Jean-Léon Gérôme

1824 - 1904 • French• Painter/Sculptor • Academic

"Quick of vision and unmerciful in judgment, [Gerome] dominated, by a singular magnetism, the student who gladly submitted to his terrible "ce n'est pas (a" [that's not it] and who scarcely felt elated with the seldom heard "pas ma!" [not bad]-such confidence he inspired in his sincerity in holding before us the same high standard of excellence toward which he also struggled." - S. W. Van Schaick, 1889

Gerome was the favorite student of DELAROCHE and learned from his teacher the meticulous study of details; these he used in paintings of scenes arranged as though they were theatrical acts. He went on to study with GLEYRE, who had several future IMPRESSIONISTS among his students. However, Gerome remained distant from Impressionism with his carefully studied forms, sharp focus, enamel-like surfaces, and concentration on HISTORY PAINTING. Gerome's images seem perfectly objective, descriptive, and photographic so that the critic Theophile Gautier wrote of his painting Ave Caesar (Death of Caesar; 1859,): "If photography had existed in Caesar's day, one could believe that the picture was painted from a photograph taken on the spot at the very moment of the catastrophe." The Slave Market (1866), in which a naked woman is being examined by Arab slave traders, one of whom looks at her teeth, exemplifies both Gerome's technique and his affect-a high finish and erotic undercurrents. Gerome taught at the ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS, where he had a number of American students, one of whom is quoted above. Another was EAKINS, who remained ever indebted to his teacher and full of praise for his methods, especially the importance of studying the nude from life.