JEAN-LEON GEROME – French Academic Painter, Teacher of Many Famous Artists (H)

This artist’s paintings were so widely reproduced that he was “arguably the world’s most famous living artist by 1880.“ The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits, and other subjects, bringing the academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters of this academic period. He was also a teacher with a long list of students who later became famous. Jean-Léon Gérôme lived from May 11th, 1824 to January 10th, 1904. He was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. Jean-Léon Gérôme was born at Vesoul, Haute-Saône, a region in Eastern France. In 1840, when he was 16 years old, he went to Paris. There he studied under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy in 1843. He visited Florence, Rome, the Vatican, and Pompeii. On his return to Paris in 1844, like many students of Delaroche, he joined the atelier of Charles Gleyre and studied there for a brief time. In 1864, Gérôme was one of the three professors appointed at the École des Beaux-Arts. He started with sixteen students. Between 1864 and 1904, more than 2,000 students received at least some of their art education through Gérôme’s atelier at the École des Beaux-Arts. Places in Gérôme’s atelier were limited, keenly sought, and highly competitive. Only the best students were admitted and aspirants considered it an honor to be selected. Gérôme progressed his students through drawing from antique works, and casts, and that was followed by life study with live models. Generally, the models were selected on the basis of their physique, but occasionally for their facial expression in a sequence of exercises known as the academia.