The staging of History
Historical painting was considered for along time as the greatest of genres but its dominant position in the hierarchy of arts was becoming progressively jeopardised throughout the 19th century. The "great genre", under the influence of romantic artists like Delaroche or even before him, the so-called "troubadours", evolved towards the "historical genre", a new term ratified by the critics during the 1833 Salon. Artists no longer merely sought to portray heroism in their paintings of history but emphasised key moments, often highly charged with emotion. From now on, artists breathed more intimacy, sentimentality and local colour into their historical subjects.
The prevailing taste for the anecdotal is also present in literature. In the manner of Walter Scott whose works were translated into French from 1816 onwards, historians and novelists endeavour to narrate the previously ignored underlying events.
While history was becoming a formalised discipline in itself, the lives of painters themselves (both great and lesser masters) were supplying an endless source of subject matter. This style of painting, qualified by Vivant Denon as "heroic genre waffle", contributed to abolishing the rigid limits imposed by the Academy.
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