Against the Modern

by Gabriel P. Weisberg

"Pascal-Adolphe-Jean-Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929) was among a group of the most creative students of Jean-Leon Gerome, the leading French academic painter of his day. A well-established naturalist painter and an artist acknowledged worldwide during the latter half of the nineteenth century, Dagnan-Bouveret used contemporary themes and techniques to modernized the academic tradition in an attempt to meet the aesthetic changes initiated by the impressionists. Displaying real diversity, he created photographically accurate compositions inspired by daily life. His best-known pieces were mesmerizing mystical-religious compositions. Accolades at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle and induction into the French Institute not only assured the status of his work, but also furthered his position as the upholder of the academic tradition at a time when it was coming under renewed attack by the modernists.". "The exhibition at the Dahesh Museum that the publication of this book celebrates is the