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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 18:39:31 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 18:39:31 -0700 |
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diff --git a/44340-h/44340-h.htm b/44340-h/44340-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a3520c --- /dev/null +++ b/44340-h/44340-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1866 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + Gérôme. Masterpieces In Colour, by Albert Keim. A Project Gutenberg eBook. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;} + +div.titlepage {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} +div.titlepage p {text-align:center; text-indent:0;} +div.major {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} +div.major p {text-indent:0;} + +/********************************headings***************************/ +h1,h2 {text-align: center; clear: both;} +h1 {letter-spacing:0.2em; font-size: 400%; margin-bottom:0;} +h2 {margin: 3em auto; line-height:150%; font-weight:normal; font-size:100%;} + +/******************************para********************************/ +p {margin-top: .11em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .09em; text-indent: 1em;} +p.cap {text-indent: -0.2em;} +p.cap:first-letter {float: left; clear: left; + margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; + padding-top: 5px; + line-height: 0.85em; font-size: 250%;} + +/***********************************margins*************************/ +.ma-top4 {margin-top: 4em;} + +/*********************************rules****************************/ +hr {width: 20%; + margin: 4em auto; + color: gray; + background-color: gray; + height: 1px; + border: none; + clear: both;} + +/********************************tables**************************************************/ +table {margin: auto;} +td {padding: 0.2em 0.7em;} + +#loi td {padding:0.2em 0.5em 0em;} +#loi td.smaller {font-size:90%;} +#loi td.small {font-size:85%} + +/********************************general**************************************************/ +.center {text-align: center; text-indent:0;} +.r {text-align: right;} +.small {font-size: 0.8em;} +.inc {font-size: 1.2em;} +.vbig {font-size: 1.9em;} +.let-spac {letter-spacing: 0.1em;} +.upper {text-transform: uppercase;} + +/****************************************Pgnums***********************************************/ +.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 88%; font-size: small; text-align: right; color: gray; font-style:normal;} +.pageno {position: absolute; left: 88%; font-size: small; text-align: right; color: gray; text-indent:1em;} +.page {position: absolute; left: 88%; font-size: small; text-align: right; color: gray; text-indent:1.2em;} +/***************************************lists************************************************/ +ul {list-style-type: none; margin: 1.5em 0; padding-left:0;} + +/***************************************images***********************************************/ +.figcenter {margin: 2em auto; text-align: center;} +.caption {font-size: 90%;} +.caption p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} +.caption p.block{text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em; margin-top:1em;} +p.ins {text-align: right; font-size:60%; margin-bottom:1em;} + +/************************TN*******************************************/ +.transnote {font-size:smaller; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; + border: dashed 0.1em; + page-break-before:always;} + +.transnote p {text-indent:0;} + +/**************************@MEDIA BLOCKS******************************************************/ +/**************************PRINT***************************************************************/ +@media print +{ +a:link, a:visited {color: black;} +} + +/************************HANDHELD***************************************************************/ +@media handheld +{ +p.cap {text-indent:1em;} +p.cap:first-letter {float: none; margin: 0; font-size: 100%;} +.upper {text-transform: none;} +} + +/************************HANDHELD PRINT*******************************************************/ +@media handheld, print +{ +body {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +hr {display:none;} +h2 {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 2em;} +div.titlepage {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; page-break-before: always; page-break-after:always; padding-top: 7em;} +.break-before {page-break-before: always;} +.chap-begin {page-break-before: always;}/*override epubmakers css to insert the breaks