Gérôme, Jean Léon

PAINTER, SCULPTOR (FRANCE)
BORN 11 May 1824, Vesoul, Haute-Saône - DIED 10 Jan 1904, Paris
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetière de Montmartre, 20 Avenue Rachel (division 18, ligne 04, numéro 19)

Jean Léon Gérôme became a student of Paul Delaroche in 1841. With Delaroche he went to Italy in 1843, but after contracting a fever he was forced to return to Paris in 1844. In 1846 his entry for the Prix de Rome was turned down. He fared better at the Salon of 1847 where he won a third-class medal. Several paintings followed and a vase he decorated in 1851 was eventually given to Prince Albert by Napoleon III.

In 1852 he was commissioned by Alfred Emilien Comte de Nieuwerkerke to paint a large historical canvas and this enabled him to travel to Constantinople in 1853. In 1854 he visited Turkey again and in 1856 he went to Egypt. In 1857 his popularity grew after he exhibited more works at the Salon.

He married Marie Goupil (1842-1912), a daughter of the art dealer Adolphe Goupil. He lived with her at the Rue de Bruxelles in Paris. In 1865 he became a member of the Institut de France and in 1869 he became a honorary member of the Royal Academy in London. In 1867 pressure was put upon him to withdraw his "Death of Marshall Ney" because the subject was regarded as painful, but he submitted it to the Salon all the same.

Gérôme was also active as a sculptor. He painted himself as a sculptor on "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1890, Metropolitan Museum, New York City). He died in his studio in 1904 and was found in front of a portrait of Rembrandt. He was buried at the Montmartre Cemetery in front of the statue "Sorrow" that he had made for his son who had died in 1891.

Works:
"Jeunes Grecs faisant battre des coqs" (1847, Museé d'Orsay, Paris); "Suites d'un bal masqué" (1857, Musée Condé, Chantilly); "Le Prisonnier" (1861, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes); "Caesar's Death" (1867, The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland).

Related persons
• was pupil of Delaroche, Paul
• was teacher of Moreau-Vauthier, Charles

Events
21/5/1876Bouguereau visits king Willem III at Palace het Loo in Apeldoorn. His colleagues Gérôme and Cabanel were there as well. [Bouguereau, William]

Images

The grave of Jean Léon Gérôme at Montmartre Cimetière, Paris.
Picture by Androom (19 May 2005)

 

"Pygmalion and Galatea".
(New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art)
 

Sources
• Beyern, Bertrand, Guide des Cimetières en France, Le Cherche Midi Éditeur, Paris, 1994
The Catalogue Raisonné, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Borghi Publications, Internet, 1997
Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (editie 1909), 1909
Jean-Léon Gérôme - Wikipedia


Gershwin, George

Published: 23 Oct 2016
Last update: 30 Jul 2023