The "art pompier" or "academy art" is neither a school nor a movement. Rather, it is the art of academicians between the 1850s and the beginning of the 20th century, in France between the Second Empire and the Third Republic. The term "Art Pompier" probably appears for the first time during the Romantic period among art students, as a mocking allusion to helmed, naked warriors on the neoclassical works of Jacques-Louis David and his contemporaries. In addition to David, Alexandre Cabanel, William Bouguereau and Jean-Léon Gérôme are among the best known. 

This book brings together some 250 works, whose impressive compositions with almost photographic precision testify to the mastery of their creators.