[5] An 1895 book reported with grave disapproval that Although notice will be taken of the Maria Padilla of M. Paul Gervais, it will not be on account of its surpassing merit.

The artist has chosen for his subject the narrative of a chronicler: "When the beautiful favourite took her bath it was the custom for the king (Peter the Cruel) and his courtiers to go and keep her company."

The figure of Maria Padilla is erect in the midst of the court, while the king, who is buried in the depths of an armchair, scans her from head to foot, the courtiers grouped behind and the maids of honour in front!

[7] Around 1900 Gervais produced the painting Fright, now lost but reproduced as the frontispiece to Filson Young's The Complete Motorist (1904).

[9] In 1909 he created a huge painting that covered the north wall of the Salle Empire of the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo.