r e C o u r t h i o n , Romanti ci sm, Sk i r a : Lausanne, 1961, p.78. ^Hering, 1 1 1892, op.cit. p.7. No source given. 1 b i d . p.25. 12 This d i s c u r s i v e mode, so c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of the ninecentury, i s discussed in greater depth in Chapter IV. teenth 1 3 Edmonde & Jules Goncourt, J o u r n a l : Memoires de La Vie Li t t e r a i re;/, V o l . XI, Les e d i t i o n s de 1 ' i mpr i meri e° na t i on a 1 e de Monaco: Monaco, 1 956 , p.16 (entry f o r M e r c r e d i , 21 A v r i l , 1875). 1 4 15 H e r i n g , 1 892 , p_£.cj_t. Rochebl avfte v 1 6 As cited op.cit. by Hering, p.25. p.287. 1892, p.59. ^ S t r a n a h a n , o p . c i t . p.309. 7 1g Emile G a l i c h o n , "M. Gerome, p e i n t r e ethnographe," Gazette des beaux-arts, 1968, v o l . 1, p.150. 1 9 H e r i n g , 1 889 , o p . c i t . p.497. 20 Moreau-Vauthier, o p . c i t . , ; p.69. Also from the same passage: "Gerome ne ccessa d'estime l a p r e c i s i o n de l a photographic" Moreau-Vauthier t e l l s us that Gerome's l a s t address to the I n s t i t u t e was in p r a i s e of,photography on p.70. Gerome seems to have been involved with Emile Bayard and wrote an i n t r o d u c t i o n to the l a t t e r s , "Le inu e s t h e t i q u e " , ( f i g . 2 0 ) . As one can see Bayard constructed Bourgereau-1ike scenes in his studio and then photographed them--with the expected atrocious results. 'Homme, La Fernme, Z'Snfant Figure 2 0 86 Ingres,on the other hand, r e f e r r e d "fautographs". to photographs as 21 Rocheblave, o p . c i t . , p.287. 22 Masson, o p . c i t . , p.23. 23 "Often in these works the hand of a c o l l a b o r a t o r or an a s s i s t a n t i s suspected, as in the very loose landscape seen through the window in the upper r i g h t . " Ackerman, 1972, o p . c i t . p.58. 24 It i s r a t h e r d i f f i c u l t to t e l l from f a i r l y bad black and white r e p r o d u c t i o n s j u s t what i s happening in these passages, however, d e s p i t e t h e i r " i m p r e s s i o n i s t " look we should remember Ge'rome and Monet had the same teacher, G l e y r e , and that in Gleyre. .s work one can f i n d landscape passages t r e a t e d in a p 1 i en. 'a i r f a s h i o n . A l s o , p a i n t i n g out-of-doors in one s i t t i n g was academic p r a c t i s e , but as j u s t t h a t , as a p a i n t i n g e x e r c i s e , such etudes were not considered f i n i s h e d paintings. 1 25 These s t a t i s t i c s from. Hemult Gernsheim s, The H i s t o r y of Photography, Oxford U n i v e r s i t y Press: London, 1955, p.377. ^ I n 1887, at. 63, Gerome t o l d Hering t h a t , "during the months of November and December, the l i g h t i s too poor to p a i n t , but s u f f i c i e n t to model a l l day." Hering, 1889 , o p . c i t . , p.492. 27 Ackerman, 1.972 , o p . c i t . , p.54. " A f t e r watching her dance in a l o c a l c a f e , Gerftme i n v i t e d her to h i s s t u d i o where he sketched her, photographed her, and then he bought her dancing costume to take home with him!" 28 As c i t e d The Penguin ' in Aaron Scharf, A r t and Photography, London: Press, 1968, p.57'. 29 I b i d . From an a r t i c l e 1856. by Gautier in " L ' A r t i s t e " of The ne'o-grec p a i n t i n g s were, of course, made f o r the same w a l l s , but they were also made f o r the Salon and the museum, to hang.among the Raphaels and the Ingres . 87 Georg Luka'cs, H i s t o r y and Class Consciousness, ( t r a n s l a t e d by Rodney L i v i n g s t o n e , Merlin Press: London, 1971, p.86. 32 r Lukacs, o p . c i t . , p. 8.7.. 33 Karl Marx, A C o n t r i b u t i o n Economy, Moscow, 1970, p.41. to the Criti'que of Political 34 Luka'cs, o p . c i t , pp.91 & 86. 35 As c i t e d by Michel F. B r a i v e , The Photograph: A S o c i a l H i s t o r y , ( t r a n s l a t e d by David Bri t t ) , McGraw-Hi11 Book Co.: New York 1966, p.73. A source i s not g i v e n , but i t i s probably Nadar's, Quand . l . j ^ t a i s photographe, P a r i s , n.d. (1900). Author's name not given, "Bearings of Modern Science on A r t " , Westminster Review, Vol. 96, July & October, 1871, p.-403. '• . 88 CHAPTER THE If we which was HISTORY PAINTINGS do not include the 1 854 Apotheosis of Augustus, done in the grand manner, Gerome's f i r s t h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g was Morituri IV: done in 1859. Te S a l u t a n t ( f i g . 2 1 ) was historical His Ave the f i r s t serious Caesar ;. of a s e r i e s of works which were both more ambitious as p a i n t i n g s and more sombre in t h e i r i m p l i c a t i o n s than the neo-grec works, which nonetheless Ge'rome continued to produce, along with ethnographic p a i n t i n g s , u n t i l the end of his c a r e e r . As Ge'rome's h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g s are about h i s t o r y we might reasonably expect them to be informed by concurrent notions of "history". contemporary al An examination of h i s t o r i o g r a p h y which to Ge'rome's p a i n t i n g s w i l l was i 11 uminate • the context of these p a i n t i n g s , which w i l l cultur- in t u r n , bring forward t h e i r meaning. In nineteenth century France, d i s c o u r s e about occupied a c e n t r a l time. Why this place in the i n t e l l e c t u a l should have been so w i l l history concerns of the soon become ap- parent. For Ge'rome, his was Perhaps an "epoch of moral 1 paint was a response himself. But in the main, bourgeois i n t e l l e c t u a l s And c o n t r o l l e d way intellectual disorder." with p o s i t i v i s m . the t i g h t l y and he chose to to the de'rangement he perceived around responded the methods of p o s i t i v i s m became the methods of h i s t o r i o g r a p h y . 89 H i s t o r i o g r a p h i c Thought in Mid-Nineteenth Century For ficult had France a number of reasons term to use with p r e c i s i o n . remarked: " P o s i t i v i s m Intellectual historians p o s i t i v i s m and tellectual sion " p o s i t i v i s m " has become a d i f - then history. As an E n g l i s h historian 2 i s a h o p e l e s s l y ambiguous tend to attempt pinpoint term." a definition of i t s exact route through i n - This i s p r i m a r i l y a process of e x c l u - in which the t r a i l of p o s i t i v i s m i s seen as p r o g r e s s i v e l y 3 narrowing my as we discussion approach cannot an adequate in broad than the p r e c i s e h i s t o r i a l call interested definition, d i s c u r s i v e movements l i m i t s of the fate of "pure p o s i t i v i s m " . something In other words, I am in commonplaces, nineteenth century d i s c u r s i v e givens, no matter origins Although proceed without p r o v i d i n g t h i s I am much more i n t e r e s t e d one might definition. how much they are d i s t o r t i o n s of t h e i r i n the w r i t i n g s of phi1osophers. breakthroughs are often Great intellectual diminished by the time they enter the common d i s c o u r s e which they in turn have shaped. for or example, everyone sub!imat ion can use words l i k e libido, repression without having read Freud and s t i l l what they are t a l k i n g about. Today, "know" Often common usage of a con- cept i s at quite a conceptual d i s t a n c e from i t s usage in the work in which i t o r i g i n a t e d . would have understood a belief In Ge'rome's time, people by " p o s i t i v i s m " a f a i t h in technology and p r o g r e s s , a general in s c i e n c e , hostility 90 to the metaphysics and they might have a s s o c i a t e d the word with ideas of Auguste Comte, Hippolyte Taine, Emile Ernest Renan and others. It i s not p h i l o s o p h i c a l l y to r e f e r to these thinkers of Li ttre'--wi tho ut a great deal of q u a l i f i c a t i o n . as posi t i v i s t s - - w i th the do not wish to a r t i f i c i a l l y to Auguste Comte who first ( f o r the method become the same t h i n g ) . philosophy is by no means l u c i d of Comte--it can definition But I "posi- used the word " p o s i t i v i s m " i n d i c a t e a b e l i e f or an epistemology p o s i t i v i s m has exception discourse. b e l i e f and and rigorous i s o l a t e something.called t i v i s m " from i t s place in general It was Littre, positivist Although Comte's or without c o n t r a d i c t i o n s - - come to mean, f o r some, merely the be d e f i n e d . of epistemology ideas Basically, positivism is a which proceeds from a s i n g l e nega- tion: Dans I'e'tat p o s i t i f , I ' e s p r i t humain, reconn a i s s a n t 1 i m p o s s i b i 1 i t i e d'obtenir des notions absolues, renonce a chercher l'origjme et l a d e s t i n a t i o n de l ' u n i v e r s et a connaitre les causes internes des phe'nomenes, pour s'attacher uniquement a de'couvir, par 1 usage bien combine du raisphvn.ement et de 1 o b s e r v a t i o n , l e u r s l o i s e f f e c t i v e s , c ' e s t - a - d i r e 1 eurs. r e l a t i o n s i n v a r i a b l e s de succession et de s i m i l i t u d e . 4 1 1 1 In other words, knowledge must be l i m i t e d phenomena of the to the world. This method of i n q u i r y , b a s i c a l l y that . established by the natural s c i e n c e s , but a p p l i e d u n i v e r s a l l y by ism, has several l o g i c a l given essence and observable ramifications. that there can phenomena: "We I t is taken positivas be no real , di f ference between are e n t i t l e d to record drily 91 that which i s manifested i f one apperceives a white "whiteness" one in experience." has or "roundness" of that word. d i v o r c e d from tools and not real struments the phenomenon i t s p a r t i c u l a r occasion. " i d e a s " in the P l a t o n i c or Hegelian A b s t r a c t i d e a l i z a t i o n s are as as dryads, and j u s t as "imaginary"; ceptual In other words, vase, there can be no t a l k of in f r o n t of one's eyes on There are no 5 metaphysical they are merely ( i . e . in mathematics: the c i r c l e things: "Our sense or con- triangle) ideas are only i n t e l l e c t u a l i n - which serve to l e t us penetrate phenomena; they must be changed when they have played t h e i r p a r t , as changes a blunted l a n c e t when i t has one served long enough." T h e r e f o r e , there are no such q u a l i t i e s as noble, i g n o b l e , good, e v i l , beautiful, ugly e t c . ; a l l these words depend f o r t h e i r meaning upon.world-views that go beyond an account of i t s v i s i b i l i t y . This does not mean that there are no e t h i c s , but that morals customs without are j u s t t h a t ; mores; s o c i a l reference to a u n i v e r s a l standard. 