Reconsidering Gérme

ISBN: 1606060384

Author: Allan, Scott

Condition: New

Jean-Léon Gérme (1824-1904) was an undisputed professional success during his lifetime. Crowds flocked to see his vividly rendered historical and Orientalist compositions, and thanks to the mass marketing of his work through mechanical reproduction, he reached audiences on an unprecedented scale.From the outset, however, his success met with critical hostility. Émile Zola, champion of Édouard Manet, dismissed Gérme as a cynical manufacturer of anecdotal images for popular consumption-a critique repeatedly echoed by historians of modern art. In light of revisionist and postmodern trends over the past four decades, however, Gérmes work is now being approached with unprecedented seriousness and refreshing creativity. The ten essays in this volume go far in challenging critical biases against the artist and suggesting new avenues of research. These papers indeed suggest that we are just beginning to learn how to read Gérmes paintings in their full complexity.