Did “kitsch” as we understand it today — ingratiating, death-denying sentimentality and tendentiousness — exist in the late 19th century?
Sure. It was born then. In art, it went by names like Bouguereau, Cabanel, and Gerome. Paintings by these slick purveyors of the etiolated academic tradition had lost almost all connection with modern reality. Their art pandered to fantasists and revanchists — the complacently rich.
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The painting by Gerome at the MFA began my lifelong love of art. The painting mesmerized the young me, hanging in a hallway at the Museum. The pink of that robe, the pale blue of the other dandy outfit--I was awestruck. You never know what will turn on a young heart, and it certainly had nothing to do with the message or the irony contained therein,
Sebastien Smee is one of the treasures of the Globe's staff. He could just as easily spend his time lecturing on Fine Arts at a university. But he shares his insights with the readers of the Daily, and we are all enlarged for the experience. When he writes about an object of art, he induces the reader to look back, at the piece itself, its history, and its context. Bravo!
I always like to think that he's wearing Birkenstocks.