Pompier

Art pompier and style pompier are derisive late-19th century French terms for large 'official' academic art paintings of the time, especially historical or allegorical ones. The terms derive from the helmets with horse-hair tails, worn at the time by French firemen, which are similar to the Attic helmets often worn in such works by allegorical personifications, classical warriors, or Napoleonic cavalry. It also suggests half-puns in French with pompéien and pompeux ('pompous'). Those who used the term regarded such art as the epitome of the values of the bourgeoisie, and as insincere and overblown.