Figures 1 & 2: Henri Gervex. Portrait of Dr. Thomas W. Evans, on display in the main reading room of the Leon Levy Library. Oil on canvas. 1892. Image on the right is a detailed view from the University of Pennsylvania art collection. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Next time you stop by the Dental Library’s main reading room, see if you can spot the portrait of Dr. Thomas W. Evans (Figure 1), painted by the renowned French artist Henri Gervex (1852-1929). Gervex created his painting of Evans in 1892, when the doctor was 69 years old. In that same year, it was displayed in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts (SNBA) in Paris.
The Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts separated from the more traditional Salon de Paris in the 1890s, and provided a place for independently minded artists to display their work. The more traditional Salon had been running for around 200 years by the mid-1800s. It was an official art exhibition sponsored by French government for members of the Académie de Beaux Arts and was not receptive to Impressionist painters and other avant-garde artists. While the Salon was open to all French artists by the time of Gervex in the 19th-century, the group was still largely managed by academicians who favored a more traditional style controlled by official politics, which is why the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts separated. Over 100 years later, the SNBA still hosts art annually at the Louvre.
The artist’s friends and acquaintances included the Impressionists Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir, and Edouard Manet, who as we know was also a friend of Dr. Evans. Gervex even modeled for one of Renoir’s most famous paintings, Bal du Moulin de la Galette, now in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay. Can you spot Gervex in the middle of the canvas? He is wearing a straw hat and dancing with a woman who has a red ribbon or hat in her hair. (To view the painting please visit its page here: Musée d'Orsay official website. See footnote for further details.)
Gervex’s most memorable work is Rolla, which he painted at the early age of 26 and submitted to the more traditional Salon. The painting was inspired by a poem created some 50 years earlier, in which a young bourgeois contemplates suicide after a final night with his courtesan. Before the Salon of 1878 opened the administration of the Beaux Arts banned his work, deeming it immoral. The painting was put on display at another Parisian art gallery shortly after, drawing large crowds. Gervex is supposed to have said that he was pleased by the “uninterrupted stream of visitors” in an interview published in the early 1900s.
After many successful (and some scandalous) exhibitions with the Salon and the SNBA, Gervex traveled across Europe to Russia and Italy, where he painted many portraits of illustrious individuals such as Tsar Nicolas II, Empress Alexandra, and Prince Victor Napoléon. In addition, he painted famous historical scenes and well-known places such as the Doge's Palace in Venice and the Tsar’s coronation.
The portrait of Dr. Thomas W. Evans by Gervex, like many of the paintings and objects on display, is from the private collection of Evans which was passed to the University of Pennsylvania through the Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute. While the museum has since closed, many of the priceless paintings and objects from the collections are still on display throughout the Penn Dental School and the Leon Levy Library.
Figure 3: Henri Gervex, by "Revue illustrée." 1902. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Footnote: Updated: 9:32am Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at the request of the Musée d’Orsay, bureau de documentation de la conservation.
References
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Salon,” last updated 2017. https://www.britannica.com/art/Salon-French-art-exhibition
Gervex, Henri, 1852-1929. Paris: Paris-Musées, c. 1992.
Marsden-Atlass, Lynn et al. Courtly Treasures: The Collection of Thomas W. Evans Surgeon Dentist to Napoléon III. Philadelphia: Arthur Ross Gallery, 2015.
Musée d’Orsay. “Henri Gervex: Rolla,” last updated 2006. http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/rolla-21517.html?no_cache=1
Salon des Beaux Arts. “Historique,” last updated 2017. http://www.salondesbeauxarts.com/histoire-snba/
Sotheby’s. “The Story Behind the Most Famous ‘Morning After’ Scene in Art History,” last updated 17 May 2016. http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/european-discoveries/2016/05/henri-gervex-rolla-most-famous-morning-after-scene-art-history.html
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