7 This i s e s s e n t i a l l y what p o s i t i v i s m d e s c r i b e s i t s e l f be. I t i s a n t i - m e t a p h y s i c a l in the extreme. One can to easily see that high a r t , which depends so much on canons of I d e a l i t y which are not merely as w e l l , could hardly be expected lectual The a e s t h e t i c but e t h i c a l to s u r v i v e in such inimical intel- atmosphere. positivist never imply, "why", but "how". asks, as the quote from Ontology Comte might i s simply erased from the 92 the i n t e l l e c t u a l map. In an undiluted a form of l i n g u i s t i c form p o s i t i v i s m would suicide. seem to have been As Lessek Kolakowski has commented: S u f f e r i n g , death, ideol ogica.V conf 1 i c t , s o c i a l c l a s h e s , a n t i t h e t i c a l values of any k i n d - - a l l are declared out of bounds, matters we can only be s i l e n t about, in obedience to the p r i n c i p l e of v e r i f i a b i 1 i t y . P o s i t i v i s m so understood i s an act of escape from, commitments, an escape masked as a d e f i n i t i o n of knowledge, i n v a l i d a t i n g a l l such matters as mere figments of the imagination stemming from i n t e l l e c t u a l l a z i n e s s . P o s i t i v i s m in t h i s sense i s the e s c a p i s t ' s design f o r l i v i n g , a l i f e v o l u n t a r i l y cut o f f from p a r t i c i p a t i o n in anything that cannot be c o r r e c t l y formulated. The language i t imposes exempts us from the duty of speaking up in l i f e ' s most important c o n f l i c t s , encases us in a kind of armour of i n d i f f e r e n c e to the i n e f f a b i 1 i a mundi , g the i n d e s c r i b a b l e q u a l i t a t i v e data of experience. As Kolakowski actionary" i s s u g g e s t i n g , p o s i t i v i s m tends to be " r e - thought. Positivism had a r r i v e d what i t s p r a c t i o n e r s preceived as a c r i s i s . of s c r u t i n y was society. The c r i s i s so prominently a problem was in order to solve I t s main o b j e c t which made t h i s two-fold: The Industrialial Revolution and the triumph of C a p i t a l i s m , or as Karl has described it: the b i r t h of the s e l f - r e g u l a t i n g economy and the subsequence historian w r i t e s : "(The I n d u s t r i a l men towards looked t h e i r own market Both the Marxist agree on t h i s p o i n t . Re v o l u t i o n ) . . . s h i f t e d collective i t s presence b e f o r e . Polanyi dominance of the forms of that economy over the f u n c t i o n s of s o c i e t y . and the l i b e r a l object Polanyi the v i s i o n of being as i f they had over- A world was uncovered the very 93 e x i s t e n c e of which had not been suspected, that of the laws 9 governing a complex s o c i e t y . " The reason why such a v i s i o n should have a r i s e n when i t d i d , at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was that the o b j e c t , a s o c i e t y subject to one system of complex laws, had only r e c e n t l y As Georg the Luka'cs puts i t : " f o r the f i r s t whole of s o c i e t y process..." cognition 1 0 fully economic "Thus," w r i t e s Lukacs elsewhere, "the r e is'reality i n bourgeois As might time in h i s t o r y i s subjected...to a unified that s o c i e t y capitalism developed. society." becomes p o s s i b l e only under 1 1 be expected, Comte, Taine and Renan did-not understand the nature of the o b j e c t which they studied. C o n t r a d i c t i o n s and i n c o n s i s t e n c i e s plague the w r i t i n g s of the great p o s i t i v i s t s . "Positivism activity As D.G. Charlton has observed: i s not...a u n i f i e d system.of 12 of a d i v i d e d mind." discourse, positivism thought but the In the broad context of a takes on the f u n c t i o n of an a t t i t u d e r a t h e r than a methodology, a masquerade r a t h e r than a true performance; what Lukacs Once a p o s i t i v i s t calls "epi stemol ogi cal agnosticism".] epistemology has been adopted, and nine- teenth century French d i s c o u r s e about if i t i s anything, c e r t a i n history insurmountable is positivistic difficulties arise. One cannot w r i t e about h i s t o r y or s o c i e t y without using some generalizing concepts, which strate empirically are almost impossible to demon- as " l o i s e f f e c t i v e s " v a r i a b l e de succession et s i m i l t u d e " . or " r e l a t i o n s i n A b s t r a c t and r a t h e r 94 arbitrary ideas positivist stubborn had to make t h e i r way into the heart of h i s t o r i o g r a p h y , f o r as Polanyi w r i t e s : f a c t s and the inexorable brute "The laws [of the s e l f - r e g u l a t i n g market economy], that appeared to a b o l i s h our freedom had in one way or another to be r e c o n c i l e d to f r e e dom. This was the mainspring that s e c r e t l y sustained ians." of the metaphysical the p o s i t i v i s t s forces and the u t i l i t a r - 1 4 These g e n e r a l i z i n g concepts are best discussed context of i n d i v i d u a l that when 'one"" is a l s o r e f e r r i n g thinkers. 1 to a widely held His philosophy expression idea with a tradition. "Comte must not be imagined to be a l o n e l y f i g u r e t h i n k i n g out great eloquent be noted, however, r e f e r s to an idea o f , say, Comte s one As George Boas put i t : his time. I t should in the ideas which were ahead of on the contrary was a much more of the t o t a l civilization of e a r l y nine1 5 teenth century France than that of any one man." Among the sources which Comte drew upon was S a i n t - Simon, who: ...pretended to be promulgating a new r e l i g i o n d i v i n e l y i n s p i r e d , in a dream. This r e l i g i o n , in which Newton seemed to occupy the place of C h r i s t and Robespierre that of Satan, i s the p u r s u i t of man's happiness through science.16 Indeed, nineteenth p a r t i c u l a r , saw a f a i t h r e l i gion. century p o s i t i v i s m , and Comte's in in science as a replacement f o r 95 Comte's b a s i c theory of h i s t o r y depends upon a notion of "mankind" as the o b j e c t of h i s t o r y "the s p e c i e s . . . i s no more than an mythologized history in a s p i r i t (as Luka'cs points out: individual of c o n t e m p l a t i o n . " i s the h i s t o r y of the consciousness imagined as an e n t i t y : tellectual determining and "Ideas scientific factors govern of the species 1 o human h i s t o r y . " progress he theological stages, Comte t r a c e s the h i s t o r y of i n - sciences to t h e i r adulthood, Each science has proposes i s an a r b i t r a r y aspect of From the infancy of mankind in the and metaphysical "l'e'tat grown-up at a d i f f e r e n t positif". rate and reached maturity at various stages of h i s t o r y , depending on social circumstances. positive In- in the progress of mankind. a three stage development ( t h i s dividual For Comte, 17 developments are t h e r e f o r e the In Comte's t h e o r y • o f . h i s t o r i c a l his thought). that has been the Astronomy, f o r example, reached the stage as the growing need f o r r e l i a b l e n a v i g a t i o n demanded that i t do so. Comte gives a r a t h e r short l i s t order at which they reached Comte's terms) the l e a s t of sciences in the the p o s i t i v e stage, from ( i n to the most complex. They are; mathematics, astronomy, p h y s i c s , chemistry, and b i o l o g y . At the end of t h i s development Comte places a word he c o i n s . --and When s o c i o l o g y reaches i t i s the task of p o s i t i v i s t s the sciences w i l l "sociologie"-- the p o s i t i v e to perform stage t h i s task--;-, somehow coalesce by v i r t u e of t h e i r unified 96 methodologies and there w i l l under the aegis dition discovering by be a u n i v e r s a l of s o c i o l o g y w i l l the s o c i e t y . . In s h o r t , by "lois s c i e n c e , which, ameliorate the human con- effectives" of a workable sociology Comte meant a p o l i t i c a l praxi s. Comte's ideas eventually about a model s o c i e t y were fuzzy became a l i t t l e pathological. In 1848, and not an i n - s i g n i f i c a n t year, he founded his Church of Humanity, in an effort to promulgate a p s e u d o - r e l i g i o n s t r i k e one and by again that t h i s was most b i z a r r e , yet we in nineteenth century a s p i r i t of s c i e n t i f i c occupied by r e l i g i o n was towards science The little France the see that beance formerly woven-over by a r e l i g i o u s a t t i t u d e and It was (positivist to d i s c o v e r a b l e ones) would laws. The in the s c i e n t i f i c method faith. That an epistemology which attempts to deal thing from a s i n g l e methodology should totalitarian political mass of to church, where they would chant s c i e n t i f i c maxims as i f a b e l i e f a mythopoeic structures end should up with this i s what d i s t i n g u i s h e d r a t i o n a l i s m , i t was every- proposing come as no surprise. epistemology of p o s i t i v i s m engages i t s p r a c t i o n e r s t o t a l i t y , and a an a u t h o r i t a r i a n scheme in philosophers the world according century again itself. disconcerting. constituted may created r a t i o n a l i s m in the place people would, as u s u a l , go The It Church of Humanity's v i s i o n of the future was which s c i e n t i s t s rule of p o s i t i v i s m . i t from t h i s complete f a i t h in a eighteenth in the 97 s c i e n t i f i c method. Comte died in 1 857 , when Ge'rome was his thought was t h i r t y - t h r e e , but the most pervasive i n f l u e n c e of the next generation of French during the Second i n t e l l e c t u a l s who came into maturity Empire. Emile L i t t r e ' , the famous l e x i c o g r a p h e r , considered by the i n t e l l e c t u a l was historian meant to i n h e r i t Humanity. 1851; to have been a "pure the l e a d e r s h i p of Comte's Church But the two men fell out over the events of of Comte welcomed the d i c t a t o r s h i p of Napoleon whereas L i t t r e ' w a s a Republican. di s c i pTe' •ofi'? L i t t r e ' , however, remained Comte's thought, and that part of Comte's thought from positivist", i t s more p a t h o l o g i c a l the dominant d i s c u r s i v e he was which argued aspects, mode of the a able to rescue for rationalism and make p o s i t i v i s m Institute. L i t t r e " val ued Comte' s theory of h i s t o r y as his most 19 enduring contribution hands h i s t o r i c a l to the h i s t o r y of ideas. In L i t t r e s processes become even more d e t e r m i n i s t i c than Comte had made them. As L i t t r e ' put i t : Hi story...means research into the c o n d i t i o n s which bring about the succession of one s o c i a l s t a t e a f t e r another in a determined order. Events, t h e r e f o r e , play only a secondary r o l e ; being products of the passions and i n t e r e s t s d r i v i n g peoples and t h e i r l e a d e r s , they sometimes serve the spontaneous movement of mankind and sometimes o b s t r u c t i t ; but taken in a l l . . . t h e y are dominated by t h i s movement.20 Needless the vaguest to say, the "spontaneous movement" of mankind i s of concepts. This kind of h i s t o r i c i s m denies the p o s s i b i l i t y of c l a s s s t r u g g l e , or of i n d i v i d u a l or group 98 action having I shall a meaningful r o l e on the stage o f h i s t o r y . argue s h o r t l y , t h i s was i t s purpose, to defuse As the workin g. cl ass with s c i e n t i s m . Littre''s s t a r was somewhat e c l i p s e d Empire by " l e s deux grands mattres generation", these men Ernest Renan and were Ge'rome's age, during the Second i n t e l 1 e c t u e l s de cette Hippolyte Taine. and as a f e l l o w member of the I n s t i t u t e he must have been aquainted t a i n l y would have known Taine. Both of with them. Both Taine and He cer-.. Ge'rome became 21 p r o f e s s o r s at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1863. was given one A (Gerome of three p r o f e s s o r s h i p s in p a i n t i n g - - t h e others going to Cabanel Duc * and Pi Is — and Taine succeeded V i o l let-1 e- in the p r o f e s s o r s h i p of Art H i s t o r y and- A e s t h e t i c s ) . Although hardly.a-strict shared with Comte and attitude the f i r s t Comtean or p o s i t i v i s t , Littre' a rigourously deterministic towards his s u b j e c t . As he s a i d volume of his important, contemporaine: "A h i s t o r i a n a naturalist; may I have regarded my 22 metamorphosis of an Taine in the preface to Les O r i g i n e s de l a France be allowed the p r i v i l e g e of s u b j e c t the same as the insect." In t h i s monumental work, Taine presented image of a France which was a disturbing f l o u n d e r i n g in search of i t s ap- p r o p r i a t e system of government: ...the p o i n t i s to di scover i t , whether i t e x i s t s , and not submit i t to a vote. Our preferences in t h i s respect would be v a i n ; h i s t o r y and nature have s e l e c t e d f o r us in advance; we must accommodate 99 ourselves to them as i t i s c e r t a i n that they w i l l not accommodate themselves to us. The s o c i a l and p o l i t i c a l forms a people may enter < and remain are not open to a r b i t r a t i o n , but are determined by i t s c h a r a c t e r and i t s past. 23 Taine's enduring contribution to h i s t o r i o g r a p h y l i e s in his method, which might be termed " s o c i o l o g i c a l " . believed any given p e r i o d can y i e l d ture: one that the events, l i t e r a t u r e , a r t and to the h i s t o r i a n "mankind i s not a c o l l e c t i o n Taine politics a coherent of struc- of o b j e c t s l y i n g next to another, but a machine of f u n c t i o n a l l y interrelated parts; 24 it i s a system strategy and is s t i l l given c u l t u r a l not j u s t a formless p i l e . " c u r r e n t in some c i r c l e s , he f e l t ments, ( l i k e t h i s thesis)--can the e n t i r e human e n t e r p r i s e laws. any factors epoch. This absolute determinism--useful An in q u a l i f i e d be taken i s seen the r e s u l t of inescapable imaginative man A