This is the epoch of which it will be said that men actually, by some mysterious means, were deprived of what may for present purposes be called their sixth sense, when, though their eyelids were unclosed, they saw not, or only in a perverted manner; it is, nevertheless, one of the curiosities of this most singular epoch that while the general level of artistic attainment was so low, its pictured shadows so dark, the prevailing gloom should be illuminated here and there by lights more bright and intense than in the two preceding epochs. In other words, while we fail to trace with any measure of certainty any single instance, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of an artist of the first calibre touching the fan, during the first half of the century that succeeded, the fan may boast of such names as Horace Vernet, Ingres, Isabey, and others only a little less distinguished. These represent the welcome oasis in the dreary desert of mediocrity—the limpid springs at which from time to time we may pause for a few moments to refresh ourselves. Of the work of these famous painters, an ‘Arab dance’ by Horace Vernet is recorded; as also ‘Diana and Endymion,’ the subject treated in the Etruscan style by Ingres, who constantly in his pictures introduced fans, as witness the portrait of Madame Devauçay, referred to in an earlier chapter, ‘The Odalisque,’ and ‘The Harem.’ We have also, later, an ‘Allegory of the Arts’ by Robert Fleury, a ‘Fête’ by Gérome, and fans by Diaz, Vibert, Lami, Glaize, and Jacquemart. ‘The revolution of 1848,’ says M. Rondot, in his report on the 1851 Exhibition, ‘would have crushed the French fan industry if it had not been for the orders for exportation. The production, which in Paris amounted to the value of three million francs in 1847, was reduced by half in the disastrous year that followed; of 565 workers of both sexes 315 were thrown out of employment. At the time of writing’ (1854), continues this author, ‘the industry was in a very flourishing condition.’ This prosperity has been maintained to the present day, ‘Paris being still the only city where a fan may command the price of a hundred pounds.’[166] The number of artists and workers employed in Paris and the Oise, says M. Duvelleroy in his report on the Paris Exhibition of 1867, is 4000; the annual value of the production being ten million francs, of which three-fourths is for the foreign market. ‘Paris et la Chine ont seuls le monopole du commerce des éventails, mais c’est aujourd’hui, en Europe, une industrie toute française, pour laquelle le monde entier est notre tributaire.’[167] The evidence of this exhibition, further affirms this author, showed that France incontestably held the first rank.