By chance, many years ago I stumbled into an exposition of Jean-Léon Gérôme at le Musée d’Orsay. I’ve never heard of him before or was familiar with his work at all. To be fair I wouldn’t say 12 years ago I was as interested or knowledgeable on art as I am now.
Seeing Pollice Verso for the first time definitely caused a big impression on me, and it contributed greatly on shaping my taste for art. Beyond that, having just been introduced to Islamic architecture in Granada a few weeks ago, Gerome’s focus on orientalism came at a time when I was discovering the Islamic world.
In the mid 19th century he visited Egypt, the Holy Land and Syria. In this voyage he was lucky to visit many archeological sites and he dedicated a lot of his art to depict what he saw. Today a flight from Paris to Cairo is just 4 hours, and everyone has seen the pyramids, at least in print. However in the 19th century only a handful of people would travel, specially for leisure. In some way Gérôme was a traveler, exploring, rediscovering other corners of the world. It must had been quite a spectacle to see one of his expositions in Paris.
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a successful and a well regarded artist. One of the main proponents of Historicism. However he clearly did not become a super star like some of his contemporaries. Why? Well I don’t know, ask an art expert. If I was to guess I’d say that Historicism was never a very popular art movement. Sandwiched between Neoclassicism and Impressionism it seems understandable it did not achieve major popularity.
However, I like it. It speaks to me.
Yes, partly because of his focus on history, equally so for it’s focus on the middle east, both topics that I like a lot. But there is more to that; to me the art of Gérôme is what art should be like. You see, I wouldn’t call him a creative person. His art is realistic, he drives inspiration from history, and the real world. Even when he does not depict something historical, he paints it in a realistic manner. Gerome managed to captivate me with his depictions of the world, and I can only imagine the novelty of seeing distant lands for the first time in the mid nineteen hundreds.
To me art shouldn’t be about creativity, it should be about excellence and the pursuit of perfection. This is in contrast with contemporary art; too much focus on creativity and shock. This trend has led the so called artists of our time to lose track of what is important; artistic execution, and instead tape bananas to the wall or some bullshit like that, and people, who can’t know better, flock in awe.
Art is going through a dark period, all we can do is find refuge in the marvels of past artists. I’m glad I discovered Jean-Léon Gérôme.
