Henri Gervex, French and Alfred Stevens, Belgian
“Excuse Me, Guys. Am I Correct in Assuming We’re in a Portrait of the Most Prominent Painters in 19th-Century France? Or Is This the Line For the Men’s Room?,” 1889
Oil on canvas
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about the first artist can be found here, here (archived, if necessary), here, here, here, here (archived, if necessary), and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated French Wikipedia page has more).
Second artist info is pointed to by my comment and reply at another blog entry.
/// These two painters portrayed fourteen men
on a walkway that’s bridging the Seine.
A broad panorama
devoid of all drama.
Never happened as shown by them then.
/// The best painters in France have their places,
but they don’t take up all of the spaces.
How did Alf and Henri
resist letting us see
in that grouping their own smiling faces?
/// Also, how had this duo decided
how the work that they did was divided?
Was it Frenchman, Henri,
who depicted Paris
and the Belgian o’er portraits presided?
/// It’s a fact which deserves some repeating,
that there never was any such meeting.
With huge egos involved
they’d have never resolved
who stands where— they would all be competing.
/// Such great painters would never agree
to the portraits we currently see.
Each would carp and complain
and, with mutters, maintain
that “That face doesn’t look much like me!”
/// This too long restroom line never ends,
(though it helps to be standing with friends).
Can you somehow feel fine
if you “leak” while on line?
The ambiguous answer: Depends…
–– or ––
/// It is true that this grouping we see
isn’t “co-ed” and hardly P.C.
But since most of these dudes
painted females as nudes,
that distinction is OK with me.