severe c r i t i c argu- to an extreme in which by temperament, Taine never became o v e r l y r e d u c t i v e , but he f e l t have been. that event was a product of three converging 25 race, m i l i e u and mechanical Taine's that he ought to of Taine has remarked: in Tainism and H i t l e r i s m c i v i l i z a t i o n "both has been replaced by 26 biology." This i s perhaps the d r i f t it of p o s i t i v i s t u n f a i r , but i t points out d i s c o u r s e about history that i s to render a natural s c i e n c e . Despite Taine's i c y o b j e c t i v i t y - - o r objectivity--his writing L i t t r e " and function has a deep c l a s s b i a s . Renan, or f o r that matter as a h i s t o r i a n his claim to as p o l i t i c a l . Like Comte, Marx, Taine saw his Taine apparently jug- 100 gled h i s f a c t s to support h i s personal political beliefs; Cobban c h a r a c t e r i z e s Taine's method in t h i s regard as 27 " v i c i o u s from i t s foundation". The main attack of Les O r i g i n e s was upon the R e v o l u t i o n , r e v o l u t i o n in g e n e r a l , and by e x t e n s i o n , the a s p i r a t i o n s of the working c l a s s e s . His Revolution brush i s a beggar's r e v o l t which he painted with a d r i p p i n g with gore r a t h e r than gl o i re. This unplea-i- sant p i c t u r e of the Revolution was " r e s p o n s i b l e f o r d e p r i v i n g 28 ^ Frenchmen of j o y in t h e i r h i s t o r i c a l was a key f a c t o r on Taine the malaise And of the Third Republic. had thought that the c r i s i s of modernity had had i t s roots i n the enlightenment. was deeply image." flawed Eighteenth as f a r as Taine was concerned. name of Reason, the eighteenth century man that was an automaton. discourse In the invented an image of The eighteenth was r e a l l y a form of c o u r t l y elegance, with empiricism, century century "Raison" a l t o g e t h e r impatient i t strove f o r the n i c e l y rounded aphorism. Ideas about e q u a l i t y o r i g i n a t e in a c o u r t l y context, but are only f u n c t i o n a l as a c o r o l l a r y of the symmetrical Versailles. Out of t h e i r context, that i s , in the s t r e e t s of P a r i s , they become dangerous. They i n c i t e whom Taine did not think very h i g h l y o f : ignorance, gardens of cowardice, were the p r i n c i p l e the masses, "Stupidity, violence, i n g r e d i e n t s that God 29 mixed together when making . the human race." Taine's unrelenting determinism and his d e s i r e "to communicate to the sciences c a l l e d moral and p o l i t i c a l that 101 absolute c e r t a i n t y which l i k e a l l s c h o l a r s and of h i s generation physical context he was accustomed to a t t r i b u t e to the or n a t u r a l s c i e n c e s , " place h i s f i r m l y w i t h i n the of p o s i t i v i s t discourse. His f e l l o w i n t e l l e c t u a l , Ernest surely placed, yet positivist. takes Renan, can not be so up themes and a t t i t u d e s of the Comte had t r i e d to cast h i s Church of Humanity over the be"an ce which pure s c i e n t i s m l e f t r e l i g i o n , Renan went one b e t t e r . described gild philosophers Renan: As an American critic "no one knew b e t t e r than Renan how to p o s i t i v i s m with religiosity t i o n s of the s c i e n t i f i c finite." in the place of and throw around the opera- i n t e l l e c t a vague aroma of the i n - 3 0 Renan's i d e*e f i xe was to r e c o n c i l e r e l i g i o n but and s c i e n c e , u n l i k e Comte, h i s p r i o r i t y was the r e l i g i o u s : sole value of science i s i n s o f a r as i t can replace In h i s 1 864 s ucce-s de s canda.le, between h i g h l y sentimental f e e l i n g and a s c i e n t i f i c spirit look of i n q u i r y . century the supernatural which r e q u i r e f a i t h stead of c a l l i n g s e n t i m e n t a l i t y might and f a n t a s t i c aspects to s u s t a i n one's b e l i e f f o r an end to the' r e l i g i o u s calls f o r a renewal, based not on f a i t h ing. Renan was, i n c i d e n t l y , married religious Those i n t e r e s t e d to Renan f o r t h e i r ultimate t h e o r i t i c i a n . jected religion." Le Vie de Je'sus, Renan' struck a note of concord in the phenomenon of nineteenth "The Renan r e of r e l i g i o n - - in them. But i n - s e n s i b i l i t y he but on a e s t h e t i c f e e l to the niece of that supreme master of r e l i g i o u s s e n t i m e n t a l i t y , Ary Renan a s t u t e l y observed that the is rooted in repressed rather religion. than as an did with high Both introduce between f a i t h between a c l a s s i c a l aestheticism and contemplation of the Beauty and human an limit—to say as signs of Ge'rome, but s p e c i a l attaintments they of bi ol ogi c a l - - r a t h e r than the the shimmering appearance of something e t e r n a l , beyond human l i m i t , The the r e l i g i o u s f e e l i n g occupy a . or rather s e x u a l — o n e might as well dim, and Ideas, to a d i v i n e C h r i s t , to an i n - in the worlds of Renan and became d i s t i l a t i o n s difference from being v i s i b i l i t y - - to a movement toward these things place The paintings. outward motion towards a world beyond the "high" the realms. Ideal In both cases the movement i s reversed the merely human. what realism--in sentiment i s the of the e p i c u r i a n neo-grec P l a t o n i c forms and actual a r t and sense of that word--into metaphysical difference explains There i s something of a between what -Gerome Renan did with literary convincingly emotion as a human need rather r e l a t i o n s h i p with the d i v i n e . parallel power of r e l i g i o u s f e e l i n g sexuality. In Le Vie de Je'sus, he religious Scheffer. Influence l i k e a cosmological of P o s i t i v i s m on Nineteenth century which I have t r i e d harmony or the discourse to point out the God. Arts has themes and patterns in t h i s d i s c u s s i o n . To sum 103 up: i t focuses on h i s t o r y , as leading c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of our sense. This i s why we Flaubert century commented: "The is i t s h i s t o r i c a l have to confine ourselves to relating 32 the facts." logical This close a t t e n t i o n to h i s t o r y took a s o c i o - b i a s , l a r g e l y because s o c i e t y f o r the operated under the tists assumed the sciences are first time laws of a u n i f i e d economic system. r o l e of r e l i g i o n , held The Scien- methods of the up as a u n i v e r s a l epistemology. a l s o note that p o s i t i v i s m i s e s s e n t i a l l y the natural One might thought of bourgeois t h i n k e r s anxious to solve contemporary problems without ceding The M. t h e i r power to the masses. i n f l u e n c e of p o s i t i v i s m was deep and widespread. Ferrez wrote in 1882: " P o s i t i v i s m . . . h a s become nowadays 33 the dominant philosophy." L. Dugas in 1895 wrote: "Comte dominates our age...his vast d o c t r i n e nourishes the various 34 currents in 1958 of modern thought." that: "The majority tury France) e i t h e r declared Jaques Barzun could of t h i n k i n g men declare ( i n XlXth cen- themselves P o s i t i v i s t s or 35 acted as such without knowing that they were." Emile L i t t r e the T h i r d Republic; him. In 1871 great thinkers held his had a s p e c i a l i n f l u e n c e on Gambetta and Gambetta announced that Comte was of t h i s century," D i c t i o n a r y of the and "one at a banquet in of the f i r s t French Language, he s a i d : the f r e e and founders of Ferry were both indebted to honour Littre"'s completion honoured to be the devoted servants of of that the 1873, section "We to of are doctrine 104 which i t i s your ( L i t t r e s ) mission to spread.... The day 1 will c e r t a i n l y come when p o l i t i c s , restored to i t s true role,...wi11 once again be what i t should be, a moral science ....On that day your phi 1osophy--and o u r s - - w i l l have umphed." 36 Taine was instrumental l i b r e des sciences function tical tri- in the founding of the Ecol e politiques. of t h i s school According to Gargan the was to defuse the l e f t examination of the ' m i l l e n a r y ' "by a c r i - socialists from Babeuf to the I n t e r n a t i o n a l , thus exposing the dreams of the ignor37 ant implanted by the semi-ignorant." Bloch, has a t t r i b u t e d the s o c i a l The h i s t o r i a n , Marc d i s u n i t y of the T h i r d Republic in part to the i n f l u e n c e of t h i s s c h o o l : Ecole des sciences of the scions "The p o l i t i q u e s was always the s p i r i t u a l of t h e . r i c h and powerful families. I t s gradu- ates f i l l e d the embassies, the Treasury, the council 38 and the p u b l i c audit o f f i c e . " And home of s t a t e in 1917, Clemenceau, pausing in f r o n t of Bonnat's p o r t r a i t of Renan was heard to remark: "'H don't show defer- ence to many men, but I do to him, f o r he has made us what 39 we a re. " Positivism's as i t s influence influence on the arts was as widespread among p o l i t i c i a n s Adam, sal on i s te f o r L i t t r e ' , Ferry tivists remarked: "The ideas and men of power, J u l i e t t e and other republican of. Auguste Comte and of L i t t r e ' were i n f l u e n c i n g a r t ( i n the 60's) in the most curious Altruism, posi- association, synthesis, way. humanity were everyone's 105 watchwords and stock in t r a d e . " 4 0 These words from ail courent vocabulary seem to come from Renan rather than Li ttre'. Flaubert, Taine and Princess Zola, Saint-Beuve and Renan w e l l . Mathilde's and The the Goncourts knew Goncourts have depicted at the Magny dinners. them at Zola's Le Roman experimentale i s held by some to have been i n s p i r e d 41 by the positivist France's Thais sex and philosopher, i s an e x p o s i t i o n religion. troduction Claude Bernard. to the Flaubert Anatole of Renan's t h e o r i e s asked Renan to w r i t e about the i n - second version of his Temptation of St. 42 An tony. More important than these s p e c i f i c contact was points the s o c i o l o g i c a l approach that Zola and took in t h e i r novels, which r e a l l y cannot be Flaubert said to have been " i n f l u e n c e d " by p o s i t i v i s m , rather p o s i t i v i s m literature of and p a r t i c i p a t e d in s i m i l a r modes of d i s c o u r s e , arose in response to dramatic s h i f t s . i n the way which society was organized. Of course p o s i t i v i s m was was a r e a c t i o n against and touching Baudelaire, belief in the the e n t i r e p i c t u r e . Hugo's spooks, Flaubert's irrational, Eliphas. There deep Le v i ' s mag i e Rimbaud, V e r l a i n e , Mallarme', Gustave Moreau Huysmans are only stance was it. not a few resolute and of Ge'rome's contemporaries whose in i t s o p p o s i t i o n to the positivist esprit. However, I have d e l i b e r a t e l y accounted f o r those d i s c u r s i v e models which I f e l t most i l l u m i n a t e d the work of Gerome. 106 Gerome's H i s t o r y Paintings In some ways, Ge'rome's more serious by serious one means simply having a serious n e c e s s a r i l y cast in the mail d of high that Gerome worked out history painting — a r t - - develops themes, in the neV-grec p a i n t i n g s . of c r u e l t y and sadism that g l i t t e r below the paintings The at like 1874 with the openly b r u t a l surface Verso d e p i c t s — a t generalization—the emerge i n t o the can even see, Imperial level full a certain r a r i f i e d same theme as The light box, Fight. Only here the g l a d i a t o r and i s j u s t one of The twenty y e a r s , There are the Prayer ( 1 863-1 883) being of 1 859 completely repainted c e n t r a l group of the Les There The Christian worked on at l e a s t three for times. Verso ( f i g . 2 4 ) which p a i n t i n g made into a bronze, Rentrees des which (fig.'21) of which ( f i g . 