Henri Gervex

Exhibited by Stair Sainty Gallery

Material Oil on canvas. Signed lower-left: H Gervex

Dimensions 76.5 x 42 cm (30 x 16 ½ in)

Place of Creation France

Status Vetted

About the Work

Our Bacchante was described as 'Une Bacchanete qui presse du raisin' in an article by Félix Jahyer, written in 1879 and commenting on the artist’s early success before his 1878 masterpiece, Rolla (musée d’Orsay). The latter was refused by the Salon jury because of the immorality implied by the subject, but was instead exhibited with great success at the Bague gallery at 41 rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin. While our Bacchante is a subject one might expect from an artist working in the traditions of the école des beaux-arts, it also demonstrates the young artist’s willingness to depart from the formality of the academic style that had been evident in his earlier Satyre jouant avec une bacchante (Musée d’Orsay), exhibited to much acclaim at the 1874 Salon (receiving a second class medal and purchase by the state for the musée de Luxembourg).

Henri Gervex was born the son of a piano maker in Montmartre in 1852. At the age of fifteen Gervex was sent to study with Pierre Nicolas Brisset and after serving in the Franco-Prussian War, he entered the École des beaux-arts. Classical, mythological and historical themes were the approved academic subjects of the establishment and with a Salon success already behind him, he might have been expected to follow a more conventional career.

His growing independence and adoption of a style at the intersection between academism and impressionism, however, led him to explore a range of literary and mythological subjects, while also painting bright modern scenes of Parisian high society daily life. In these he employed the exceptional draftsmanship learned at the école des beaux-arts, but enlivened by a brighter palette and freer brush. In 1876 he made the personal acquaintance of Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas at the Fernando Circus; both artists had been impressed by the unflinching naturalism of his recent Salon success.

As his career progressed, Gervex was entrusted with commissions for the decoration of public buildings. in 1889 this included, painted with Alfred Stevens, a vast panorama, The History of the Century, now separated into different panels but of which a partial reduction has survived (Brussels, Musée royale des beaux-arts). In his later work Gervex breaks from the direction led by more radical modernist painters. In 1895 he was appointed vice-president of the commission of examination of the Société nationale des beaux-arts, appointed a chevalier of the Legion of Honour (1882), officer in 1889 and commander in 1911, and was elected a member of the Institut in 1913, becoming president of the academy of pastellists. During the First World War his talents were employed in producing illustrations of the war for various journals, making visits to the front and becoming a passionate advocate for the military – in recognition of his contribution he was awarded the croix de guerre, in 1918.

He is widely represented in French and international museums – with some thirty-five works in French institutions and seven paintings in the musée d’Orsay.

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Provenance

Private collection, France

Literature

We are grateful to M. Jean-Christophe Pralong-Gourvennec and Mme Adelaïde de Canchy-Bertrand, for confirming the authenticity of this work, which will be included in the catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work.