Jean-Léon Gérôme - 101 paintings (with captions) [HD]

Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His 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 from this academic period. He was also a teacher with a long list of students.

Jean-Léon Gérôme is considered among the greatest French academic painters of the 19th century, following in the footsteps of the father of French neo-classical painting, Jacques-Louis David. Born in 1824 into a modest family in Vesoul, Haute-Saône, Gérôme moved to Paris in 1841 and enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Paul Delacroche and later that of Charles Gleyre. He debuted at the Salon in 1847 with his genre painting The Cock Fight. The work caught the attention of Théophile Gautier who praised it in an article for La Presse, earning Gérôme instant fame. Gérôme and Gleyre’s other students were subsequently encouraged to work in the same vein, appealing to the critics. This led to the formation of their group “Les Pompiers” (named after the French fire brigade whose members wore Greek-style helmets), also known as “Les Néo-Grecques”, which Gérôme headed.

By the second half of the century, Gérôme was one of the most honoured artists worldwide; he was admired by his pupils and a respected gentleman amongst European and American aristocrats. He gained a multitude of awards, including numerous medals at the Salon and the Exposition Universelle over the course of his career, and was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and later Commandeur. On the invitation of the French government, Gérôme taught at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1864 until his death and became a jury member for the Exposition Universelle of 1889.

Gérôme’s disputes with the Impressionists marked the start of his decline in popularity. At the time of his death in 1904, Gérôme’s achievements earned official praise, but public opinion toward him was indifferent. Following a retrospective exhibition in Paris, recognition of Gérôme’s remarkable skill increased substantially. He is now considered to be one of the most influential and imaginative painters of the 19th century, and his work can now be seen in international collections including, to name a few, The Wallace Collection and The National Gallery in London, the Hermitage State Museum and Paris’s Louvre and Musée d’Orsay.