1824 – 1904
Jean Leon Gérôme’s art combines two of the most popular trends of the 19th century: neoclassicism and Orientalism. Gérôme was born on May 11, 1824, in Vésoul, in the eastern region of France known as Franche-Comté. His family was affluent, though modest. At the age of 16, Gérôme convinced his father to let him try to become a painter. The man, who worked as a goldsmith, was not enthusiastic about his son’s career choice, but agreed to let him do a trial period with Paul Delaroche in Paris.
In 1843, when Delaroche closed his studio and moved to Italy, young Gérôme followed him, always in search of new knowledge and classical images. In particular, he was enchanted by the ruins of Pompeii and eventually began to incorporate many design elements of ancient Roman fresco styles into his painting. Unfortunately, he fell ill in 1844 and was forced to return to Paris for treatment.
Once he recovered, Gérôme joined the studio of Charles Gleyre, who had hired many of Delaroche’s former students. For Gérôme this was largely a strategy to enable him to submit paintings for the Prix de Rome competition, which would then allow him to return to Rome and his work. His career took an unexpected turn when his application was rejected for “inadequate skill in figure drawing.” Hoping to remedy this shortcoming, Gérôme painted what he considered an academic exercise with a nude young man and a lightly clothed young woman. He added an Italianate landscape and a pair of fighting cocks to the scene, almost as an afterthought. Delaroche encouraged him to submit the painting to the 1847 Salon and, to his undoubted surprise, Cockfighting won a third-class medal. More importantly, the painting received very positive critical attention, especially from Théophile Gautier in La Presse, who saw in Gérôme’s work a new understanding of the themes of antiquity.
Due to popular success, Gérôme no longer felt the need to compete for the Prix de Rome and devoted himself to building his reputation in Paris. The following year, his expectations were fulfilled when the state purchased Anacreon, Bacchus and Amor, his painting presented at the 1848 Salon. Continued sales on the private market, combined with regular government commissions, ensured Gérôme’s financial security and established him as one of the leading young academic painters of the mid-century.
In 1853, however, Gérôme traveled to Istanbul with actor Edmond Got in preparation for a major government project, The Age of Augustus. There he discovered the fascinating world of the Middle East. From this date on, his subjects split between the classical themes he favored early in his career and an exoticism similar to that of J.-A.-D. Ingres, but with a distinctly photographic realism.
Gérôme’s first trip to Egypt three years later provided even more material for his expanding repertoire of Middle Eastern and now North African subjects. His works for the 1857 Salon characteristically reflect the dual aspect of his painting at this stage of his career: The Plain of Thebes, Upper Egypt and Duel after the Masquerade Ball. Both retain his stylistic preference for precise academic realism, but the subjects could not be more different.
In 1858 he designed Pompeian-style interiors for the Paris home of Prince Napoléon-Jerôme Bonaparte; in 1859 he exhibited two classical subjects at the Salon: King Candaule and Ave Caesar. Then, in 1861, he was commissioned to paint for the Palace of Versailles. Shortly before completing this vast project, in 1864, Gérôme was appointed professor of painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a post he would hold for thirty-nine years. Soon after, he was elected a member of the Institute de France.
Gérôme’s personal life was enriched in 1863 with his marriage to Marie Goupil, the daughter of the print dealer and publisher who supplied so many middle-class art lovers with affordable works in the second half of the 19th century. The marriage caused Gérôme to abandon his collective studio at the Boîte à Thé, rue Notre Dame des Champs, and move in with his wife. He continued to paint both classical and Orientalist themes and became increasingly devoted to teaching the younger generation in his classes at the Ecole.
One of the most significant changes in Gérôme’s career was his emergence as a sculptor in the late 1870s. Surprising almost everyone, he exhibited at the 1878 Salon a large bronze sculpture depicting a gladiator trampling his victim. This figure was essentially a three-dimensional representation of the triumphant gladiator in his 1872 painting. At the same time, Gérôme began experimenting with sculpting marble, going so far as to dye it with colors in imitation of the technique that was practiced by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Gérôme continued to teach until 1902 and to work actively until his death. The New York Times obituary reported that: “Yesterday several friends had lunch with M. Gérôme at his home, and after lunch he took them to his studio to show them a statue depicting Corinth, of which he was the sculptor. The statue had just been finished and he was about to color it.” He died Jan. 10, 1904, in Paris, a few months shy of his 80th birthday.
