Henri Gervex

Henri Gervex (10 December 1852 - 1929) was a French painter born in Paris, and studied painting under Cabanel, Brisset and Fromentin. His early work belonged almost exclusively to the mythological genre, which served as an excuse for the painting of the nude, but not always in the best of taste. His Rolla of 1878, based on a poem by Alfred de Musset, was rejected by the jury of the Salon de Paris for immorality, since it depicted a scene from the poem of a naked prostitute after having sex with her client. Gervex afterwards devoted himself to representations of modern life and achieved signal success with his Dr Pan at the Salptrihre ("The Operation"), a modernized paraphrase, as it were, of Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson. He was entrusted with several important official paintings and the decoration of public buildings. Among the first are The Distribution of Awards (1889) at the Palais de l'Industrie, The Coronation of Nicolas II, The Mayors Banquet (1900), and the portrait group La République Française; and among the second, the ceiling for the Salle des Fêtes at the hotel de yule (hotel de ville), Paris, and the decorative panels painted in conjunction with Blanchon for the maine of the 19th arrondissement, Paris. He also painted, with Alfred Stevens, a panorama, The History of the Century (1889). At the Luxembourg are his painting Satyrs playing with a Bacchante, as well as the large Members of the Jury of the Salon (1885). Other pictures of importance, besides numerous portraits in oils and pastel, are Communion at Trinity Church, Return from the Ball, Diana and Endymion, Job, Civil Marriage, At the Ambassadeurs, Yachting in the Archipelago, Nana and Maternity.