2 3 ) was s c u l p t u r a l groups l i k e P o l l i c e LaMarty re ( f i g. 2 5). Cock history. time of Vitell.ius. Pol 1i ce Verso i s more or l e s s an emendation. Last slightly of a group of p a i n t i n g s Caesar, M o r i t u r i Te Salutant Martyr.s'; in the theme i s more s e r i o u s , instead of a d e p i c t Roman entertainments in the Ave Spectators sits c o n c e i t about young love i t i s about s o c i e t y and Pol 1i ce Verso of or entertainment. in the f i g u r e of the woman who j u s t above the standing level Cock F i g h t . to his r i g h t , a v e s t i g e of the young Greek g i r l is of imagery of Pol 1i ce Verso of watch a b a t t l e to the death f o r pleasure is tinges (fig.22). Pollice We The Cock Fight or Phryne (which on one l e a s t , i s about h u m i l i a t i o n ) of day theme, not felines dans l a and Cirque Figure 2 2 108 Figure 23 109 Figure 25 m c. 1901, ( f i g . 2 6 ) , i s an e s p e c i a l l y grisly piece of p a i n t i n g . There are o t h e r s , but these examples serve to show the i n t e n s i t y of Ge'rome's i n t e r e s t in the s u b j e c t and j u s t how graphic he was prepared to be. Ge'rome had been i n t e r e s t e d his youth. in things g l a d i a t o r i a l ' since During his year in I t a l y (1844) he was s t r u c k by some Roman game armour he had found in a Neopolitan museum. "Voila' qui m'ouvre un horizon immense!... Comment! tous l e s p e i n t r e s , tous l e s scuptures sont venus i c i , songe' a r e f a i r e un g l a d i a t e u r , " Ge'rome seems s u r p r i s e d Donatello made a David but not a g l a d i a t o r . began to research the s u b j e c t : et pas un n'a He immediately "Je me recherche tout ce qui avait t r a i t au g l a d i a t e u r : des mosaiques, des p e i n t u r e s , des p e t i t e s s c u l p t u r e s , l e tombeau c o l l e c t i o n s assez nombreuse that . de Scorus, e t c . . . e t c . . . car l e s g l a d i a t e u r s ont joue un role c o n s i d e r a b l e dans l e monde romain : Panem et c i r - „43 censes. Note that Ge'rome e x p l a i n s his i n t e r e s t as i f i t was sociological curiosity,he Rome of h i s t o r i c a l isinterested in the a u t h e n t i c experience, r a t h e r than Roman high c u l t u r e ; j u s t as he had been i n t e r e s t e d Greek and Roman l i f e in anecdotes from in his ne'o-grec works, rather than the Davidian Rome of r e p u b l i c a n v i r t u e s . This s o c i o l o g i c a l one. Gerome was of g l a d i a t o r i a l i n t e r e s t was informed by a personal charmed by the strangeness and b a r b a r i t y equipment. I am not j o k i n g when I suggest Figure 26 113 that t h i s material , which he longed to possess, which he lovingly painted and s c u l p t e d , ultimate b r i c - a - b r a c which he could w a s - j some s e c r e t way the n f o r him; the ultimate impose a f a n c i e r ' s value c o l l e c t a b l e upon, of some sexual signi- ficance. In Pol l i c e were the real painted Verso and Ave Caesar the armour and weaponry subjects of the p a i n t i n g . to c o r r e c t i n a c c u r a c i e s Pol 1i ce Verso was in Ave Caesar, "which was 44 incorrect iably i n several archaeological used a r t i f a c t s points." Ge'rome prob-- in the Po u r t a l e's-Gorgi er. col 1 e c t i on to make P o l l i c e Verso and he also had a f r i e n d ship casts of armour to Paris from o r i g i n a l s Gerome had found in a Roman 45 '* museum. According to an American student, i t cost Gerome three thousand do!1ars to have armour made from these c a s t s , t h i s would almost be more than he could reasonably expect 46 to get f o r the f i n i s h e d p a i n t i n g . This d r i v e f o r absolute accuracy in d e t a i l was important because " . . . i t general physiognomy and gives the characters barbarous, savage and strange aspect." an e s p e c i a l He hired a model to wear the armour and the fantasy was complete: wrote Ge'rome, "dressed adds to the "My model," up i n them i s f o r a l l i n t e n t s and 47 purposes a g l a d i a t o r . " Ge'rome may have had s e v e r a l painted this s e r i e s of p a i n t i n g s . things in mind when he Of course, there was the p r o s a i c reason of expense, once c e r t a i n costumes and a r t i f a c t s had been c o l l e c t e d , a c e r t a i n amount of time invested 114 in r e s e a r c h , Ge'rome n a t u r a l l y had to make more than one p a i n t i n g . f r o m them, or he would have gone bankrupt. as I have suggested, t h i s p a r t i c u l a r theme was But, important to him f o r personal reasons. In his s e r i e s of Roman s p e c t a c l e s , Gerome uses a " s o c i o logical" style. As one critic put i t : "He wished to photo- 47 graph Greek and Roman l i f e . " -But t h i s had been the method of his ethnographic p a i n t i n g s as w e l l . I think that we can assume that the Roman s p e c t a c l e s are a c r i t i q u e of c i v i l i z a t i o n , of the b a r b a r i t y of mankind. Po11i ce Verso was Prussian war and P a r i s Commune. quested painted three years a f t e r the the formation and brutal supression of the In.a l e t t e r to a young American that he e x p l a i n Franco- who had re- the s i g n i f i c a n c e of P o l l i c e Verso, Ge'rome wrote: " . . . t h a t the turned down thumb meant death to the vanquished and that when the Roman people wished to impart grace to the g l a d i a t o r who had gone down but fought v a l i a n t l y , they r a i s e d f i n g e r s of the r i g h t hand two had 48 in the a i r . " This is the gesture which the f a l l e n in the p a i n t i n g was they who implores the v e s t a l made the d e c i s i o n . " t h i s grace was o f f times, man gladiator v i r g i n s to make, as i t "But," Ge'rome continued, r a r e l y accorded f o r in those r e l a t i v e l y f a r was already almost as f e r o c i o u s ( f e r o c e ) as 49 he i s today." Certainly,such c y n i c i s m was considered an elegant mode of conversation in the Second Empire and but Ge'rome has not only tossed o f f a bon mot, beyond, he has laboured 115 over a s e r i e s of p a i n t i n g s which emphasize the b r u t a l i t y man. We letter should that he f e l t century, which he disorder", protagonists selves we we can we may epoch of moral and t e n t a t i v e l y engaged. in something of the recoil viewer f o r As would too passed and late. the the in the and vanquished (Note that t h i s is not group, where p o s i t i o n of that Roman mob And given in r e c o i l i n g withdraw any f o r the young man and this situation f e e l i n g we about to d i e . uneasiness i s c l o s e to the e s p r i t of P o l l i c e is our- c e r t a i n l y , i f i t were up to us we t h e i r -decision) . Geromes,, the spectators speaking with t h e s c u l p t u r a l wish to have had l i k e other intellectual crowd are more l i t e r a l l y only nineteenth same p o s i t i o n as the i s making his plea perhaps reverse in his been in Roman times. Verso, the sympathy of the case, s t r i c t l y can "an clemency--but that moment has fighter the called i s only are suggested that things were worse in the the p a i n t i n g , and grant s e r i o u s l y when he than they had In P o l l i c e in take him of This Verso--which i s rather macabre--and I b e l i e v e that i t r e a c t i o n Ge'rome wishes to invoke and by so doing make h i s p o i n t. We cannot r e a l l y work up much f e e l i n g f o r the t a g o n i s t s when the r e s u l t of the conclusion. given The context pro- i s such a foregone winner i s not much b e t t e r o f f than the his occupation. He w i l l , adversary, but not out of any have; t h i s d e c i s i o n no loser, doubt, slay his young volition i s quite l i t e r a l l y that he himself may in the others. hands,of 116 In fact his v i c t o r y only r e i f i e s week, he w i l l is tomorrow, next be in the same g h a s t l y circumstance. I f there no rescue from t h i s arena other than death, then the extension of l i f e victor which v i c t o r y brings hardly matters. death. In other p a i n t i n g s Gerome a m p l i f i e s is about the meaninglessness in an arena of a c t i o n historical In of i n d i v i d u a l c i r c u m s c r i b e d by fate Ge'rome's Death of Marshal r e f e r s to his Death year before. two events. : before i t was As an Ecole des Beaux-Arts Ney the Marshal made. refused ( f i g . 2 8 ) painted between the Ney painting p r o f e s s o r there was little caused 1868. that the p a i n t i n g , but an Gerome reported the event as f o l l o w s : times not to e x h i b i t (Nieuwerkerke) begged "The me t h i s p i c t u r e ; but I stead- to y i e l d , f o r the sake of the p r i n c i p l e i n - volved, d e c l a r i n g pens." in the guise of e x h i b i t e d at the Salon of superintendant of the Beaux-Arts write t h e i r volition of 186 8, ( f i g . 2 7 ) he of Caesar could be done to stop him from hanging several a c t i o n and He thereby begs a comparison The b r u t a l i t y o f a controversy e f f o r t was t h i s theme, which necessity. deliberately fastly Our i s a h e l p l e s s puppet whose only sure prospect i s a violent the his f a t e : to him that p a i n t e r s has as good a r i g h t to h i s t o r y with t h e i r brushes as authors with Gerome's " p r i n c i p l e " their here i s almost a paraphrase of Delaroche, from whom Ge'rome probably r e c e i v e d this particular 50 form of the idea of the a r t i s t as a h i s t o r i a n . Ge'rome added, Figure -28 118 not a l i t t l e coyly; "Besides, this ment of a well-known f a c t , without Of course, detached Ge'rome's c o l d and brutality i s , in f a c t , p i c t u r e i s only a s t a t e comment of any kind." " o b j e c t i v e " eye, 5 1 with i t s "comment" enough as i t hardly evokes the heroic mood that Nieuwerkerke might have wished to surround such subject-matter. After a l l , Gerome could chosen another moment, he could have depicted Ney shot, or l i k e Manet, in his Execution have about to be of Maximi H i an, he 52 could have shown Ney once great general looks and lying shot. and Instead, he shows us face down in the mud--Ge'rome' s l i k e a sack of potatoes f o r g o t t o n , Ney they being that was jostled Ney from a c a r t Caesar have not only been murdered, have been abandoned. A l b e r t Boime has w r i t t e n of these the f i g u r e s in what we protagonists take do not achieve as t y p i c a l p a i n t i n g s : "Unlike history paintings, isolation, pitted the overwhelming predominance of f o r c e s outside harshly a g a i n s t 53 them." In Ge'rome's L ' 0 e d i pe ( f i g . 2 9) , shown at the he d e p i c t s a diminutive Giza. From the title one Napoleon before general sphinx. But Imperial by removing the izes the s i t u a t i o n and of the Sphinx at sandstone from t h i s p a i n t i n g ( f i g . 3 0 ) Ge'rome had an answer, an Salon must assume that Napoleon expects some r e v e l a t i o n of his d e s t i n y from t h i s In a sketch these h e r o i c stature but are d i s c l o s e d in moments of abandonment and 1886, the eagle s i t s on the creature. given the head of the "answer" or omen, Gerome general- Napoleon becomes everyman wondering Figure 29 Figure 30 121 what i t w i l l a l l come to--and knowing s i l e n c e . r e c e i v i n g by way of a r e p l y a As Ge'rome's e b u l l i e n t biographer, Fanny F i e l d Hering put i t : The sphinx rears i t s massive head, and regards with a calmness born of absolute knowledge the vain s t r u g g l e s of a pygmy wor1d...(Napoleon) mutely demands of the o r a c l e the s e c r e t of his future. In vain! the steady gaze passes over even h i s head--on--on--doubtless beholding the snowy steppes of Russia, reddened with blood and the l i g h t of c o n f l a g r a t i o n ; the wounded eagle t r a i l i n g h i s broken wings over the f i e l d of Waterloo; a l o n e l y rock, at the base of which the sea makes incessant moan.. But there is no warning, no s i g n . ^ 4 The world which Ge'rome has made in these p a i n t i n g s i s rigorously d e t e r m i n i s t i c ; men do not make h i s t o r y in Gerome's paintings, rather they are undone by h i s t o r y . manner of p a i n t i n g hard, p o l i s h e d the d e t a i l attempted dwarfs surface, dwelt fits h i s theme. His h i s t i g h t l i n e , absent of p e r s o n a l i t y , upon as promiscuously to i m i t a t e the photograph, as i f the canvases and the composition which the p r o t a g o n i s t s i n . l a r g e , somewhat menacing a r c h i - tectural spaces, a l l serve to bring determinism. attempt kind", i n these p i c t u r e s Gerome's This forward the theme of technique, what one might c a l l at a "blank" s t y l e , a s t y l e "without has a l l the appearances One commonly a s s o c i a t e s the f a c u l t y , r a t h e r in the a c t i v i t i e s associated Gerome's comment of any of p o s i t i v i s t o b j e c t i v i t y . o b j e c t i v i t y with p o s i t i v i s m , as than s u b j e c t i v i t y , which the mind deploys of the natural with r e a l i s m , sciences. in p a i n t i n g as well Objectivity is as l i t e r a t u r e . 