A Cairo Market (1890)

Philippe Pavy: A Cairo Market

Philippe Pavy and his brother Eugène specialized in Orientalist paintings after traveling to North Africa and the Near East in the 1870s and 1880s. Pavy produced various Orientalist themes of costumed natives practicing their trade or in their characteristic ethnic settings, which he regularly exhibited in Paris and London. He usually painted compositions of Nubian soldiers, water-carriers, orange vendors, processions, and market scenes on wood panel, like this painting. Pavy’s talent for light and color is evident in this immensely detailed image, featuring sellers, basket, bread, oranges, pigeons, water jugs, two figures playing a board game, and another playing the lute. [Dahesh Museum]

In the Library (1890)

Maurice Leloir: In the Library

The Central Dome at the Universal Exposition (1890)

Louis Béroud: The Central Dome at the Universal Exposition of 1889

The Fourth World Exposition held in France celebrated the centenary of the French Revolution. 1889 was a decisive year, in the words of Agulhon, for a Republican France that had found its place among the great powers. This event can be considered a massive campaign of the government and the City of Paris for the exaltation of republican values. Before becoming "conservative", the new republic showed the results of its founding years: having built a colonial empire  therefore it has overshadowed the Prussian invasion and the Commune, overcame a deep economic crisis and is always capable of offering the world the fruits of its many artistic talents.

A project of Joseph Bouvard (architect of the City, a regular collaborator of Alphand), the "central dome" was built on the major axis of Mars, punctuating the garden of the background vis-à-vis the Eiffel Tower. It gave access to the galleries of "varied industries" and especially the "30 meter gallery" that led to the spectacular Palace of Machines. The dome became the main link between the various buildings of the Exhibition; not used for the presentation of works, it was intended, according to Alphand, "to capture the imagination of the visitor, to serve, to some extent, the frontispiece to the splendours that were to unfold before his eyes." Béroud shows that vestibule seen since the "gallery of 30 meters." The foreground hints at some of the works in this "grand avenue of the domestic industry." The monumental arch that separates the dome has a walkway allowing visitors to go all round the pavilion and forms a balcony where they have an overview of the gallery as, in contrast, the prospect of Champ de Mars visible through the glass wall that closes the dome next to the Eiffel Tower - the painter hints at in the bottom of his composition. The warm colors of the table Béroud evoke the sumptuous setting of the dome, very influenced by Orientalism. [L’Histoire par L’Image]

Out in the Cold (1890)

Léon Jean Basile Perrault: Out in the Cold

Working in Marble (1890)

Jean-Léon Gérôme: Working in Marble (aka The Artist Sculpting Tanagra)

This complex self-portrait is a summation of Gérôme’s remarkable career as both painter and sculptor. It is also a commemoration of his famous sculpture Tanagra (1890, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), a stately nude personification of the ancient Greek city, who holds one of the small painted figurines for which the artisans of that city were known. These figurines were discovered and exhibited widely in the late 19th century, reinforcing the notion that classical sculpture was originally vividly colored. Inspired by his characteristic desire for both archaeological accuracy and realism, Gérôme delicately tinted the skin, hair, lips, and nipples of his Tanagra, causing a sensation at the Salon of 1890.

Like most 19th-century sculptors, Gérôme did not carve the marble himself but furnished professional marble cutters with a full-size plaster to use as a guide. It is this intermediate step that is depicted in Working in Marble, a title that refers to the overall creative process. Gérôme portrays himself on a turn stand putting the finishing touches on the plaster version of Tanagra, carefully judging the accuracy of his work against the live model. He is in his second-floor painting studio (which could not actually have housed an unfinished marble of that size), described by a contemporary as a “splendid room, with its great sculptures and paintings, some still unfinished, and a famous collection of barbaric arms and costumes.” Indeed, this painting includes many of these props—quiver, saddle, armor, drums, waterpipes, flag, textiles, masks—used regularly by Gérôme to enhance the authenticity of his Orientalist and classical scenes. It also contains several of his finished works: the Tanagra-inspired Hoop Dancer; Selene the moon goddess; and his painting Pygmalion and Galatea (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). This small image of a marble sculpture transformed into female flesh provides a mythological gloss on Gérôme’s own activity in Working in Marble, powerfully evoking the continuous interplay between painting and sculpture, reality and artifice, as well as highlighting the inherently theatrical nature of the artist’s studio. [Dahesh Museum]

The Potato Harvest (1890)

Henry Lerolle: The Potato Harvest

Le Pont Corneille (1890)

Leon-Jules Lemaitre: Le Pont Corneille

Portrait of a Lady (1890)

Jules Joseph Lefebvre: Portrait of a Lady

Pygmalion and Galatea (1890)

Jean-Léon Gérôme: Pygmalion and Galatea

Between 1890 and 1892, Gérôme made both painted and sculpted variations on the theme of Pygmalion and Galatea, the tale recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book X, lines 243–97). All depict the moment when the sculpture of Galatea was brought to life by the goddess Venus, in fulfillment of Pygmalion’s wish for a wife as beautiful as the sculpture he created. Gérôme’s correspondence with his biographer Fanny Field Hering provides information about the origins of the present picture. In 1890 the artist remarked that he had begun painting Pygmalion and Galatea, stating that he was trying to rejuvenate the subject, which he thought very hackneyed, and adding that the picture would depict the statue coming to life. In November 1890, he mentioned Pygmalion and Galatea among several pictures that he had painted the prior summer, which were nearly finished. [Metropolitan Museum of Art]

Harlequine (ca. 1890)

Jean Béraud: Harlequine

In the 1890s, Béraud departed (like so many artists and writers at this time) from his earlier naturalism in favor of more symbolic content, as if discontented with mere surface appearances. He did not totally renounce street scenes, but he experimented with new subjects, such as his contemporized versions of biblical stories and costume pieces like Harlequine, in which a single figure is the sole focus of the painting.

This conventionally pretty woman is dressed for costume ball as the female counterpart of the stock figure Harlequin. Her costume adopts elements of the traditional commedia dell'arte character: the diamond pattern, the bicorne hat, the stage sword whose harmlessness is coquettishly demonstrated by the model. But Béraud discards the half-mask so that her porcelain-smooth profile is fully visible. The traditional multicolored costume is exchanged for stylish pink and black.

Elegant she may be, but she is also a vivacious coquette. Béraud emphasizes her desirability through her coy behavior and exposed legs. Her painfully tight corset, which achieves the fashionable 18-inch waist, adds to her seductive charms. [The Haggin Museum]

The Letter (1890)

Adrien Henri Tanoux: The Letter

Equestrienne au cirque Fernando (1890)

François Flameng: Equestrienne au cirque Fernando

Corentine (1890)

François-Alfred Delobbe: Corentine

The Sack of Rome by the Barbarians (1890)

Joseph-Noël Sylvestre: The Sack of Rome by the Barbarians in 410

The Legend of Kerdeck (1890)

Fernand Le Quesne: The Legend of Kerdeck

This painting by Fernand Le Quesne is an academic (and Parisian) version of the Brittanic folkloric story Les Lavandières de la Nuit or The Washerwomen of the Night. Whereas, in the painting by Dargent (ca. 1861), the spectral women are depicted as clothed and ghoulish, here they are naked and comely - luring the lone bagpiper to a watery and not entirely unpleasant grave. [Lee Hutchinson]