Note 11 in the author's "Victorianized Romans: Images of Rome in Victorian Painting."
Gérome, whose works include a wide range of historical reconstructions and many scenes of Middle Eastern life, including that of the harem, also painted images with powerful political valences, such as the Death of Marshal Ney (Le 7 décembre 1815, neuf heures de matin) (1867; Sheffield City Art Gallery), L'Eminence grise (1874; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and The Conspirators (Ils conspirent) (1892; Forbes Magazine Collection). See Bruce H. Evans, Gerald M. Ackerman, and Richard Ettinghausen, Jean-Lean Gérome (1824-1004), catalogue of the 1972-73 exhibition at the Dayron Art Institute, Minneapolis Institute ot the Fine Arts, and Walters Art Gallery.
Albert Boime's exhaustive Thomas Couture and the Eclectic Vision (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1980) explains how Couture, the artist best known for his Romans of the Decadence (1847; Louvre, Paris), drew upon Victor Cousin's eclectic philosophy as a means of creating an art that could speak to all political, intellectual, and religious parties and hence serve as a force for harmony. Throughout the nineteenth century, however, a good deal of official and nonofficial art (such as Edouard Manet's Execution of Maximilian; 1867-68; versions in Boston, Copenhagen, and Mannheim) conveyed controversal political themes of the sort rarely found in British art of the period.
Last modified 3 December 2004