Musée d’Orsay · 1878
Rolla
Henri Gervex
Gervex paints the morning after a night shared by a wealthy young man and his mistress, inspired by a poem by Alfred de Musset about a man who has spent his last money on pleasure before taking his own life — the discarded clothes and open corset on the floor were reportedly suggested by Gervex's friend Edgar Degas, so viewers would understand exactly who this woman was.
Why it matters
Gervex paints the morning after a night shared by a wealthy young man and his mistress, inspired by a poem by Alfred de Musset about a man who has spent his last money on pleasure before taking his own life — the discarded clothes and open corset on the floor were reportedly suggested by Gervex's friend Edgar Degas, so viewers would understand exactly who this woman was.
Look closer
Notice the still life of clothing tossed on the chair — a top hat, a walking stick, a hastily undone corset — Gervex tells the whole story through these abandoned objects rather than through any dramatic gesture from the two figures themselves.
The painting was banned from the 1878 Salon before it even opened — not primarily because of the nudity itself, which was common in academic painting, but because these very details made its subject unmistakably scandalous.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €1.8–3.5 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.