The Strike of the Miners (La Grève des mineurs)

~The established consensus in contemporary culture about the value of exactitude and legibility played a central part in the making, interpreting and appreciation of painting. Indeed, this process was circular, a self-fulfilling prophecy. The modern mentality set great store by precision and the document; contemporary pictures scrupulously recorded the present...

Alfred-Philippe Roll first showed The Strike of the Miners at the Paris Salon of 1880 (fig. 58). Having won a first-class medal three years before, he was allowed to hang his large canvas outside the competition in the main entrance hall, where it garnered widespread attention from critics and the public alike.See Gabriel P. Weisberg, Beyond Impressionism: The Naturalist Impulse (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992), 97–99; Olivier Le Bihan et al., Alfred Roll, 1846–1919: Le Naturalisme en question, exh. cat. (Paris: Somogy, 2007); and Camille Baillargeon, “1880: Des mineurs en grève au Salon ou de l’influence de la peinture sur les acquis sociaux,” Analyse de l’IHOES [Institut d’Histoire Ouvrière, Économique et Sociale] 29 (31 November 2007), accessed 20 August 2014,...