Overview
“I am not saying that Gervex has copied the Impressionists, but it seems obvious that he is expressing what those painters would have wanted to say” (Émile Zola, “Nouvelles littéraires et artistiques,” Le Messager de l'Europe, June 1879)
So much has been written about Gervex’ Rolla (Musée des beaux-arts, Bordeaux), the painting that was taken down for indecency right before the opening of the 1878 Salon, but much less about the man behind the scandal although he inspired a character in Émile Zola’s novel L’Œuvre.
Gervex was born in Montmartre in 1852. His father appreciated Henri’s artistic talent very early on and sent him to study with second Rome Prize winner, Pierre Nicolas Brisset, at the age of 15. In 1871, after serving in the Franco-Prussian War, Gervex entered the École des beaux-arts in the renowned atelier of Alexandre Cabanel. The coursework consisted of studying the nude model and the old masters in order to create classical, historic or religious subjects. Gervex complemented this training with independent classes with Eugène Fromentin, an early Orientalist painter. In 1874, Gervex, only 22 years old, achieved his first Salon success with his Satyre jouant avec une bacchante (Musée d’Orsay), which was awarded a second-class medal and was purchased by the State for the Musée du Luxembourg. With a painting on view at the prestigious museum, the young Gervex entered the inner circle of official artists and became a Salon favorite.
Gervex was a celebrity, a coveted free-spirit, inveterate bachelor, and socialite thriving among the elite and the avant-garde circles. A Parisian at heart, in the 1870s, he developed his own genre called Naturalisme mondain, a style at the intersection between academism and impressionism. He painted bright modern scenes of the Parisian high society daily life using the exceptional draftsmanship learned at the École des beaux-arts. In 1876, Gervex met Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas at the Fernando Circus. Impressed by his recent Salon success, Autopsie à l’hotel Dieu, and taken with his personality and detachment from the current artistic debates, they welcomed Gervex with open arms. Degas for example planned to request Gervex’ presence at their second exhibition and Renoir invited him to serve as a model for his famous Bal du Moulin de la Galette (Musée d’Orsay) and presumably his Balançoire (Musée d’Orsay).
In the early 1880s, Gervex’ persona and career, as well as his neatly painted urban scenes caught the attention of Émile Zola, the naturalist writer. Fagerolles, the successful painter in L’Œuvre, Zola’s best-selling novel about the art world, most represents Gervex.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Gervex came into regular contact with the Belle Époque who’s who. He could be seen sailing to Italy on the Lysistrata, the yacht owned by James Gordon Bennett, the American billionaire and owner of the New York Herald Tribune, or in Russia at the court of the Nicolas II. He reached the apex of his career in 1913 when he was elected to the Academy.