Gerome: Where Hamerton goes wrong...
WILLIAM PALMER
CONTEMPORARY FRENCH PAINTERS has
been a fruitful one. Even so, when you are reading a
book written over one-hundred years ago, the author's
"age" will begin to show sooner or later. In that regard,
Hamerton's section on Gerome proves revealing.
Hamerton faults Gerome for "a coldness [in which]
there is something fascinating and terrible."
He adds, "One of the most revolting things in art
is the cool merchant in [the painting that translates
as 'The Slave Market'] examining the girl's teeth,
as we examine the teeth of horses. So the death
of the duellist, coming out of the masked ball,
is all the more terrible for being so coldly
painted."
"One of the most revolting things in art?" Mr.
Hamerton, your Victorian slip is certainly showing
there. We do need to remember that Hamerton
is a product of the Victorian age, an era
characterized by mawkish sentiment and a
prudery so pronounced that is is reported that
proper Victorians put frilly converlets over the
legs of dining-room tables, lest any improper
male feelings be aroused by the sight of a
naked table leg.
Hamerton adds, "Gerome is said to be an agreeable
companion, but as an artist he is either without feeling,
or has so crushed and controlled his feeling that it is
paralyzed by his iron will."
Plainly, Mr. Hamerton would have us see the Middle
Eastern slave market with the revulsion of a normal
Western Worlder of his own day. Yet Gerome was
far too original as an artist to want to push all the right
Victorian buttons in his audience. Instead, he was
depicting the event as it actually existed in the culture
where it flourished, where you did not have horrifed
Europeans with their proper Victorian sentiments
present.
My suspicion is that Gerome might have maintained
that while the degradation of the occasion might present
itself in the mind of the viewer, it would have been
false for the artist to paint such a reaction into the
picture, such as including horrified onlookers who
would not normally be present at such an event
in the first place.
As to the death of the duellist who has come out of a
masked ball in a pierrot costume, I don't see anything
unusually cold about it (except for the winter backdrop),
as far as the way the painter handled his subject.
What Gerome depicts is certainly nothing more terrible
than what generally results from duels to the death, be
they in France or in the U. S. old West--or in
gangster shoot-outs of our own day. In my view,
it is sort of like Gerome is suggesting, "I am
showing you what happened. When two
people choose to have a duel to the death,
someone usually gets killed. And the world
does not stop turning as a result, so it would
be false of the artist to suggest otherwise."
We of 2002 live in a far different place than Hamerton,
a world where things shown daily on our tv sets make
the death of the duellist, well, small news, like someone
getting knifed in a fight outside a bar, or whatever.
We don't share Hamerton's Victorian sensibilities,
so, with the benefit of handsight, it looks like he
is faulting Gerome on very questionable grounds.
Yet, despite his reservations, Hamerton understands
art well enough to have the highest regard for Gerome's
impressive talents as a painter.
In my own estimation, Gerome, like quite a few other
artists we have discussed in rec.arts.fine, has been
unreasonably neglected through most of the
Twentieth century. He well deserves a place at
the top rung of French Nineteenth century artists
and should not have to remain in the obscure,
dusty corner of art history where he has long
languished.
I went through the same art history course that many
rec.arts.fine posters did, and I never remember hearing
a peep about Gerome. Years later, I discovered him
in a fascinating book about the Orientalists. After
that, I had the good fortune to run across the
excellently-illustrated GEROME, by Helene
Lafont Couturier. (French text.) Herscher,
1998.
In conclusion, while the Nineteenth-century Hamerton
showed more vision regarding Gerome than did most
Twentieth Century art authorities, our British art expert
reveals his own limitations by failing to grasp that Gerome
was great for (in addition of course to his superb technical
skills) being able to see beyond common Victorian
sensibilities in a manner that allowed for the painter's
truly original depictions.
(But if you prefer Landseer's puppy dogs the way
a "normal" Victorian would, hey, that's okay too.
The art world is a big place.)
alt.genius.bill-palmer
(Temporary office: rec.arts.prose)
wil...@ix.netcom.com