The basis for the Museum is a collection of 19th- and early 20th-century European academic art formed by Dr. Dahesh (1909-1984), a writer, philosopher and art connoisseur who lived in Beirut, Lebanon. With his collection of more than 2,000 paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints, photographs, and sculptures, plus further work since acquired, the Museum tells the story of academic art from 1800 through the early decades of the 20th century. Although especially strong in French and British art of the later 19th century, the collection offers an overview of the entire epoch throughout Europe.

Academic Art

The history of academic art recounts the elevation of the artist from the status of a craftsperson or artisan, as in Medieval times, to that of a recognized creative personality. The academic tradition, which stressed training artists in an organized, formal system, established a cultural structure that has produced centuries of great art. The 19th century is the last and most fruitful florescence of this system, producing thousands of talented artists who studied in the academies and in the ateliers of established figures. It is also the moment when art became truly popular – seen, enjoyed and acquired by people at all levels of society, not just the aristocracy, church and state.

The academic art tradition is embodied in the institution of the academy itself and regular exhibitions. The two best known institutions are the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Royal Academy in London (both still exist today), although nearly every European city developed similar academies that set high technical and artistic standards. The most famous exhibitions were the Paris Salons, which in the 19th century were among the largest art displays ever held and which captured international attention in the artistic and popular press during their runs.

Artists were carefully trained in technique and in the inheritance of the great Western art tradition. This tradition deemed historical subjects — Classical, mythological, religious and allegorical — as the highest form of art, which continued to be commissioned or purchased by church and state. The new, wealthy middle class more often preferred scenes of everyday life, landscape, animals and still life, so these became popular and widespread genres in the Salons. Many of these artists are not well known today but, in fact, they were the painters and sculptors that critics and the public appreciated and discussed in their time.

The Dahesh Museum Collection

The collection introduces a richer and more complete history of 19th-century art than is related in most museums and texts. It includes masterpieces by such relatively well known artists as Jean-Léon Gérôme, whose Working in Marble is an extraordinary self-portrait of the great classicist-painter at a time in his later life when he turned to making sculpture. Gérôme was also one of the outstanding teachers and, in that role, a major figure in advancing the academic tradition into the 20th century. The collection also includes works of superb quality by artists who are less well known or, occasionally, unidentified. Ruth and Boaz is a splendid example of a history (in this case religious) painting from mid-century. Unsigned, it is probably by a French artist, possibly working in Italy.

In addition to history, everyday life became a popular subject, and the collection includes an ample represention of landscape and contemporary people. Artists and patrons elevated animal painting (the subject of an early Museum exhibition) from a minor genre to significant artistic production. The most famous animalier name was Bonheur, and the Museum owns works by the renowned Rosa as well as a luminous and monumental painting of Cattle by a Lake by her brother Auguste, one of the few canvases by this artist in America. All aspects of rural life were portrayed, and many artists took their pencils and brushes into the fields to work en plein air. Jules Breton’s oil sketch for The Snack reveals this great academic artist turning to a humble subject and beginning to compose a major Salon composition.

Far from familiar home life, Europe rediscovered what it called the Orient: North Africa, the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. Orientalism – also the subject of an early Dahesh Museum exhibition – was a phenomenon that captured the imagination of artists and patrons to an extraordinary degree, and the Dahesh Museum collection is one of the best. Artists in every European country participated, such as the Victorian Edwin Long, with his imaginative recreation of everyday life in ancient Egypt, Love’s Labour Lost, to the Austrian Rudolf Ernst’s study of the contemporary Arab world, The Metal Workers. The French were avid participants in every medium, including sculpture, as in Charles Henri Joseph Cordier’s elegant Sudanese in Algerian Costume.

Jean-Leon Gerome
The Marble Work, 1890

Rudolf Ernst (Austrian, 1854-1932)
The Metal Worker

Charles Henri Joseph Cordier
(French, 1827-1905)
A Sudanese in Algerian Costume

Edwin Long
Love's Labour Lost, 1885

Unknown Artist
(French [?}, mid-19th century)
Ruth and Boaz

Auguste Bonheur  (French, 1824-1884)
Cattle by a Lake

Jules Breton (French, 1827-1906)
Study for The Snack, 1885