Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff

Henri Gervex

Also known as: Gervex, Henri Gervex

People · Artists
Show in diary 17 mentions
Seated half-length photograph of Henri Gervex, a bearded man with short hair in a dark suit, holding a walking stick
Henri Gervex, photograph by Pierre Petit, reproduced in the Revue illustrée, 1902 Pierre Petit (1831-1909), Revue illustrée 1902, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Who he was

Henri Gervex (born in Montmartre, Paris, 10 September 1852; died in Paris, 7 June 1929) was a Parisian painter of society portraits, nudes, genre scenes and, later, large public decorations. He entered Pierre-Nicolas Brisset's studio in 1867, was admitted to the École des beaux-arts in 1871 (studio of Alexandre Cabanel, where he stayed about five years) and also studied with Eugène Fromentin. He exhibited at the Salon from 1873 and won a second-class medal in 1874. His best-known picture, Rolla (1878), was rejected by the Salon jury as scandalous; it is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. From 1882 he worked on the decoration of the mairie of the 19th arrondissement; Avant l'opération (1887) and Une séance du jury de peinture (1885) are among his later Salon subjects. (Fr. Wikipedia, "Henri Gervex", https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Gervex.)

Marie and Gervex

Marie never paints Gervex, and he never becomes a close friend; he belongs to the circle of fashionable Parisian painters whose names she collects and fears. He is a Salon juror whose goodwill matters, and a man whose manner she does not quite trust.
  • 24 January 1882 (094.0205). First appearance: an evening at Mme Cartwright's, where she finds only "Bastien, son frère, Gervex et Mencker, quatre célébrités" and sits shyly drawing sketches with them in the hostess's album (Mme Cartwright).
  • 1 July 1882 (095.0236). Boasting to herself of her new acquaintances, she lists the small dinner "Bastien, Gervex, Carolus" among the things she can now say aloud. A footnote of the English tree already identifies him as Henri Gervex (1852-1929).
  • 3 August 1882 (096.0007). Planning a dining club of five men and five women, she names the men: "Tony, Saint Marceaux, Bastien, Gervex, Julian".
  • 1 May 1883 (099.0293-0308). Day of the Salon jury's work. She counts on friends among the jurors: "Bastien est tout puissant, Carolus, Gervex, Carrier-Belleuse". Gervex and Carrier-Belleuse offer to have her picture hung lower, which she finds "bien agréable" ("Gervex est très gentil"); at the milliner's afterwards she is "en verve d'éloquence" before him, Julian and Carrier-Belleuse. In her review of the Salon she dismisses his entry in two words: "Gervex ordinaire".
  • 27 June 1883 (100.0237). Gossip about Bastien-Lepage and the courtesan Valtesse: "Gervex oui mais Bastien, il n'est ni assez beau ni assez parisien pour cela."
  • 3 July 1883 (100.0284). A young sculptor selling busts "connaît Bastien, Gervex".
  • 31 December 1883 (102.0625). She is furious that Julian tells people that "Clairin, Duez, Gervex etc. sans compter Bastien" never leave her house.
  • 13-14 January 1884 (103.0019, 103.0020). Coarse verses mocking Bastien-Lepage circulate; Irma attributes them to Gervex. Marie refuses to believe it ("Gervex a trop de talent pour commettre des vers pareils") but Bojidar, after an evening at Mme Cartwright's, reports finding Gervex there "en train de débiner Bastien", and sings the couplets to her.
  • 16 March 1884 (103.0530, 103.0541). On the Salon's delivery day, waiting on the stairs for her canvases, Gervex "vient causer un instant avec moi sur un ton qui lui est ordinaire et que je n'aime pas"; that night he appears in her half-asleep mutterings ("Ah ! Gervex l'a vu... Sale bête...").
  • 29 March 1884 (103.0614). After her picture fails to win the hoped-for medal, she writes to everyone who might help, "Gervex, Carolus, etc."
  • 20 May 1884 (104.0277). Of the jury she knows only Tony Robert-Fleury, "et puis Carolus, Gervex et Cabanel pour les rencontrer une fois par an."
  • 2 June 1884 (104.0497). The dealer-collector Émile tells her he bought early works by Roll, Gervex and Collin when they were beginners.

Related entries

Sources

Wikipédia FR, "Henri Gervex"; Wikimedia Commons, File:Henri Gervex.jpg (portrait by Pierre Petit, Revue illustrée 1902, public domain). Diary paragraphs as cited.

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