122 Gerald Ackerman, who Gerome, has realist" has done a great deal of work on c o n s i s t e n t l y described Ge'rome as an or as a " r e a l i s t " , "academic l a r g e l y because of the photo- 54 graphic s t y l e of his p a i n t i n g s . s t r a i g h t f o r w a r d one. rightly But this As Merleau-Ponty has pointed out, quite I t h i n k , a photograph.: of a Cezanne motif l e s s somehow " r e a l " than we nineteenth invoke when we century say painting. "realist" On the but a s p e c i a l put together term was used of i l l u s i o n than in reference to a l a t t e r occasion we mean we often do_ not in a h i g h l y f i n i s h e d p a i n t i n g - - range of subject-matter. the f o l l o w i n g d e f i n i t i o n in the c r i t i c a 1 Obviously i s implied here not only a p a r t i c u l a r manner of painting--and mean the c l a r i t y looks 56 the p a i n t i n g of i t does. a d i f f e r e n t meaning of the word " r e a l " the one issue i s not a Bernard Wienberg of " r e a l i s m " as 1 i t e r a t u r e between 1830 has the and 1870: Realism i s the exact i m i t a t i o n (ca1 que, copy) of nature as i t i s , without choice of subject and . without i d e a l i z a t i o n or i n t r u s i o n of the a r t i s t ' s p e r s o n a l i t y , i t emphasises the m a t e r i a l r a t h e r than the s p i r i t u a l aspedts of nature: in matters of form i t d i s d a i n s " s t y l e " , "elegance", "convention". It i s synomous with m a t e r i a l i sme, and pos i t i vi sme and d i r e c t l y opposed to i de'ali sme , r e v e r i e , fan tas i e , poesi e , imagination. 57 ~ This d e f i n i t i o n only a p p l i e s p a r t i a l l y t a i n l y he strove f o r o b j e c t i v i t y , and i s t" imagination of the r e a l . to Ge'rome. Cer- that w i t h i n a However, Ge'rSme was fender of i de'a 1 i sme , r e v e r i e , f a n t a s i e , poe's ie and "positiva dethe 123 i magi nation., Are we The really prepared to c a l l Poet Touched by His Muse ( f i g . 31) the p a i n t e r of a realist. Gerome himself would have renounced the l a b e l , despite his photographic s t y l e he had strong opinions on realist subject- matter: Today, in the epoch of moral and i n t e l l e c t u a l d i s o r d e r there seems to be a sovereign contempt f o r those who seek to e l e v a t e themselves, to move the s p e c t a t o r , to have some i m a g i n a t i o n ; for those who are not content to remain f e t t e r e d to the e a r t h , dabbling in the mud of r e a l i s m . I t is today the fashion to which a l l the world s a c r i f i c e s , because i t i s granted to only a few to have a well-balanced mind, and because i t i s e a s i e r to paint three f r i e d eggs than i t i s to execute the c e i l i n g of the S i s t i n e Chapel.58 What Ge'rome seems to have done was to wrestle from general d i s c o u r s e values that espoused o b j e c t i v i t y both aspects of the p o s i t i v i s t of the values and Arts student. and determinism-- stance--whi1e r e t a i n i n g many ideas he r e c e i v e d in his youth as a Beaux- For a c c o r d i n g to the d e f i n i t i o n s we c a t e g o r i z e nineteenth century p a i n t i n g , Ge'rome's p e r s o n a l i t y is d e c i d e d l y d i v i d e d between r e a l i s m and Academic Gerome worked in d i f f e r e n t in the ethnographic vision genres, genre which gave him to make his r a t h e r s p e c i a l In 1 854 , i t w i l l use to and i t was formulae. his work the means and the "serious" history paintings. be remembered, Ge'rome had j u s t completed a grande machine in the I n g r e i s t e mode, he a l s o painted his first ethnographic work. a Recreation Camp was His p a i n t i n g , Russian painted in a photographic .it a documentary f e e l ing, thi s was p a i n t i n g developed a s t y l e of S o l d i e r s in s t y l e to give ethnographic in the previous generation by Vernet, using 124 Figure 31 125 actual photographs. From documenting the o r i e n t , Ge'rome began documenting historical periods. He used the photographic s t y l e a f e e l i n g of a u t h e n t i c i t y , a problem, occupied merely Delaroche and a high focus and Renaissance But they had used of d e t a i l , a s o r t of northern r e a l i s m , to accomplish same, but he also which of course, had Ingres before him. clarity to give this. Gerome did the uses compositional techniques that can only have been a r e s u l t of his experience with photography. Death of Caesar scope. As i s a case in p o i n t - - i t in Ave The looks l i k e a s t e r e o - Caesar and other p a i n t i n g s , the background recedes with d i z z y i n g speed, p a r t l y as a r e s u l t of the sweeping curves which tend to wrap around as i f we and are seeing a f u l l p u l l s the eye into the Gerome's a t t i t u d e matter was and one the f i e l d hundred of v i s i o n - - and e i g h t y degrees-- canvas. towards h i s h i s t o r i c a l s u b j e c t - c o n d i t i o n e d by his temperament, he l i k e d he l i k e d the e x o t i c and the strange. romantic side of Gerome f i n d s p r o s a i c values of a p r o v i n c i a l complishment But t h i s spectacle almost i t s e l f expressed through bourgeois, who in terms of labour r a t h e r than Ge'rome's emphasis on hard work approaches the measured ac^inspiration. the compulsive: I am at work every morning and only leave my studio when the day had f l e d ; and t h i s since my youth. You see I have been hammering on the a n v i l f o r a long time. It i s one of the examples I t r y to set to my pupiils, that of being an ardent and i n d e f a t i g a b l e worker every day and under a l l circumstances.59 Like Renan or Taine, Gerome approached his s u b j e c t s very methodically. methods and He never acknowledges Taine, but aims were s i m i l a r . Taine's t h e i r worki attitude was: Give up the theory of c o n s t i t u t i o n s and t h e i r mechanism, of r e l i g i o n s and t h e i r system and try to see men in. t h e i r workshops, in t h e i r o f f i c e s , in t h e i r f i e l d s , with t h e i r sky, t h e i r dress, t i l l a g e , meals, as you do when, landing in England or I t a l y , you remark faces or gestures, roads and inns, a c i t i z e n taking his walk or a workman d r i n k i n g . 60 Ge'rome' s approach to h i s t o r y was • much the same: I have studied much and in many c o u n t r i e s , and have consequently learned a great many things which I t r y to put i n t o p r a c t i s e , always seeki n f to remain natural and t r u e , f o r c i n g myself to d e p i c t the character of the epoch which I represent on the canvas.61 In other words, Ge'rome f e l t himself to be a h i s t o r i a n in the Tainian sense, that is he focussed and we e r a , rather than on take Pol l i c e p a i n t i n g has the i n d i v i d u a l s and ancient t h e i r heroisms. Verso as an example, we can a great deal of information unfolding drama i t s e l f . Rome: "The Renan had c i r c u s had the r e s t of the world on m i l i e u , race see that become the this in i t , other declared of centre of If than this life; seemed made only f o r m i n i s t e r i n g to 62 the pleasures of Rome." And the Colosseum and Circus p a i n t i n g s endeavour to show us Roman.-civi1ization. has box, shown us an e n t i r e s o c i e t y , the imperial powers in the the v e s t a l v i r g i n s next to them, the senators p a t r i c i a n s behind and In his V e r s a i l l e s method. The Reception Gerome beyond them the mob and of Rome. p a i n t i n g s Ge'rome has much the same of the Due de Conde ( f i g . 3 2 ) was made 127 according to one had felt account that t h i s had to c e l e b r a t e the s t a i r c a s e . been improperly in the work of a. f r i e n d . rendered or " r e s t o r e d " So t h i s p a i n t i n g , d e s p i t e i t s i n t e r e s t as an anecdote, i s l a r g e l y a s c h o l a r l y Gerome i s saying--as looked like'. to the a c t i o n . It was Taine who there were s t r u c t u r a l similarities t i o n s of a p a r t i c u l a r culture. that we really could not f u l l y understand felt, immensely declared that between a l l manifestaGe'rome must have thought the story here — which i s only a gracious comment by the king-- unless we what that s t a i r c a s e way And i s what Ge'rome probably as Taine would have, that the a r c h i t e c t u r e was important rebuttal. much as anything e l s e — ' t h i s the s t a i r c a s e a c t u a l l y Gerome looked like. That Ge'rome f e l t knew this i s brought out even more in his famous L'Eminence g r i s e (fig.33). In t h i s p a i n t i n g the syncopated the stream of c o u r t i e r s - - i n to i n t r i g u e as we of the essence gestures which e l a b o r a t e courtesy mount the s t a i r s — a r e of turns themselves an image of a p a r t i cul ar. c ul ture ; j u s t as the frenzy of the Roman p i c t u r e s was an image of the essence of that culture. The ethnographic p a i n t i n g s , with t h e i r emphasis on "type" are a l s o examples of Ge'rome's t y p i c a l l y century ( i . e . p o s t i v i s t ) penchant f o r e x t r a c t i n g the from the p a r t i c u l a r . Or to put of those general i t more a c c u r a t e l y , t h i s tendancy to present an array of p a r t i c u l a r s and sum nineteenth present the p a r t i c u l a r s as the g e n e r a l . For Ge'rome and his 128 Figure 33 129 colleagues in philosophy of i t s p a r t s . As and a critic [Gerome] i s the f i r s t h i s t o r y . t h e whole was the sum noted of Gerome s p a i n t i n g s : "He 1 French p a i n t e r who has been scrupulous 64 to give a l l the p a r t i c u l a r s . " A parallel found in Taine, whose method was of c u l t u r a l approach i s u l t i m a t e l y the arrangement facts into a structure. Gerome's determinism, his v i s i o n of a l i e n t a t i o n and isolation but which comes out not in a l i f e l o n g Boime has very s e r i e s of l i o n discussed seau's Sleeping only paintings (which A l b e r t in h i s , "Jean-Leon Ge'rome, Henri 65 Gypsy and the Academic Legacy.: around, at any and "the methods of the natural of the Gerome assumes f o r h i m s e l f , lations But artist. docu- perhaps i t i s the other rate determinism, often of a bleak v a r i e t y , is because the aim past—is Or Rous- ), i s much a r e s u l t of his s o c i o l o g i c a l / p h o t o g r a p h i c way scientist" social go hand in hand. scientist—a both of the o r i e n t and role of the to d i s c o v e r , as Comte would have i t , " l e u r s rei n v a r i a b l e de Gerome was He presents succession Napoleon and his Ney et de s i m i l i t u d e . " not a s c i e n t i s t essays on where the game i s f i x e d . the history paintings mentary approach to his s u b j e c t s . This in the are who an His g l a d i a t o r s , his Caesar, struck down by the juggernaut of Ney and shaped h i s t o r y , but men executed when they t r i e d he was i n v a r i a b l e laws; microc.osims determinable laws of h i s t o r y . presented as men in t h i s way, to trespass Caesar are who beyond the not were limits of the historically poss i.bl e--th i s i s Ge'rome's v i s i o n of tragedy. Both Taine's and. Gerome's view of a l i e n a t e d a common r o o t , or can be explained phenomena. P o s i t i v i s m , a f t e r a l l , was a r e a c t i o n of study at t h i s h i s t o r i c a l time, and f o r the f i r s t have by the same s o c i a l development of c a p i t a l i s m , and s o c i e t y object man i s perceived to the as an moment because at t h i s time, i f we are to b e l i e v e and Marx, s o c i e t y as a whole became subject Polanyi to one set of laws--the laws of the s e l f - r e g u l a t i n g market economy. 131 Notes - Chapter IV 'As c i t e d by Hering, 189, o p . c i t . p.493. 