Le Couple

Biography of Henri Gervex ( 1852-1929, French )

Henri Gervex was born in Paris in 1852. He commenced to study art under the venerable master Pierre Nicholas Brisset, then studied under Fromentin, and finally concluded his course under Cabanel. In 1873, he exhibited for the first time “A Bather Sleeping,” a remarkable study of the nude. The next year he took a won second place with the “Satyr Sporting with a Bacchante,” a picture which was purchased by the State for the Luxembourg. In 1876, he was medalled again, for a powerful realistic picture, representing the surgeons holding an autopsy on the body of a patient in the Hotel Dieu hospital. In 1877 ,the state purchased another of his pictures, a communion scene in a village church which is now in the Government collection. All this while his fame had been rising steadily, but th struggle was still severe when the sensation caused by “Rolla” brought it to a climax, and added a new master to the roll of honor of French art. Commissions for portraits rolled in, his pictures were sold from the easel, he received so many orders for the decoration of private houses that he was compelled to refuse a portion of them, and two years after the State had rejected his “Rolla” it anointed the wound by appointing him to paint the great decorative panels for the Mayor’s Office of the Nineteenth Arrondissement. This engagement secured him admission into the Legion of Honor. When “The Masked Model” appeared at the Salon, it created a sensation second only to that of the picture which did not appear. It became popularly rumored that the original was a great lady, who had consented to pose for the artist under condition that her face should be covered so as to prevent her from being identified, and this added piquant interest to the magnificent art displayed in the picture. As a matter of fact, however, it was only the figure of a professional model. While posing for Gervex she had, in a spirit of fun, put on a ball mask which was hanging to the wall, and the effect was so original that the artist used it for his finished picture.

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