before the illu*/ +h2.no-break {page-break-before: avoid; padding-top: 0;}/*and avoid breaks between illu and heading*/ + +} + +</style> +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44340 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 578px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="578" height="800" alt="Cover" /> +</div> + +<hr class="break-before" /> + +<div class="major"> +<p> +<span class="inc">MASTERPIECES<br /> +<span class="let-spac">IN COLOUR</span><br /> +EDITED BY - -</span><br /> +M. HENRY ROUJON</p> + + +<p class="center vbig let-spac ma-top4">GÉRÔME</p> + +<p class="center">(1824–1904)</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="break-before" /> + + +<div class="major"> + +<p class="center"><i>IN THE SAME SERIES</i></p> + +<ul> +<li>REYNOLDS</li> +<li>HOLBEIN</li> +<li>VELASQUEZ</li> +<li>BURNE-JONES</li> +<li>GREUZE</li> +<li>LE BRUN</li> +<li>TURNER</li> +<li>CHARDIN</li> +<li>BOTTICELLI</li> +<li>MILLET</li> +<li>ROMNEY</li> +<li>RAEBURN</li> +<li>REMBRANDT</li> +<li>SARGENT</li> +<li>BELLINI</li> +<li>CONSTABLE</li> +<li>FRA ANGELICO</li> +<li>MEMLING</li> +<li>ROSSETTI</li> +<li>FRAGONARD</li> +<li>RAPHAEL</li> +<li>DÜRER</li> +<li>LEIGHTON</li> +<li>LAWRENCE</li> +<li>HOLMAN HUNT</li> +<li>HOGARTH</li> +<li>TITIAN</li> +<li>WATTEAU</li> +<li>MILLAIS</li> +<li>MURILLO</li> +<li>LUINI</li> +<li>WATTS</li> +<li>FRANZ HALS</li> +<li>INGRES</li> +<li>CARLO DOLCI</li> +<li>COROT</li> +<li>GAINSBOROUGH</li> +<li>DELACROIX</li> +<li>TINTORETTO</li> +<li>FRA LIPPO LIPPI</li> +<li>VAN DYCK</li> +<li>PUVIS DE CHAVANNES</li> +<li>DA VINCI</li> +<li>MEISSONIER</li> +<li>WHISTLER</li> +<li>GEROME</li> +<li>RUBENS</li> +<li>VERONESE</li> +<li>BOUCHER</li> +<li>VAN EYCK</li> +<li>MANTEGNA</li> +</ul> + +<p class="center"><i>IN PREPARATION</i></p> + +<ul> +<li>FROMENTIN</li> +<li>PERUGINO</li> +</ul> + +</div> + +<hr class="break-before" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/i_04h.jpg" id="plateI"><img src="images/i_04.jpg" width="400" height="277" alt="" /></a> +<p class="ins">PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS</p> + <div class="caption"> + <p>PLATE I.—YOUNG GREEKS ENGAGED IN COCK FIGHTING</p> + + <p>(In the Luxembourg Museum, Paris)</p> + +<p class="block">This was Gérôme's first picture. It was exhibited at the Salon +of 1847, and achieved a brilliant success. Théophile Gautier, who +was a critic hard to please, bestowed upon it some enviable praise. +In later years the artist found much to censure in his early work; +but the public, less severely critical, admired the graceful nudity of +the young forms and the combative ardour of the two adversaries.</p> + </div> +</div> + + + +<hr /> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>GÉRÔME</h1> + +<p class="inc">BY ALBERT KEIM</p> + +<p>TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH<br /> +BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER</p> + +<p class="inc let-spac">ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT<br /> +REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 270px;"> +<img src="images/titlepage.png" width="270" height="254" alt="In Sempiternum." /> +</div> + +<p class="inc">FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY<br /> +NEW YORK—PUBLISHERS +</p> + +</div> + + +<hr /> + +<div class="major"> + +<p class="center"> +COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY<br /> +FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY +</p> + +<p class="center ma-top4"><i>Printed in the United States of America</i></p> + +</div> + + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</a><span class="pageno"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span></h2> + + +<table summary="Table of contents"> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="r small">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Introduction</td> + <td class="r"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Life of Gérôme</td> + <td class="r"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>The Artist's Work</td> + <td class="r"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>The Art of Gérôme</td> + <td class="r"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr /> + + + +<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</a><span class="pageno"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">ix</a></span></h2> + + +<table id="loi" summary="List of illustrations"> +<tr> + <td class="small r">Plates</td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="r">I.</td> + <td colspan="2"><a href="#plateI">Young Greeks Engaged in Cock Fighting</a></td> + <td class="smaller r">Frontispiece</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="small">(In the Luxembourg Museum)</td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="4" class="small r">Page</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="r">II.</td> + <td colspan="2"><a href="#plateII">Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors</a></td> + <td class="r">14</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="small">(In the Versailles Museum)</td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="r">III.</td> + <td colspan="2"><a href="#plateIII">Anacreon, with Bacchus and Cupid</a></td> + <td class="r">24</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="small">(In the Toulouse Museum)</td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="r">IV.</td> + <td colspan="2"><a href="#plateIV">Pollice Verso</a></td> + <td class="r">34</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="small">(In a Private Collection, United States)</td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="r">V.</td> + <td colspan="2"><a href="#plateV">The Prisoner</a></td> + <td class="r">40</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="small">(In the Nantes Museum)</td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="r">VI.</td> + <td colspan="2"><a href="#plateVI">The Last Prayer</a></td> + <td class="r">50</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="small">(In a Private Collection, United States)</td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="r">VII.</td> + <td colspan="2"><a href="#plateVII">The Vendor of Rugs</a></td> + <td class="r">60</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="small">(In a Private Collection, United States)</td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="r">VIII.</td> + <td colspan="2"><a href="#plateVIII">The Two Majesties</a></td> + <td class="r">70</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td class="small">(In a Private Collection, United States)</td> + <td> </td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr /> + + +<div class="chap-begin"> +<span class="pageno"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> + <div class="figcenter" style="width: 209px;"> + <img src="images/i_12.png" width="209" height="299" alt="Portrait drawing of Gérôme" /> + </div> +</div> + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="I" id="I">I</a><br /> +INTRODUCTION</h2> + + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Gérôme</span> has his allotted place among the +illustrious French painters of the Nineteenth +Century. He achieved success, honours, +official recognition; and he deserved them, if not +for the compelling personality of his temperament, +at least for his assiduous industry, his<span class="page"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> +accurate, methodical, and picturesque way of +seeing people and things, and the amazing and +fertile variety both of his choice and his interpretation +of subjects.</p> + +<p>He was a pupil of Paul Delaroche and seems +to have inherited the latter's adroitness in seizing +upon the one salient and emotional detail +in a composition. Like that historian-painter +of the <cite>Death of the Duc de Guise</cite>, Gérôme excelled +in always giving a dramatic stage setting to +the persons and the events which he knew how +to conjure up with such learned and scrupulous +care.</p> + +<p>In spite of his versatility, and notwithstanding +that many a vast canvas has demonstrated +his ingenious and resourceful talent, he takes +his place beside Meissonier because of the extreme +importance that he attached to accuracy +and precise effects.</p> + +<div class="figcenter break-before" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/i_15h.jpg" id="plateII"><img src="images/i_15.jpg" width="400" height="195" alt="" /></a> +<p class="ins">PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS</p> + <div class="caption"> + <p>PLATE II.—RECEPTION OF THE SIAMESE AMBASSADORS</p> + + <p>(In the Museum at Versailles)</p> + +<p class="block">This picture possesses a curious interest because it shows +in what a picturesque manner Gérôme could execute a painting +officially ordered. He received the commission in 1865, through +the Imperial Household. He has rendered with much felicity all +the pompous and highly coloured aspect of the scene, very effective +in the sumptuous setting of the Salle des Fêtes at Fontainebleau.</p></div> +</div> + +<p>Although it is some years since he passed +away, Gérôme has left behind him living memories +among his friends and pupils, many of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> +whom have in their turn become masters. Both +as man and as artist he was and still continues +to be profoundly regretted, independently of all +divergences of opinion, method, and temperament.</p> + +<p>A master of oriental lore, a curious and subtle +antiquarian, a chronicler of ancient and modern +life, rigorous at times, but more often distinguished +for his charm and delicacy,—such is +Gérôme as he has revealed himself to us through +the medium of his abundant works.</p> + +<p>Whether he paints us the men of the Desert +and the almas of Egypt, or shows us the gladiators +of the Circus, the death of Caesar, the leisure +hours of Frederick II, the dreams of a Bonaparte, +or takes us to the <cite>Winter Duel in the +Bois de Boulogne after the Masked Ball</cite>, a +picture that achieved much popularity, Gérôme +never fails to catch and hold attention by startling +contrasts of colour combined with a fine +accuracy of line work.</p> + +<p>But what matter the means through which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> +an effect is sought if they prove successful +both in the general impression produced by the +work as a whole and in the charm of the separate +details,—in other words, if the result justifies +the effort?</p> + +<p>Effort, in Gérôme's case, meant literally a +valiant and noble persistence. He was ceaselessly +in search of something new. In spite of +assured fame, he never repainted the same subject. +During the later years of his life, his ambition +was to be at the same time an illustrious +painter and a sculptor of recognized merit; and +in this he succeeded. His attempt to revive, +after a fashion of his own, the precious lost art +of antique sculpture, although greeted with a +wide divergence of opinions, remains a noteworthy +achievement.</p> + +<p>On the eve of his eightieth year and abrupt +decease, Gérôme still laboured with the ardour +and the splendid faith of youth. He sets an +encouraging example, as fine and as stimulating +as the best of his splendid pictures.</p> + +<hr /> + + + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_LIFE_OF_GEROME" id="THE_LIFE_OF_GEROME">THE LIFE OF GÉRÔME</a><span class="pageno"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span></h2> + + +<p>Jean-Léon Gérôme was born at Vesoul on +May 11, 1824. Throughout his life he retained a +slight trace of the Franche-Compté accent, which +gave a keener relish to his witty anecdotes and +piquant retorts.</p> + +<p>He belonged to a family holding an honoured +place among the bourgeoisie. His excellent +biographer, M. Moreau-Vauthier, relates that his +grandfather was on the point of taking orders +when the Revolution broke out. His father was +a watchmaker and goldsmith at Vesoul. As a +child, he himself was in delicate health.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, he proved himself a good student +at the college in the city of his birth. While +there he studied both Greek and Latin. His +instructor in drawing, Cariage, having noticed +his early efforts, gave him much good advice +and encouragement.</p> + +<p>At the age of fourteen, he copied a picture +by Decamps, which had found its way to Vesoul<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> +from Paris. The story goes that his father forthwith +favoured the idea that he should take up +the vocation of an artist. There is no use in +exaggerating. As a matter of fact, his family +dreaded the hardships of so hazardous a career. +But, upon receiving his bachelor's degree at the +age of sixteen, a degree which at that epoch +was by no means common, he obtained permission +to go to the capital and pursue his studies +under the auspices of Paul Delaroche, to whom +he was provided with a letter of introduction.</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to picture the young man setting +forth alone by <em>diligence</em> and applying himself +bravely to the task of acquiring talent and +renown.</p> + +<p>He was most faithful in his attendance at +the studio of Delaroche, who, being the son-in-law +of Horace Vernet, possessed at that time +not only a wide reputation as professor, but also +an enormous influence both at the École des +Beaux-Arts and at the court of Louis-Philippe.</p> + +<p>Delaroche, who has aptly been called the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> +Casimir Delavigne of painting, a romanticist who +stopped short of being a revolutionary, parted +company with the cold traditionalists of the older +school in the profound importance that he attached +to accuracy and to the truth and interest +of movement.</p> + +<p>Gérôme was destined to draw his inspiration +from analogous principles. While interesting +himself profoundly in costumes, in surroundings, +in local colour, he always avoided excess and +maintained an almost classic restraint even in +the most modern of his fantasies.</p> + +<p>Delaroche's pupils were a lively set. Gérôme +found life pleasant in the studio where Cham +amused himself by passing himself off upon +strangers as "the patron," and where his comrades +were such men as Alfred Arago, Hébert, +Hamon, Jalabert, Landelle, Picou, and Yvon.</p> + +<p>He won their regard by his flow of spirits +and his caustic humour. At this period he supported +himself by copying paintings and making +drawings for the newspapers; but, although a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> +small monthly income of a hundred francs assured +him comparative security, he was uneasy. +Although only eighteen, the young man was +impatient to show what he could do. He was +seeking his path.</p> + +<p>He took his first step towards finding it when +he accompanied his teacher to Italy after the +latter had closed his studio. He remained there +for an entire year.</p> + +<p>Upon his return, he studied for a time under +Gleyre, after which he worked for some months +on Delaroche's <cite>Bonaparte Crossing the Alps</cite>.</p> + +<p>In 1847, Gérôme made his début at the Salon +with a veritable master-stroke. At an exposition +where Delacroix's <cite>Shipwrecked Bark</cite> and Couture's +<cite>Roman Orgy</cite> monopolized the public gaze, +the young artist attracted keen attention by his +<cite>Young Greeks Engaged in Cock Fighting</cite>. Théophile +Gautier enthusiastically proclaimed the +merits of this work, which brought Gérôme much +valued praise and some influential supporters.</p> + +<p>We shall revert again to this significant canvas,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> +which since 1874 has hung in the Luxembourg +Museum, and with which the artist, when +he later attained full mastery of his art, found all +manner of fault.</p> + +<p>The first meeting between this painter of +twenty-three, upon whom renown had just begun +to smile, and Gautier, magnanimous prince of +criticism and poetry, took place under circumstances +that deserve to be recorded.</p> + +<p>Gérôme was betaking himself to the offices of +the <cite>Artiste</cite>, at that time presided over by Arsène +Houssaye; in his hand he held a line drawing +of his own recent idyll of classic times. On the +staircase he encountered Gautier who had paused +there, and who began to talk to him in glowing +terms of the Salon and especially of a painting +by a newcomer, named Gérôme.</p> + +<p>"But that is I, myself!" cried the young man +with keen emotion, and he showed his drawing +to the author of <cite>Enamels and Cameos</cite>.</p> + +<p>Continuing to draw his inspiration from antiquity, +he set to work with a stouter heart, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> +a studio on the Rue de Fleurus, which he shared +with Hamon and Picou, associating with artists +and with musicians such as Lalo and Membrée.</p> + +<p>His labours were twice interrupted: first, by +an attack of typhoid fever, through which his +mother came to nurse him; and secondly, by the +Revolution of 1848 when, in compliance with +the expressed desire of his comrades, he was +appointed adjutant major of the National Guards.</p> + +<p>It was about this same period that he received a +first class medal and found himself well advanced +upon the road to fame.</p> + +<p>"I have always had the nomadic instinct," +Gérôme used to declare, and complacently questioned +whether he did not have a strain of gypsy +blood among his ancestors. In his notes and +souvenirs, which he entrusted to his relative and +friend, the painter Timbal, he confesses, along +with his various artistic scruples, his passionate +love of travel.</p> + +<div class="figcenter break-before" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/i_26h.jpg" id="plateIII"><img src="images/i_26.jpg" width="400" height="272" alt="" /></a> +<p class="ins">PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS</p> + <div class="caption"> + <p>PLATE III.—ANACREON WITH BACCHUS AND CUPID</p> + + <p>(In the Museum at Toulouse)</p> + +<p class="block">Gérôme had a magic brush that permitted him to undertake all +types of painting with the same facility. This is how he so often +happened to treat subjects taken from antiquity and was able to +render them in all their classic beauty. It is not without interest +to compare him, in this style of painting, with Nicholas Poussin, +whom he admired, and with Puvis de Chavannes, whose method +he execrated.</p> + </div> +</div> + + +<p>He was haunted by a longing to visit Greece, +and more especially the Orient, with its marvellous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> +skies, its resplendent colours, its barbaric +and motley races of men.</p> + +<p>In 1853, in the company of a number of friends, +he traversed Germany and Hungary, planning a +lengthy visit to Constantinople. Owing to the +war, he was forced to cut short his trip at +Galatz. But he brought back a collection of +energetic and striking sketches of Russian soldiers, +which later served good purpose in his +<cite>Recreation in Camp, Souvenir of Moldavia</cite>. And +in like manner, in all his distant journeyings, +he invariably showed the same eagerness to seize +and transcribe his original documents, content +to let them speak for themselves, without his +having to distort them to fit the special purpose +that he had in view.</p> + +<p>This painting found a place in the exposition +of 1855, together with <cite>The Age of Augustus</cite>, a notable +achievement in which Gérôme revealed the +measure, if not of his true personality, at least +of his lofty conscience and his integrity as an +artist enamoured of accuracy and truth, even in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> +the imaginary element inseparable from this type +of allegorical apotheosis. Notwithstanding a few +dissenting opinions, these two works were judged +at their true value, and Gérôme received the cross +of the Legion of Honour.</p> + +<p>At this time he was scarcely more than thirty +years old. A most brilliant career henceforth lay +open before him.</p> + +<p>Gérôme remains, beyond question, the unrivalled +painter of Egypt, whose aspects, enchanting +and sinister alike, he has reproduced in a +series of pictures of finished workmanship and +vibrant colouring.</p> + +<p>It was in 1856 that, together with a few +friends, among others Bartholdi, then twenty-two +years old, he undertook his long tour through +Egypt. To-day, one can go to Cairo or up the +Nile as casually as to Nice or Italy and with +almost as little trouble. In those days it was +not a question of a simple excursion, of which +any and every amateur tourist would be capable, +but of a veritable expedition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>Unforeseen adventures appealed to Gérôme, +for he was brave, energetic, and eager for +new sensations. M. Frédéric Masson, the eminent +historian, who was one of his companions +through the desert, has since shown him to +us, in a series of graphic recollections, as perpetually +on his feet, indefatigable, ready to +endure any and every vicissitude for the sake +of sketching a site or a silhouette.</p> + +<p>His stay in Egypt was for Gérôme a +period of enchantment. He has left, in regard +to it, some hasty but expressive notes. He +passed four months on the Nile, well filled +months, consecrated to fishing, hunting, and +painting, all the way from Diametta to Philae. +He remained the four succeeding months at Cairo, +in an old dwelling that Suliman Pasha rented +to the young Frenchmen. "Happy epoch!" wrote +the painter, "Care-free, full of hope, and with +the future before us. The sky was blue."</p> + +<p>He returned to Paris with an ample harvest +of sketches, a supply of curious, novel, and striking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> +themes to work up. M. Moreau-Vauthier +shows him to us at that period of his existence, +full of unflagging energy and pleasant enthusiasm, +in the company of Brion, Lambert, Schutzenberger, +and Toulmouche,—not to forget his +monkey Jacques, who took his place at the family +table arrayed in coat and white cravat, but would +slink away and hide himself in shame when, +as a punishment for some misdeed, they decked +him out as a ragpicker.</p> + +<p>What jolly parties were held in that "Tea +Chest," in which Gérôme then had his studio, +Rue de Notre-Dame-des-Champs! It was the +scene of many a festival, entertainment, and joyous +puppet show, attended by spectators such +as Rachel (whose portrait Gérôme painted in +1861), her sister, George Sand, Baudry, Cabanel, +Hébert, and others.</p> + +<p>This was, nevertheless, an epoch of prolific +work and constant research. Gérôme passed +ceaselessly from one type of painting to another; +one might say that he rested from his exotic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> +landscapes by evoking, with an ever new lavishness +of detail, curious or affecting scenes from +Greek and Roman antiquity.