2 R. F l i n t , A n t i - T h e i s t i c T h e o r i e s , Edinburgh, 1917,p.505. Quoted in D.G. C h a r l t o n , P o s i t i v i s t Thought in France During the Second Empire 1852-1870, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1959, p.5 D.G. The approach I have in mind i s the one employed C h a r l t o n , see note above. by Auguste Comte, Cours de p h i l o s o p h i e p o s i t i v e , i , 1 864, pp.9-10. Quoted in C h a r l t o n , o_p_.cJ_t. , p.6. 5 Lesek Kolakowski , The A l i e n a t i o n of Reason: A H i s t o r y of P o s i t i v i s t Thought, ( t r a n s . Norbert Guterman) New York, 1968, p.6. "Claude Bernard quoted by Henri Bergson in The" C r e a t i v e Mind, Greenwood P r e s s , New York, 1988, p.243' T h i s paragraph was paraphrased from Ko1 akowski , o p . c i t . pp.7-8. Kolakowski w r i t e s : "...we are not to assume that any value a s s e r t i o n . ( K o l a k o w s k i ' s examples are that i t i s "good" to cure the s i c k and that i t i s "bad" to abuse c h i l d r e n ) that we recognize as true " i n i t s e l f " , r a t h e r than in r e l a t i o n to something e l s e , can be j u s t i f i e d by experience."-Idem. 7 0_p_. c_i_t. , p. 210. u 9 ...Karl P o l a n y i , The Great Transformation: The P o l i t i c a l and Economic O r i g i n s of our Time, Foreward by Robert M.MacIver. "Beacon Press, Boston, 1957, p.84. Georg Luka'cs, H i s t o r y and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist D i a l e c t i c s , (trans Rodney L i v i n g s t o n e ) Merlin Press, London, 1968, p.92. 10 1 1 Ibid, p.19. C h a r l t o n , o p . c i t . , p.'2<L_ 132 ]3 Quoted by Linda 1971 , p.45. 1 4 Karl Nochlin Polayni, Ibid, in Realism, Penguin Books, p.84. 15 George Boas, French P h i l o s o p h i e s of the Romantic P e r i o d , John Hopkins Press: B a l t i m o r e , 1925, p.254. I b i d . p.270f. Boas i s summarizing^the contents Saint-Simon's L e t t r e s d'un Habitant de Geneve, 1803. 17 of Luka'cs, o p . c i t . , p.193. 18 "Ce n'est pas aux l e c t e u r s de cet ouvrage que je c r o i r a i jamais devoir prouver que les ide'es gouvernent et bouleve.rsent l e monde, ou, en d'autres termes, que tout le mecanisme s o c i a l repose final.ement sur des o p i n i o n s , l i s savent sur.tout que l a grande c r i s e p o l i t i q u e et morale des societes.; a c t u e l l e s t i e n t , en derniere analyse, ai I'anarchi'e i n te 11 ect uel 1 e. " As c i t e d in C h a r l t o n , o p . c i t . , p.38. "Here (on the question of the Law of Three Stages) L i t t r e ' and his c o l l a b o r a t o r s could reproduce the master's voice f a i t h f u l l y , so much so that L i t t r e ' p r a i s e d Comte's work as the f i r s t p h i l o s o p h i c a l a p p r e c i a t i o n of h i s t o r y and claimed that i t was in t h i s f i e l d . . . t h a t he had been an accomplished s p e c i a l i s t , apart from his s y n t h e s i z i n g achievements in philosophy." W.M. Simon in European P o s i t i v i s m in the Nineteenth Century, C o r n e l l U n i v e r s i t y Press: Ithaca, New York, 1963. p.30. From L i t t r e ' s inaugural and only l e c t u r e from the c h a i r of H i s t o r y at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1871. Quoted in W.M. Simon, European P o s i t i v i s m in the Nineteenth Century: An Essay in I n t e l l e c t u a l h i s t o r y , C o r n e l l U n i v e r s i t y Press, Ithaca, New York, 1963, p.30. 21 ' In November of 1863 the Ecole des Beaux-Arts was completely overhauled under the then Superintendant of Beaux-Arts, Count Nieuwerkerke. A l b e r t Boime has an f o r t h coming a r t i c l e on these reforms ( f o r Art Q u a r t e r l y ) . They are a l s o d e s c r i b e d by Ernest Vinet in a " L e t t e r from P a r i s , "Fine Arts Q u a r t e r l y , V o l . 1, n.s., October, 1866, pp.432-446. Among the more important reforms was the i n s t a l l a t i o n of three master s t u d i o s within the ecole i t s e l f f o r p a i n t i n g i n s t r u c t i o n , previous to 1863 only drawing i n s t r u c t i o n had taken place on the e'col e premises. 1 33 22 From the Preface to Volume I of The Ancient Regime ( t r a n s . John Durand) H. Holt & Co., New York, 1876. Rep r i n t e d in The O r i g i n s of Contemporary France, ed. Edward T. Gargan, U n i v e r s i t y of Chicago, 1974, p.6. 23 Ibid, p.4. 24 Hippolyte Taine, "Preface de l a premiere p . i i i . Quoted in Edward O r i g i n s of Contemporary E s s a i s de c r i t i q u e et d ' h i s t o i r e , e'dition," 12th e d . , , P a r i s , 1913, ;> Gargan, " I n t r o d u c t i o n " in The France, o p . c i t . p . x x v i i . 25 See Linda N o c h l i n , o p . c i t . p.45. 26 Leo S p i t z e r , "Race", in Essays in H i s t o r i c a l Semanti cs, .New York, 1948, p.155, as quoted in Gargan, o p . c i t . p.xxvi i i . 27 A l f r e d Cobban, " H i s t o r i a n s and the Causes of the French R e v o l u t i o n , " in Aspects of the French Revolution New York, 1 968, p.43-44, as quoted in Gargan, o p .: c i t. , p. xi i . 28 Gargan, o p . c i t . , p. x l . 29 Hippolyte Taine, L i f e and L e t t e r s , ( t r a n s . R.L. Devonshire), 3 v o l s . , New York, 1902-08 I: p.137, as quoted in Gargan, o p . c i t . , p.xx. 30 I. Babbit, The Masters.of French C r i t i c i s m , Boston, p.271, as quoted Tn Char! ton , o p . c i t , p . 86 . 1912, 31 As quoted by Emile Faguet, P o l i t i c i a n s and M o r a l i s t s of The Nineteenth. Century, Books f o r L i b r a r i e s Press rep r i n t : F r e e p o r t , New York, 1 970 , p.276. 32 As quoted in Linda N o c h l i n , o p . c i t . , p.23. 33 In S o c i a l isme natural isme and p o s i t i v i s m e 4th ed. Pari s., n . d. ; f i r s t pub. 1882 , p.313, as quoted in Simon, o p . c i t . , p.90. 34 In "Auguste Comte: Etude c r i t i q u e et psychologique ," in Revue phi1osophique , XL, 1 895 , pp.397-398, as quoted in Simon, I b i d . 1 34 35 Darwin, Marx, Wagner: C r i t i q u e of a H e r i t a g e , 2nd ed. Garden C i t y , New York, 1958, p.49. 36 From a speech made^in 1 873 honoring L i t t r e on the completion of his Dictionnaire de l a langue f r a n c h i s e , as 155 quoted in W.M. Simon, o p f c i t. , p 37 Gargan, o p . c i t . , p.xxxv. Gargan i s summarizing Taine's a r t i c l e , "Fondation de l'e'cole l i b r e des sciences p o l i t i q u e s , " t h i s .origina11y appeared in the Journal des debats and was r e p r i n t e d in Derniers e s s a i s de c r i t i q u e et d ' h i s t o i r e , P a r i s , 192 3. ( 3o New Marcel Bloch, Strange Defeat, t r a n s . Gerard Hopkins, York, 1 968, p.159, as quoted in Gargan, o p . c i t . , p.xxxvi 39 This i n c i d e n t i s recounted in Wardman, o p . c i t . , p.209 40 J u l l i e t t e Adam, My L i t e r a r y in S i mon , o p . c i t . , p.163. L i f e , p.365, as quoted " H i s [Bernard's] adventures were almost i n e v i t a b l y led to f e e l that s c i e n c e and knowledge were synonymous; Zola's Le Roman experimental i s only the most n o t o r i o u s i l l u s t r a t i o n of the scientist's profound plh.i 1 osophical impact." C h a r l t o n , o p . c i t . p .73. 4 1 A 42 Wardman, o p . c i t . , p.210 reports t h i s Renan's i n t r o d u c t i o n , although w r i t t e n , was not published with F l a u b e r t ' s book. 43 A Moreau-Vathier, C h a r l e s . Gerome, p e i n t r e et s c u l p t e u r , 1'homme et l ' a r t i s t e , D'apres sa correspondance, ses notes, les souvenirs de ses eleves et de ses amis. P a r i s , 1906, L i b r a i r e Hachette et C i e . , p.65. 44 Hering, 1892,i op.ci t 88. 45, 'Albert Bo i me . wri tes : "Ge'rome sought out the banker's set of g l a d i a t o r armour to ensure that his p a i n t i n g Pol 1i ce Verso would possess a r c h a e o l o g i c a l v e r i s i m i l i t u d e . " in "(Entrepreneurial Patronage, in Nineteenth Century France," o p . c i t . , p . 149. 1 35 46 The student in question was J. Alden Wier, who l a t e r took up the cuase of Impressionism in America; from Dorothy Wier Young (ed. & i n t r o ) , The L i f e and L e t t e r s of J. Alden Wier, New Haven, 1960, p . 4 7 ~ : Fre'de'ri c Masson ine'dites," in Les Arts 47 48 49 ed. " J . L . Ge'rome Notes et Feb. 1904, p.26. Benson , o p . c i t p.682. Masson, o p . c i t p.26. Fragments 50, 'Delaroche: "L'historien ne s e u t - i l pas tous l e s jours de sa plume pour r e t r a c e r l e s e'voiements de l a v i e l l e ? Pourquoi done defendre au petntre de s e s e r v i r des memes materiaux. pour ens,eigner l a ve'rite' dans toute sa dignite' et sa veritable poesie?" from a l e t t e r quoted in an unsigned a r t i c l e , '"Delaroche" in The Fine Arts Q u a r t e r l y , Vol.2, May, 1864, p.293. "'Hering, 1 889 , op_. c r t . , p.490. 52 * /\ In his catalogue entry f o r the Ge'rome e x h i b i t i o n , o p-c i t. p.65, Ackerman seems to see Marshal Ney as part of an ongoing dialogue with Manet and a response to th.e T a t t e r ' s Execution of M a x i m i l l i a n in p a r t i c u l a r . Ackerman thinks that Ge'rome Ts t r y i n g to be more of a " r e a l i s t " than Manet. "Manet e i t h e r d i d not know or chose to ignore the r e a l i s t dictum--that i t was b e t t e r to show the moment before or a f t e r the deed than the deed i tse 1 f - - wh i ch Ge'rome now f o l l o w s . " This s o - c a l l e d " r e a l i s t " dictum i s in f a c t no such t h i n g . It i s a Davidian theory which comes from Diderot or Lessing (needless to say, i t i s also a cannon of A t t i c tragedy). "Painting...can use but a s i n g l e moment of an a c t i o n , and must t h e r e f o r e choose the most pregnant one, the one most suggestive of what has gone before and what i s to f o l l o w . " (from Lessing's Laocoon. ( t r a n s . E l l e n Frothingham, New York 1963, p.92). In an a r t i c l e which appeared in the Gazette des beaux-arts v o l . 70, 1967, pp.163-176, "Ge>6me and Manet", Ackerman c a r r i e s t h i s on h i s version of a dialogue between Manet and Gerome. 53 Boime, 1971, 54 "GerSme & Rousseau", Hering, 1 889 , op_. cj_t. , p.485f. op.cit. p.4 1 36 0 0 A In his i n t r o d u c t i o n to the Ge'rome catalogue, o p . c i t . , Ackerman makes a d i s t i n c t i o n between the o b j e c t i v e r e a l i s t ( i . e . Gerome) and the s u b j e c t i v e r e a l i s t ( i . e . Impressionism). He w r i t e s : " I t i s a curious and poorly based p r e j u d i c e of 20th century c r i t i c s to bestow the t i t l e of " r e a l i s m " only upon p i c t u r e s concerned with that which the a r t i s t could see in his "everyday l i f e " , (p.12) This " p r e j u d i c e " is based upon the c r i t i c a l w r i t i n g of the nineteenth century, which as Wienberg has pointed out used the word " r e a l i s t " in regard to a c e r t a i n type of s u b j e c t - m a t t e r . Or perhaps t h i s "poorly based " p r e j u d i c e " a r i s e s from Gerome h i m s e l f , who would have c e r t a i n l y never r e f e r r e d to himself as a "realist". Maurice Merleau-ponty, "Cezanne's Doubt," in Sense and Nonsense, Transl ated" by Hubert L. Dreyfus and P a t r i c i a A l l e n Dreyfus. Northwestern U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1974, p . l 3 f . : Ce'zanne wanted to p a i n t t h i s p r i m o r d i a l world, and his pictur'es t h e r e f o r e seem to show nature pure, while photographs of the same landscapes suggest man's works, conveniences, and imment presence." 57 Bernard Weinberg, French Rea1ism: The C r i t i c a l Reacti on, 1 830-1 870 , Modern Language A s s o c i a t i o n of America: New York, 1937, p.102. °Hering, 5 9 I bid, 1 889, o_p_.cvt. p.493. p.494. 60 As quoted in N o c h l i n , o p . c i t . , p.23. H e r i n g , 1 889 , op_. c i t . , p.494. Ernest Renan, Anti Chri s t , t r a n s . W i l l i a m G. Hutchison London, 1889, p.65. 6 1 Ge'rSme wrote an account of the a c t i o n f o r W.H. Vanderb i l t , f o r whom he had painted i t : "In the year 1674, Conde' had returned to Court, where he was r e c e i v e d in triumph. The king came forward to meet him on the grand s t a i r c a s e , which was not his usual habit.. The Prince was going up slowly, on account of the gout, which made him almost helpless. As soon as he saw the Monarch, ' S i r e , s a i d he, 'I beg your majesty's pardon, to make you wait so long.' 'My cousin,' answered the King, 'do not hurry. When one i s loaded with l a u r e l s as you a r e , i t i s d i f f i c u l t to walk quickly.'" As c i t e d in The Dayton Art I n s t i t u t e , o p . c i t . , p . 7 4 . 