Jean Léon Gérôme

Jean Léon Gérôme – Painterly apprenticeship with Paul Delaroche and Charles Gleyre

Jean Léon Gérôme was born in Vesoul on 11 May 1824. The son of a goldsmith, he was confronted with arts and crafts from an early age and developed a corresponding interest. At the age of 17, he went to Paris where he took tuition from the history painter Paul Delaroche and accompanied him on a study trip through Italy in 1844. The venture, which had begun with such hope, prematurely ended when Jean Léon Gérôme suddenly took ill: The young artist was forced to return to Paris and ultimately continued his apprenticeship with the Swiss painter Charles Gleyre. Gérôme won an award with his first admission to the Salon de Paris in 1847, whilst the art critic Théophile Gautier was impressed by his lively depiction of a cockfight. Further entries to the Salon de Paris and repeated awards followed, bringing Jean Léon Gérôme many contracts, mostly for large-format history paintings. 

Fantasy and facts created epochal art in wide-screen format

For his splendid history scenes, Jean Léon Gérôme drew by no means indiscriminately on the traditions of his predecessors. Rather, he achieved the art of creating his own iconography - not by representing history with his detailed pictures, but by narrating it, in a way that has not lost any fascination even in modern times and continues to be style-defining. The director Ridley Scott admitted to being inspired for his successful monumental film Gladiator by the picture Pollice Verso – Gérôme’s 1872 interpretation of a gladiator battle. Jean Léon Gérôme favoured diverse motifs from mythology and the Orient for his pictures and to attain the desired realism, undertook extended trips to Egypt and Turkey. He studied armour discovered in Pompeii and intensively examined the customs of that time. His contemporaries were greatly impressed by the magnificent monumental paintings with their richness of detail. 

Not only history painter, but also sculptor and portrait artist

Jean Léon Gérôme stood energetically and unapologetically in opposition to Impressionism. This vehemently held attitude often led to him being understood as a reactionary after his death, but art critics have since come around to a more differentiated point of view. Jean Léon Gérôme was not only a diligent illustrator, he was a creator of images in the best sense, going far beyond mere representation of reality in his depictions. Much less well known than his history paintings is the impressive number of portraits Gérôme created of the great figures of French history, including Louis XV, Molière and Michel Neys. He also won great acclaim as a sculptor, and his life-size marble nude Tanagra was one of the most celebrated entries at the Paris Salon of 1890. 

Jean Léon Gérôme died in Paris on 10 January 1904.