El canto del cisne
"After decades of disdain or disinterest, the so-called 'Pompier' painters benefited from the scientific research carried out from the 1970s-1980s, and in particular the pioneering work of Bruno Foucart, Gerald Ackerman and Robert Rosenblum. More recently, monographic exhibitions like the ones dedicated to Jean-Paul Laurens, Alexandre Cabanel and Jean-Léon Gérôme among others, as well as important academic research have contributed to the radical renewal in the perception of a little known side of French art. The Mapfre Foundation is offering the Musée d'Orsay the opportunity to organise an exhibition of these academic painters for the first time in history, in order to give the general public the chance to appreciate this long criticised art in the light of new knowledge. Based on the themes of nudes, history, myth, portraits, religious painting and historical landscapes, the exhibition highlights the wealth of styles, aesthetics choices and subjects, as well as the constant evolution of an art wrongfully accused of being static, conventional and boring."--Musée d'Orsay website, viewed April 7, 2015.