1 137 64 6 5 Benson, o p . c i t . , p.682. In A r t Q u a r t e r l y , V o l . 34, 1971, pp.3-30. 1 38 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION In Chapters Two and Three I argued, f o l l o w i n g Benjamin, that the a c t i v i t y of c o l l e c t i n g distant in time and the d i s t a n t in space was an of rescue: h i s objects commodities. operation a fancier's value and rescue them from the burden of being I a l s o argued ethnographic p a i n t i n g s that Gerome's ne'o-grec and duplicate his a c t i v i t y Much the same thing could In these p a i n t i n g s i s hard to t e l l as a c o l l e c t o r . be said about h i s h i s t o r y p a i n t - i n g s , e s p e c i a l l y those which d e p i c t ancient and from the that the c o l l e c t o r who arranged his inte'rieur with e x o t i c b r i c - a - b r a c wished to confer on objects Walter the a r c h i t e c t u r e often whether i t serves Rome or V e r s a i l l e s predominates; i t to accentuate the f i g u r e s t h e i r a c t i o n s or i f , indeed, the f i g u r e s serve to ac- centuate the a r c h i t e c t u r a l space. Like the ne'o-grec and ethnographic p a i n t i n g s , the history paintings the paintings of objets cally are extensions serve d'art. recreated as imaginary l o c a l e s f o r h i s c o l l e c t i o n Ge'rome placed to give these objects to and f a r from the " r e a l i t y " This his c o l l e c t i o n in r e a l i s t i - ; . scenes which were d i s t a n t both in time and space form h i s own P a r i s s t u d i o . functioned of Gerome's own i n t e ' r i e u r , Their photographic v e r a c i t y a r e a l i t y which was of objects as commodities. " s e c r e t " f u n c t i o n of Gerome's rpa'intings their 'realistic previous s t y l e which so e a s i l y accommodates explains itself 1 39 to the c e l e b r a t i o n of t h i n g s . T h e i r n a r r a t i v e content often expresses what Gerome must have f e l t was a f a c t of the human c o n d i t i o n , a c o n d i t i o n of a l i e n a t i o n and h e l p l e s s n e s s . But we must beware of thus t h i n k i n g of Ge'r6me as "deep". Many of the themes I have discussed had themselves to be rescued i n regard from beneath the surface of h i s canvases where t r a d i t i o n s of p a i n t i n g , s o c i a l the Salon to his work and the advent of mechanical conditions reproduction, like capital- ism and the i n t e r i e u r became the circumstances of Gerome's art. Gerome may have thought of his p a i n t i n g s different terms than the ones I have used. P o l l i c e Verso, considered i n the context i n quite For example, of Gerome's p u b l i c polemics about "modern" a r t , might be considered as a self-portrait of s o r t s . Note that the v i c t o r i o u s g l a d i a t o r is middle-aged and somewhat f l a b b y , perhaps only a few years younger than Gerome's own f i f t y y e a r s , the p a i n t i n g i n 1874. his age when he painted, Is a message being implied? Are we to think that the older man has won because of his train- ing brute and years strength of experience o f the younger man? t h i s were meant to be read an his against I f we are--and p a i n t i n g s Academician vanquishing and the i m p r e s s i o n i s t s . More to the p o i n t , however, i s the conception Gerome's o r i e n t a l his like t h i s c l o s e l y - - t h e n we may have image of Ge'rome, the experienced f o e s , the r e a l i s t s the raw but naive behind types whom he admired g r e a t l y and to whom f r i e n d s often compared him. He admired men who could 140 face the misfortunes which implacable f a t e had calm and d i g n i f i e d pointed out, was d e a l t them with an reserve. T h i s , as Galichon the point of a p a i n t i n g l i k e The Prisoner. Despite his " r e v i s i o n i s m " , Ge>ome considered himself to be an Academic p a i n t e r and a guardian of c e r t a i n canons:, of p a i n t i n g . If t h i s t h e s i s accomplishes anything o u t s i d e of an i n t e r p r e t a t i o n be part of an examination art after Ingres. tinue a t r a d i t i o n on several classical, of Gerome then i t i s meant to of what happened to French Academic Gerome did not merely whose raison occasions he t r i e d b a s t a r d i z e or con- d'etre was no more. Rather,' to bring that t r a d i t i o n up.to date, although as we' have seen, he w,as;hardly alone or o r i g i n a l , in these endeavours. In the neo grec works, f o l l o w - ing the example of G l e y r e , Ge'rome presented the classical world in a l e s s arch way In the ethno- than David or Ingres. graphic p a i n t i n g s he t r i e d of academic to bring some of the standards a r t to the p r a c t i s e of genre p a i n t i n g . Vernet and Delaroche had shown him the way in t h i s territory. In the serious h i s t o r y works h e - t r i e s to make r e a l i s t i c h i s t o r y p a i n t i n g based on the image of photography. here he i s f a i r l y His f i n a l unique or more s u c c e s s f u l attempt of doing-things; was' his to i n j e c t revival of the life activity.as than most. into the academic p r a c t i s e of t i n t i n g and of making c h r y s e l e p h a t i n e s c u l p t u r e . the transparency of his " r e a l " And task was And way marble here again obvious and Ge'rome's a c o l l e c t o r a f f e c t s the r e s u l t . Speilmann 141 a s t u t e l y caught the real ( f i g . 3 4 ) when he nature of a statue l i k e Bel 1ona wrote: The f i g u r e , standing on t i p - t o e , screaming woe and warning, shouting "To B a t t l e ! " with f l e s h t i n t e d i v o r y , eyes of emeralds, d r a p e r i e s , weapons, and cobra of many metals, make greater e f f e c t than would be b e l i e v e d from r e p r o d u c t i o n , for i t looked more l i k e l i f e . But the subject missed the t a r g e t , f o r t h i s screaming Hecate suggests not so much "War" as "Madness"-- and suggests not so much s c u l p t u r e as sublimated bric-a-brac. 1 In locked other words, no matter what Ge'rome d i d , he into his time and symptomatic-, station of the p o l i t i c a l in l i f e and remained his a r t was economy of h i s era in a way t h a t , perhaps, a greater a r t i s t would have managed to e i t h e r transcend or face head on. Of course, i t i s Ge'rome's status as a minor f i g u r e that makes him first place. historian The minor f i g u r e w i l l interesting always y i e l d to the the wide p i c t u r e , the context from which the great f i g u r e s . A study of someone l i k e nates the problems which his contemporaries with and adds to our a p p r e c i a t i o n problems in a more s t r i k i n g ' a n d of those who successful sprang Gerome had in the illumi- to deal solved these way. When one knows that Ge'rome' s p a i n t i n g s were often considered scandal o u s , one of recognizes a l l the more the courage a p u b l i c gesture l i k e Manet's Dejeuner. Ge'r6"me also opens up f o r i n v e s t i g a t i o n tellectual context of mid-nineteenth as the American it: critic/painter and boldness A study of the s o c i a l and i n - century French painting, Eugene Benson expressed 142 Fi gure 34 ...today, which i s given to study, to t r a v e l , which i s a c c u r a t e , mechanical, unimpassioned, which cares nothing f o r m i l i t a r y g l o r y , which dreads r e v o l u t i o n , which wishes to know, which e x a l t s knowledge and longs f o r s e n s a t i o n , but is not p o e t i c or h e r o i c , i s represented by Ge'rome. Ge'rQme , today, in France, the popular p a i n t e r of France, i s c l o s e s t to the moral s p i r i t , and best shows the i n t e l l e c t u a l t r a i t s o f h i s t i me . 2 144 Notes - Chapter V ^Speilmann, o p . c i t . , p.204, 2 Benson, o p . c i t . , p.682 145 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY I. BOOKS Amaury-Duval. L ' A t e l i e r D'Ingres. Biblioteque Dionysienne, Les E d i t i o n s G. Cres & C i e . : P a r i s 1924 ( F i r s t published in 1878.). Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists. With an E n g l i s h t r a n s l a t i o n by Charles Burton G u l i c k . London, William Heinemann L t d . , 1937. B a u d e l a i r e , Charles. The M i r r o r of A r t : C r i t i c a l Studies by Charles B a u d e l a i r e . T r a n s l a t e d and e d i t e d by Jonathan Mayne. New York: Phaidon P u b l i s h e r s Inc. , 1 955. Blanc, Charles. Le Tresor de La C u r i o s i t e t i r e des des catalogues de vente de Tableaux, d e s s i n s , estampes, e t c . P a r i s , 1857. B e l l , Mrs. Arthur (Nancy D'Anvers). Representative P a i n t e r s of the XlXth Century. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company L i m i t e d , 1899. Benjamin, Walter. II1uminations Edited with an i n t r o d u c t i o n by Hannah Arendt. T r a n s l a t e d by Harry Zohn. Conains "on Some M o t i f s in B a u d e l a i r e " & "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." New York: Schocken Books, 1969. Benjamin, Walter. Charles B a u d e l a i r e : A L y r i c Poet in the Era of High C a p i t a l i s m . T r a n s l a t e d by Harry Zohn. London : NLB (New L e f t Books?) , 1973. Boas, George. French- Phi1osophies of the Romantic Period. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1925. Boime, A l b e r t . The Academy and French Painting.in the Nineteenth Century. London: Phaidon Press L t d . , 1971. B r a i v e , Michel F. The Photograph: A S o c i a l H i s t o r y T r a n s l a t e d by David B r i t t . New York: McGrawH i l l Book Company, 1966. B u r c h e l l , S.C. Imperial Masquerade: The P a r i s of Napoleon I I I . New York: Atheneum, 1971. 146 Bury , J . P . T. Gambetta and the Making of the Third Republi c. London: Longman Group L i m i t e d , 1 973. Celebonovic A l e k s a . The Heyday of Salon P a i n t i n g : Masterpieces of Bourgeois Realism. London, 1974. C h a r l t o n , D.G. P o s i t i v i s t Thought in France During the Second Empire: 1852-1870. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1959. Clare t i e , J u l e s . P e i n t r e s & Sculpteurs contemporains. 2e. s e r i e : A r t i s t e s vivants en J a n v i e r 1881. P a r i s : L i b r a i r i e des B i b l i o p h i l e s , 1884. C l a r k , Kenneth. The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form. B o l l i n g e n S e r i e s XXXV.2. New York: Pantheon Books Inc. , 1956. Cobban, A l f r e d . A . H i s t o r y - o f Modern France, v o l . 2 ; From the F i r s t Empire to the Second Empire, v o l . 3 ; France of the R e p u b l i c s , 1 871 -1 962. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books L t d . , 1965. Courthion, P i e r r e , Roman t i c i sm ( t r a n s . Stuart E d i t o r s d'Art A l b e r t S k i r a , 1961. Gilbert), C r e s p e l l e , J.-P. Les ma'i^tres de l a b e l l e epoque. P a r i s : L i b r a i r i e Hachette, 1966. F l a u b e r t , Gustave. Salammbo. T r a n s l a t e d by J.S.Chartes with an i n t r o d u c t i o n by F r e d e r i c k C. Green. Appendix includes S a i n t - B e u v e s review of the book and F l a u b e r t ' s r e p l y . Everyman's L i b r a r y e d i t e d by Ernest Rhys. New York: J.M. Dent & Sons L t d . , 1931. 1 Fox, S h i r l e y , An A r t Student's Reminisences of P a r i s in the E i g h t i e s . London: M i l l s & Boon, L i m i t e d , F r i e d l a e n d e r , Walter. David to D e l a c r o i x (trans. Robert Poldwater) New York: Schocken Books, 1968. Gammel, R.H. Ives. T w i l i g h t of P a i n t i n g : An A n a l y s i s of Recent Trends to Serve in a Period of Reconstruction. New York: G.P. Putman's 1946. G a u t i e r , T h e o p h i l e . Les Beaux-Arts en P a r i s : Michel Levy F r e r e s , 1855. 1909. Europe. n Gernsheim, Helmut. The H i s t o r y of Photography: From T:h'-e E a r l i e s t Use of the Camera Obscura in the Eleventh Century up to 1914. London: Oxford U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1955. 