This exhibit was a collection of works from an anonymous lender in the community. The 17 works in the exhibition are all examples of the French Academic style. The term "Academic" refers to art that embodies the philosophy and style espoused by Europe's Academies, state-run art schools modeled on Ecole des Beaux-Arts of the French Académie Royale. In the nineteenth century, continuing a tradition reaching back 300 years, the Academies defined standards of "good" painting and taught the rules that produced it. Ranking historical scenes above all other themes, the Academic curriculum emphasized exact draftsmanship, which was acquired by copying classical sculpture and drawing from live models. Anatomy, perspective, expression, and pictorial composition were similarly learned by studying the great masters of the past. This system of instruction changed little over time, and the Academic style remained the officially supported approach well into the twentieth century.

Academic paintings strive to offer a convincing illusion of reality. They often contain a wealth of minutely described details that make even imaginary scenes look plausible. Similarly, Academic paintings are generally "highly finished." In other words, they display consistent levels of precision throughout and have glassy-smooth surfaces, thus "erasing" brushstrokes and other signs of the artist's handiwork that might get in the way of the illusion. Exactitude, slickness, rich detail, and a love for storytelling are the benchmarks of nineteenth-century Academic painting.

Included in this exhibition were works by Adolphe-William Bouguereau, Jean Leon Gérôme, Jules Lefebvre, Alexandre Cabanel, and Charles Bargue.

Born in La Rochelle, France, Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1825–1905) began his career in Paris in 1846 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a student of Picot. In 1850 he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome. He then left for Italy, where he spent four years studying the great masters of the Renaissance. After his return to France in 1854, he became an immensely successful and influential exponent of Academic art. Bouguereau was one of the key supporters of the Salon, the first official art exhibition held in France and limited to members of the Royal Academy. As a strict academician and proponent of official orthodoxy in painting, he played a major role in the exclusion of works of the Impressionists and other experimental painters from the Salon.

Bouguereau exhibited regularly at the Salon and became the most famous French painter of his day. He is rightfully considered to be the European artist who indisputably set the Academic standard for painting in the 19th century. Among three works by Bouguereau featured in this exhibition is Pieta, 1876, which was painted as a memorial to his second child, Georges, who died at the age of fifteen in 1875. Not a commissioned work, the Pieta is one of the most important paintings still in private hands, as well as a masterpiece of 19th century religious art.

Jean Leon Gérôme (1824–1904), French painter and sculptor, was a pupil of Paul Delaroche and inherited his highly finished academic style. His best-known works are his oriental scenes, a result of numerous trips he made to the Near East. Included in this exhibition is A Collaboration: Molière and Corneille, 1873, which depicts the French playwrights Molière and Corneille working together on the 1671 play Psyche, the only time in their careers they collaborated.

During his lifetime, Jules-Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911) had an enviable career receiving most of the awards the Salon could bestow. Today his paintings are rarely seen and he is better known through his students (including many Americans) at the Julian Academy, an art school founded to accommodate the thousands who desired Beaux-Arts training. Like many Academic artists of the middle and late nineteenth century, Lefebvre's art attempts to reconcile the many artistic styles that were vying for hegemony at the time, including neo-classicism, naturalism, symbolism, and even impressionism. His Portrait of a Young Woman, 1884, popularly called Wild Flowers, is included in this exhibition.

French painter Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889) ranked with Bouguereau as one of the most successful and influential Academic painters of the period and one of the sternest opponents of the Impressionists. He painted portraits of many socialites and politicians, including Napoleon III. His Portrait of a Young Woman, 1883, is a telling example of his style, often penetrating and offering a strange elixir of the old master past and an observed, albeit nineteenth century, present.

The lithographer and painter Charles Bargue (1824–1883) remains an enigma. Little is known about his career and almost nothing about his personal life. Bargue collaborated with Gérôme on the once famous Cours de Dessins, a drawing course published in order to improve the quality of draftsmanship in France. As a result of this work, Bargue went on to produce about two dozen cabinet (small scale) paintings remarkable not only for their microscopic detail, but also for their atmosphere, color, and delicate brushwork. These qualities belie—even contradict—the paintings intimate scale.

Three living artists were also represented in this exhibition. Graydon Parrish, a Tyler native, began immersing himself in the French Academic style at the New York Academy of Art. After graduating from the Academy in 1990, he apprenticed for several years with Academy professor Michael Aviano, and then enrolled at Amherst University in 1994 as a 24-year-old first year student. Works by Mr. Parrish and Mr. Aviano were on display in this exhibition, as well as two works by artist Lucy Mackenzie.

bThe Tyler Museum of Art is located on the east side of the Tyler Junior College campus at 1300 S. Mahon. Museum hours are 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. Sunday. The Museum is closed Mondays.

The Tyler Museum of Art is supported by its members, the City of Tyler, and Tyler Junior College. Additional support is provided by the Rogers Foundation, the Watson W. Wise Foundation, and the Junior League of Tyler.