Ackerman, Gerald M. Jean-Léon Gérôme: his Life, his Work, 1824-1904. Courbevoie: ACR, 1997
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Born: Vésoul, Haute-Saone, 11 May 1824
Died: Paris, 10 January 1904
Nationality: French
Died: Paris, 10 January 1904
Nationality: French
Background:
son of a goldsmith
Studies:
with Paul Delaroche (1840-43, Paris); with Charles Gleyre (1844); Ecole des Beaux- Arts
Career:
1846 – begins exhibiting at Paris Salon; fails to win Prix de Rome
1847 – exhibitsThe Cockfight at Salon; Théophile Thoré and Théophile Gautier write positive reviews
1848 – Anacreon, Bacchus and Amor (Musée Augustins, Toulouse) bought by French State
1855 –exhibits Recreation in the Camp (private collection) at Exposition universelle (Paris)
1863 – appointed professor at Ecole des Beaux-Arts
1864 – elected to Institut de France
1878 – exhibits large bronze gladiator at the Exposition universelle (Paris)
Travels
Italy (1843); Constantinople (1853); Egypt (1856)
Commissions from:
Comte de Nieuwerkerke; Napoleon III; Prince Napoleon-Jérôme Bonaparte; French government
Important Artworks:
The Cockfight, 1846 (Louvre, Paris)
The Snake Charmer, c. 1870 (Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown,MA)
Interior of a Mosque, 1890s (University of Rochester, NY)
Pygmalion and Galatea, c. 1890 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
See also Nadar's photographic portrait of Gérôme, c. 1900
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