Art Chowder July | August 2017, Issue 10 | Page 40

Baudelaire advised artists to look for the
timeless values of beauty and heroism in
their own time instead of a remote past.
“Before trying to isolate the epic quality
of modern life and to show, by giving
examples, that our age is no less rich
than ancient times in sublime themes,
it may be asserted that since every age
and every people have had their own
form of beauty, we inevitably have ours
. . . All forms of beauty . . . have within
them something eternal and something
transitory -- an absolute and a particular
element . . . Parisian life is rich in poetic
and wonderful subjects. The marvelous
envelopes and saturates us like the atmo-
sphere; but we fail to see it.”
The idea of finding the beauty within the
world around them certainly motivated
the works of Renoir, Pissarro, and other
Impressionists. They weren’t interested
in depicting a classical past or ideal,
nor a heroic narrative. But they were up
against a formidable barrier when they
wanted to get their experimental work
into the Salon, which at first was the
only show in town. The French Royal
Academy was founded in the first place
as a place to train artists to attain to the
highest level for the glory of the monar-
chy, the Christian faith, and the nation.
At the summit were those who attained
the rank of history painters, who would
portray heroic events often with many
figures. Though the Royal Academy was
dissolved in 1791, it essentially contin-
ued under a different name, and its heirs
were those who governed the Salons in
the second half of the 19 th century. They
maintained the noble tradition they in-
herited; they were not “modern,” as they
saw their mission.
So if an artist were to submit a picture
that was not well drawn or appeared un-
finished, little surprise if it was rejected.
At the same time, many artists and critics
felt that the juries’ decisions appeared
arbitrary and biased.
Louis Baader (1828-1920)
Le Remords (Remorse)
1875
oil on canvas
148 x 116”
In celebration of its 30th anniversary, the Musée
d’Orsay undertook to restore a number of its works
that had never been placed on view since it opened
in 1986. A detailed description of the painting’s
conservation can be found on the museum’s website.
In the grand manner of French history painting, the
subject derives from the story of Orestes in Greek
mythology, who had avenged the murder of his father
Agamemnon, by his mother Clytemnestra and her
paramour Aegisthus.
Photo from French national archives of works pur-
chased by the state from the Salon of 1875
Jean-André Rixens (1846-1925)
Varnishing Day at the Palais des Champs-Élysées
From Albert Wolff, Figaro-Salon 1890, Paris
The Salon was now held under the auspices of a group of artists who called themselves the Société Nationale des Beaux-arts.
40 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE