genre painters, and in 1868, for the first time, a genre painting was chosen for the top award at the Salon: Gustave Brion's Reading the Bible: Protestant Interior in 7 Alsace (present location unknown). The traditionalists' view of genre painting was vividly spelled out by the critic Olivier Merson in 1861: Genre painting holds sway over artists and dominates the public. It is a sign of the decadence of art. . . . The public is satisfied with the exact imitation of the form and color of clothes, furnish- ings, and accessories . . . and excuses artists from the rest—that is to say, from thought and great principles. It is no surprise that, finding a convenient path by which they can gain success and a reputation, painters commit themselves to this, without thought for the interests of art, determined above all to satisfy the pic- ture dealers who seek to impose on them the whims of their 8 clientele, which are more ostentatious than intelligent. For Marius Ghaumelin in 1868, though, the triumph of genre painting was a cause for celebration: One can only applaud the decadence of mythologies and the decrepitude of symbolism, though we may regret that contem- porary art cannot retrace the great events of history But we con- sole ourselves by the realization that the humble scenes of private life have never been reproduced with greater finesse and energy. . . . We can be proud of the importance that genre paint- ing . . . has assumed in recent years. Do not these images of domestic life, these sketches of customs and characters, tell us the history of man himself? And is not this history as worthy of interest and as rich in lessons as the representation of empires 9 bloodstained by war? Figure 3 William Bouguereau The vogue for genre paintings that featured the lifestyle of fashion- (French, 1825-1905). The Rustic Toilette, able, contemporary city dwellers was more recent. These pictures were first 1869. Oil on canvas, popularized in the late 18508 by the Belgian painter Alfred Stevens [FIGURES 4, 130.8 X 90.2 cm (51V2 x 35V in.). Sold 2 20] and after him by the Belgians Charles Baugniet [FIGURE 17] and Gustave de Sotheby's, New York, 13 October 1993, lot 69. Jonghe [FIGURE 18] as well as French painters such as Auguste Toulmouche Courtesy of Sotheby's, Inc., New York. [FIGURES 5, 34]. By 1870 such meticulously painted images of women wearing 6