JEAN-LéON GéRôME

'Jean-Léon Gérôme' (May 11, 1824 – January 10, 1904) was a French painter and sculptor who resisted the counter-revolutionary movements of Impressionism begun by Monet and Manet, continuing the development and conservation of French neo-classicism. He also produced many works in a historical, Orientalist style, bringing the French Empire tradition to an artistic climax.

Contents

Life

Works

Selected works

Painting

Sculpture

Pupils

External links

Life

Born at Vesoul (Haute-Saône), he went to Paris in 1840 where he studied under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy (1844-1845). On his return he followed, like many other students of Delaroche, into the atelier of Charles Gleyre, and in turn exhibited ''The Cock-fight'', which gained him a third-class medal in the Salon of 1847. This work was seen as the epitomy of the Neo-Grec movement that had formed out of Gleyre's studio, and was championed by the French critic Theophile Gautier.''The Virgin with Christ'' and ''St John and Anacreon'', ''Bacchus and Cupid'' took a second-class medal in 1848. He exhibited ''Bacchus and Love, Drunk'', a ''Greek Interior'' and ''Souvenir d'Italie'', in 1851; ''Paestum'' (1852); and ''An Idyll'' (1853).
In 1854 Gérôme made a journey to Turkey and the shores of the Danube, and in 1857 visited Egypt. To the exhibition of 1855 he contributed a ''Pifferaro'', a ''Shepherd'', ''A Russian Concert'' and a large historical canvas, ''The Age of Augustus'' and the ''Birth of Christ''. The last was somewhat confused in effect, but in recognition of its consummate ability the State purchased it.
Gérôme's reputation was greatly enhanced at the Salon of 1857 by a collection of works of a more popular kind: the ''Duel: after a Masquerade'', ''Egyptian Recruits crossing the Desert'', ''Memnon and Sesostris'' and ''Camels Watering'', the drawing of which was criticized by Edmond About.
In ''Caesar'' (1859) Gérôme tried to return to a severer class of work, but the picture failed to interest the public. ''Phryne before the Areopagus'', ''Le Roi Candaule'' and ''Socrates finding Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia'' (1861) gave rise to some scandal by reason of the subjects selected by the painter, and brought down on him the bitter attacks of Paul de Saint-Victor and Maxime Du Camp. At the same Salon he exhibited the ''Egyptian chopping Straw'', and ''Rembrandt biting an Etching'', two very minutely finished works.
Gérôme was elected a member of the Institut de France in 1865.
Jean-Léon Gérôme died in 1904 and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery. He was the father-in-law of the painter Aimé Morot.

Works

Most of his works have either been lost or destroyed while the aristocratic de Suduiraut family that his daughter married into conserved several works, declared works of national heritage, which were donated to the national museums of Paris. His great-grand daughter, Sophie Guillot de Suduiraut, is a famous private collector's atelier painter in Paris, and also a Parisian curator.

Selected works

Painting

Gérôme's best paintings are of Eastern subjects; among these may be named:

★ ''Turkish Prisoner and Turkish Butcher'' (1863)

★ ''Prayer'' (1865)

★ ''The Slave Market'' (1867)

★ ''Excursion of the Harem'' (1869).

★ ''Louis XIV and Molière'' (1863) Historical theme.

★ ''The Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors at Fontainebleau'' (1865);

★ ''Death of Marshal Ney'' (1868).

Sculpture

Gérôme was also successful as a sculptor; he executed, among other works; ''Omphale'' (1887), and the statue of the duc d'Aumale which stands in front of the château of Chantilly (1899). His ''Bellona'' (1892), in ivory, metal, and precious stones, which was also exhibited in the Royal Academy of London, attracted great attention. The artist then began an interesting series of Conquerors, wrought in gold, silver and gems ''Bonaparte entering Cairo'' (1897); ''Tamerlane'' (1898); and ''Frederick the Great'' (1899).

Pupils

His students included:


★ Dagnan-Bouveret

★ Georges Ferdinand Bigot

★ Frank Boggs

★ Frederick Arthur Bridgman

★ Dennis Miller Bunker

★ Kenyon Cox

★ William DeLeftwich Dodge

★ Wynford Dewhurst, R.B.A.

★ Lecomte du Nouy

★ Thomas Eakins

★ Wyatt Eaton

★ Delphin Enjolras

★ Alexander Harrison

★ Robert Lee MacCameron

★ Siddons Mowbray

★ Aloysius O'Kelly

★ Lawton Parker

★ Paul Peel

★ Harper Pennington

★ William Picknell

★ Julius Stewart

★ Abbott Handerson Thayer

★ Vasili Vasilyevich Vereshchagin

★ Douglas Volk

★ J. Alden Weir

External links

★ Artencyclopedia.com page on Gérôme

★ Darnley Fine Art

★ Large gallery of Gérôme's paintings

★ Ten Dreams Galleries

★ Jean-Léon Gérôme in the "History of Art"

★ smARThistory: ''Pygmalion and Galatea''