147 Gon'court,. Edmond . P a r i s under Seige, 1 870-1871: From the Goncourt " J o u r n a l " . Edited and t r a n s l a t e d by George J . Becker with an i n t r o d u c t i o n by Paul H. Beik. Ithaca, New York: C o r n e l l U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1969. Goncourt, Jules and Edmond. P a r i s and the A r t s , 18511896: From the Goncourt " J o u r n a l " . Edited and t r a n s l a t e d by George J. Becker and Edith P h i l l i p s , with an "Afterword on Japanese A r t and Influence," by Hedley H. Rhys, Ithaca, New York: C o r n e l l U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1971. Halevy, Daniel. My Friend Degas. T r a n s l a t e d and <.! e d i t e d by Mina C u r t i s s . Middletown, Connecticut: Wes1eyan.University Press, 1958. Hauser, Arnold. The S o c i a l H i s t o r y of A r t . (2 volumes) London.:! Routledge & Kegan Paul L i m i t e d , 1951. Hering, Fanny F i e l d . Gerome: His L i f e and Works. Preface byJ.-L. Ge>8me. New York: Cassel Publishers, 1892. Hobsbawn, E.J. The Wei d e n f e l d : and Age of Revo!ution: Europe 1789-1848, N i c o l son: * London, 19 62. Hobsbawn, E.J. The Age of C a p i t a l 1848-1875. Wei denf el d ; and Ni col son :' •• London , 19 74. : H o l t , Edgar. _Plon-Pl on: The L i f e of Prince Napoleon. [1822-1 89TJ: Michael Joseph: London, 19/3. Houssaye, Arsene, Les Confessions: Souve n i r s d'un demi s i e c l e ; 1 830-1 880, Vols. 4 & 5, L i bra i r e l a s o c i e t e des gens de l e t t r e s ; P a r i s , 1891. de Kelder, Diane. Aspects of " O f f i c i a l " P a i n t i n g and . P h i l o s o p h i c Art 1789-1799. New York: Garland P u b l i s h i n g , Inc. , 1 976. Lenoir, Paul. Le Fayoum, le S i n a i , et Petra. Paris,1 872. Luka'cs, Georg. H i s t o r y and Class Consciousness: Studies in M a r x i s t D i a l e c t i c s . Trans, by Rodney L i v i n g s t o n e . London: Merlin Press, 1971. Marx, K a r l . The Eighteenth Brumaire of Bonaparte. New York: I n t e r n a t i o n a l 1 963. Louis Publishers, 148 Marx, K a r l . A C o n t r i b u t i o n to the C r i t i q u e of P o l i t i c a l Economy. Moscow: Progress. P u b l i s h e r s , 1970. Moreau-Vauthier, Charles. Gerome: peintre. et s c u l p t e u r , 1'homme et l ' a r t i s t e , (D'aprgs sa correspondance , ses notes, l e s souvenirs de ses e1e~ves et.de ses amis). P a r i s : L i b r a i r i e Hachette et C i e . , 1906. N o c h l i n , Linda. Realism an T r a d i t i o n in Art 1848-1900. Sources & Documents in the H i s t o r y of Art S e r i e s e d i t e d by H.W. Janson. Englewood C l i f f s , New J e r s e y : P r e n t i c e - H a l l Inc., 1966. N o c h l i n , Linda. Reali sm. S t y l e and C i v i l i z a t i o n , . e d i t e d by John Fleming and Hugh Honour. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books L t d . , 1971 . Pliny. The Elder PIiny's Chapters on the H i s t o r y of A r t . T r a n s l a t e d by K. Jex-Blake, i n t r o d u c t i o n and commentary.by E. S e l l e r s . Chicago: Argonaut Inc., 1968 ( r e p r i n t of 1896 e d i t i o n ) . Polanyi, Karl. The Great T r a n s f o r m a t i o n : The P o l i t i c a l and Economic O r i g i n s of our Time. Foreward by Robert M. Maclver. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957. Ponsard, Francoi s , Oe-.uv-res completes vol .1 , (with an i n t r o d u c t i o n by Daniel Stern), Michel Le'vy Fr'eres • P a r i s , 1965. Power, Thomas • " j r . ) J u l e s Ferry and the Renaissance of French Imperialism. New York:Octagon Books, 1966 (c.19-44). R a i 11, A.W. L i f e and L e t t e r s in France: The Nineteenth Century. 2nd ed. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons L i m i t e d , 1970. R e i t l i n g e r , Gerald. The Economics of Taste, v o l . 1 ' "The Rise and F a l l of P i c t u r e P r i c e s 1760-1960. B a r r i e and R o c k l i f f : London 1961. Richardson, Joanna. La Vie P a r i s i e n n e : 1852-1870. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1971. Rocheblave, S. L'Art et Le Gout en France: de 1600 a 1900. 1930 ed. P a r i s : L i b r a i r i e Armand Colon, 1930. Scharf, Aaron. Art and Photography. London: The Pengui n Press , 1968. 149 Scharf, Aaron. Pioneers of Photography. Harry Abrams, Inc., 1976. New York: Simon, W.M. European P o s i t i v i s m in the Nineteenth Century: An Essay in I n t e l l e c t u a l H i s t o r y . Ithaca, New York: C o r n e l l U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1963. Sloane, Joseph C. French P a i n t i n g Between the Past and the Present: A r t i s t s , C r i t i c s , and T r a d i t i o n s , from 1848 to 1870. P r i n c e t o n , New Jersey: P r i n c e t o n U n i v e r s i t y Press, 1951. Stranahan, C e l i a C o r n e l i a . A H i story of French P a i n t i n g from i t s E a r l i e s t to i t s L a t e s t P r a c t i s e Including an Account of the French Academy of P a i n t i n g , i t s Salons , Schools of I n s t r u c t i o n and Regulations. New York: Charles S c r i b n e r ' s Sons, 1902 ( c . 1888). Sweezy, Paul M. The Theory of C a p i t a l i s t Development: P r i n c i p l e s of Marxian P o l i t i c a l Economy. New York: Modern Reader Paperbacks, 1968 (c. 1942). Taine, H i p p o l y t e Adolphe. The O r i g i n s of; Contemporary France: The Ancient Regime, The R e v o l u t i o n , The Modern Regime: S e l e c t e d Chapters. T r a n s l a t e d by " John Durand. Edited and with an I n t r o d u c t i o n by Edward T. Gargan. Chicago: The U n i v e r s i t y of Ch i cago Press , 19 74. Wagar, W. Warren. Good T i d i n g s : The B e l i e f in Progress from Darwin to Marcuse. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana U n i v e r s i t y Press, 19 72. Wardman, H.W. Ernest Renan: A C r i t i c a l Biography. U n i v e r s i t y of London: The Athlone Press, 1964. Weinberg, Bernard. French Realism: The C r i t i c a l Reaction: 1830-1870. New York: Modern Language A s s o c i a t i o n of America, 1937. II. ARTICLES "The G i f t s of Science to A r t . " in The Dublin U n i v e r s i t y Magazine. 36 ( J u l y 1850):1-20 "Bearings of Modern Science on A r t . " in the Westminster Review. 96 ( J u l y 1871):389-405. "Gerome's Cleopatra and Caesar." J o u r n a l . 16 n.s. (1877):12f. in The A r t 15Q "Our L i v i n g A r t i s t s : Jean Leon Ge'rome." in The Magazine of A r t . 3 (1880):453-58. "A Powerful Monk--Son Eminence G r i s e . " in Art J o u r n a l . 38 n . s . (1.899) : 200f. "Jean-Leon Ge'rome." (Obi tuary) in The Athenaeum (Jan.' 1904) : 89 Ackerman, Gerald M. "Gerome, The Academic R e a l i s t . " Art News Annual. 33 . ( 1 967):1 01 -1 07. Ackerman, Gerald M. "Ge'rome and Manet." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 70 ( 1 96 7) : 1 6 3--76 . Ackerman, Gerald M. "Thomas Eakins and His P a r i s i a n Masters Gerome and Bonnat." Gazette des BeauxA r t s . 72 ( 1969 ) : 23.5-256 . Ackerman, Gerald M. "Gerome's A'Chat by the F i r e s i d e ! " U n i v e r s i t y of Kansas: The R e g i s t e r of the Museum of A r t . 4 (March 1971):20-31. s A t k i n s o n , J. Beavington. " E x h i b i t i o n s of the Year." in Fine Arts Q u a r t e r l y . 1 n.s. (October 1866): 343- 374. Benson, Eugene. "Jean Leon Ge'rome ." Gal axy. 1 (1 866):681 -87 ( a c t u a l l y 581 -87 but pages are mi sn umbe red) . B l a s h f i e l d , E.H. et a l . "Open L e t t e r s : American A r t i s t s on Gerome." The Century Magazine. 37 (1886): 634-36. Boime, A l b e r t . "The Second Republic's Contest f o r the Figure of the Republic." Art B u l l e t i n . 53 (1971): 68-83. : > Boime, Al b e r t . ""Jean-Leon Ge'rome".... Henri Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy and the Academic Legacy." in Art Q u a r t e r l y . 34 ( 1 971 ) : 3-30. ; Boime, A l b e r t . "Thomas Nast and French A r t . " in The American.Art J o u r n a l . 4 (1972):43-65. Boime, A l b e r t . " E n t r e p r e n e u r i a l Patronage in Nineteenth Century France." in E n t e r p r i s e and Entepreneurs in Nineteenth Century France. Edited with an i n t r o d u c t i o n by Edward Carter I I , et a l . B a l t i m o r e : Johns Hopkins U n i v e r s i t y Press , (1 9 76 ) : 1 37-207. 151 G a l i c h o n , Emile. "M. Ge'rome, p e i n t r e ethnograph i que ." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 1 (1868):147-151. Guillemin, Victor. "E'tude sur l e p e i n t r e et sculpteur-, J.L. Gerome." Acade'mie des Sciences, B e l l e s L e t t r e s & Arts de-Besancon; Proces-Verbaux & Memo i r e s . (1 90.4) : I 34-1 88. Haskell, Francis. "The Sad (flown: Some Notes on a 19th Century Myth." in French 19th Century P a i n t i n g and Li t e r a t u r e e d i t e d by U l r i c h Finke. New York.: Harper & Row, P u b l i s h e r s , 1972. Hering, Fanny F i e l d . "Ge'rome." The Century Magazine. 37 (February 1889):483-499. Isaacson, Robert. "Jean Leon Gerome." Art and A r t i s t s , Vol.2,No.5. (August.1973):34-38. L a s t e r r i e , Ferdinand de. "Review of the Salon of 1864." in Fine Arts Q u a r t e r l y . 38 (January 1865): 225-242. Lavoix, Henri. "La.col 1ection A l b e r t G o u p i l . " ; II L'Art O r i e n t a l . " in Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 32 2e periode (1886):287-307. Mantz, Paul. "Salon.de 1860." in Gazette des Beaux-Arts. (15 June,1860):349ff. Masson, Fre'de'ric, "J.-L Gerome: p e i n t r e -de l ' o r i e n t . " Figaro Mustre. Vol.12 ( J u l y , 1901):2-24. Masson, F r e d e r i c , ed. "Notes e t Fragments de J.-L. Ge'rome." Les A r t s . (February, 1904) : 22-32 . Meyer, Ruth K. "Jean Leon Gerome: The Role of Subject-Matter and the Importance of Formalized composition." Arts Magazine. (February, 1973): 31-34. Planqhe, Gustave. "Le Salon de 1847.' La P e i n t u r e . " Revue des Deux Mondes. 18 (Apri1 1847):347-366. Rosenblum, Robert. "Ingres, Inc." in Arts News Annual XXXI 1 1 ( 1 967)167-75. Sloane, Joseph C. "The T r a d i t i o n of Figure P a i n t i n g and Concepts of Modern A r t i n France from 1845 to 1870." The Journal of A e s t h e t i c s and A r t C r i t i c i s m . 7(September 1 948) :1 .-29. 152 Spencer, Eleanor P. "The Academic Point of View in the Second Empire." in Courbet and the N a t u r a l i s t Movement. Edited by George Boas. Baltimore:- The Johns Hopkins Press, 1938. Spielmann, M.H. "Jean-Leon Ge'rome, 1 824-1 904: Recollections." The Magazine of A r t . Vol.2 (1904):200-208. Timbal, Charles. "Gerome: Etude Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 2e. (1876):218ff & 344ff. biographique" p e r i o d , 14 T i t h e r i n g t o n , R.H. "Jean Leon Ge>6me." Munsey' s Magazine . 3.5- ( 1 906) : 279-287. V i n e t , Ernest. " L e t t e r From P a r i s , 29 August, 1866." Describes the reform of the Ecole des BeauxArts in Fine Arts Q u a r t e r l y , 1 n.s., (October, 1866):432-446. I I I . EXHIBITION CATALOGUES The Art I n s t i t u t e , Dayton Ohio. Jean-Leon Ge'rSme (1824-1904) Organized by Bruce Evans. I n t r o d u c t i o n and Commentaries by Gerald M. Ackerman. Essay by Richard Ettinghausen. November 10-March 11, 1972. U n i v e r s i t y A r t G a l l e r y , State U n i v e r s i t y of New York at Binghamton. S t r i c t l y Academic: L i f e Drawing in the Nineteenth Century, with an Introductory Essay by A l b e r t Boime, "Curriculum V i t a e : The Course of L i f e in the Nineteenth Century." March 30-April 24, 1974. G a l e r i e Tanagra. Jean-Leon Ge'rome: 1824-1904: Sculpteur et P e i n t r e de "L'Art O f f i c i e l " . I n t r o d u c t i o n by Gerald Ackerman. P a r i s : 25 15 Mai, 1974. Avril- Kuntsmuseum, Winterthur. Charles Gleyre ou l e s i l l u s i o n s perdues. Contains a great deal of material among which: "Biographie ," by Rudolf K o e l l a ; "The I n s t r u c t i o n of Charles Gleyre and the E v o l u t i o n of P a i n t i n g in the ^Nineteenth Century," by A l b e r t Boime; " L i s t e des e'leves," by B r i g i t S t a i g e r Gayler & "Catalogue des oeuvres de Gleyre," by Charles Clement. 1974. 153 Grand P a l a i s , P a r i s . French P a i n t i n g 1774-1830: The Age of R e v o l u t i o n . With four essays: " P a i n t i n g Under Louis XVI, 1774-1 789." by F r e d e r i c k C. Cummings; " P a i n t i n g During the R e v o l u t i o n , 1 789-1 799 ." by Antoine Schnapper; P a i n t i n g Under Napoleon," 1800-1814." byRobert Rosenblum; " P a i n t i n g During the Bourbon R e s t o r a t i o n , 1814-1830." by Robert Rosenblurn. 16 November 1974-5 February 1975. Shepherd G a l l e r y , New York. Ingres & D e l a c r o i x Through Degas & Puvis De Chavannes: The Figure in French A r t : 1800-1870. May-June, 1975.
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Jean-Léon Gérôme 1824-1904 : a study of a mid-nineteenth century French academic artist Watson, Donald Scott 1977
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