</p> + +<p>Thus rewards and successes multiplied, and +he experienced all the joys of triumph. Already +honorary member of the Academy of Besançon, +he was appointed professor at the École des +Beaux-Arts in 1863, and in 1865, member of the +Institut, where he succeeded Heim.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he fought a duel with revolvers +and was gravely wounded. His mother hastened +once again to his bedside and saved his life a +second time. Since the ball had passed through +his right arm, complications affecting his hand +were feared. The artist declared that if necessary +he would learn to paint with his left. No +sooner was he cured than off he started again, +bound for Egypt, whence he passed to Arabia +and, more venturesome than ever, continued on +his way, as one of his biographers phrased it, +"making sketches clear to the summit of Mt. Sinai."</p> + +<p>He was destined to make still other journeys,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> +notably that of 1868 in company of Messrs. +Bonnet, Frédéric Masson, and Lenoir; and his +companions paid tribute to his unfailing spirits +and his powers of endurance. But at the age of +forty he married. The bride was Mlle. Goupil, +daughter of the well-known picture dealer.</p> + +<p>He was a thorough man of the world and a +favoured guest of the Duc d'Aumale, who appreciated +his ready wit and bought his <cite>After +the Masquerade</cite> for the sum of 20,000 francs. In +1865 he received from the Beaux-Arts and the +Imperial Household an order for <cite>The Reception +of the Siamese Ambassadors at Fontainebleau</cite>.</p> + +<p>Gérôme was also numbered among Compiègne's +habitual visitors, along with Berlioz, +Gustave Doré, Guillaume, Merimée, Viollet-le-Duc, +and others. M. Moreau-Vauthier, who +with pious zeal has collected the more interesting +anecdotes of his life, relates that he had a +special gift for organizing charades: he was +scene setter and costumer. At Fontainebleau, +he took the Empress out alone in a row-boat.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>Surrounded by devoted friends, such as Augier, +Charles Blanc, Dumas, Clery, his brother-in-law, +Frémiet, Gérôme continued his laborious +and tranquil life in his vast atelier on the Boulevard +de Clichy.</p> + +<p>His days were passed in drawing and painting +in his canvases. Towards the end of the +afternoon he would mount his horse and take a +turn in the Bois. He exhibited annually up to +the year of the war. After that, he lived in a +sort of retirement until 1874, when, after a trip +to Algeria with G. Boulanger and Poilpot, he +won a medal of honour. <cite>A Collaboration</cite>, <cite>Rex +Tibicen</cite> (The King Flutist), and <cite>His Gray Eminence</cite>, +exhibited simultaneously, revealed him in +full possession of his ingenious and many-sided +art.</p> + +<p>New and resounding triumphs awaited him +at the Exposition Universelle of 1878, where he +first revealed himself as a sculptor. As a matter +of fact, he had for a long time amused himself +at modelling in clay. He used to go to Frémiet's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> +studio to do his modelling, and Frémiet, by way +of exchange, would come to paint in his. His +two groups, <cite>Gladiators</cite> and <cite>Anacreon, Bacchus +and Cupid</cite>, won him a second class medal to take +its place beside the medal of honour he had previously +received for his paintings. That same +year, at the age of fifty-four, he was raised to the +rank of Commander. Cham expressed the joy of +all his friends by writing to him wittily: "I follow +the example of your ribbon, I fall upon your neck."</p> + +<p>He was yet to gain still further honours: a +first class medal as sculptor, in 1881; to be declared +<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Hors Concours</i> (Not entered for Competition) +at the Expositions of 1889 and 1900; and to +be named Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.</p> + +<p>From 1880 onward, excepting for a few flying +visits to Spain and Italy, Gérôme lived at his +hotel in Paris, where he kept up a rather lavish +establishment, including horses and dogs, up to +the time of the successive deaths of his father +and his son. It was the latter for whose tomb +he carved a touching figure of <cite>Grief</cite>.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter break-before" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/i_37h.jpg" id="plateIV"><img src="images/i_37.jpg" width="400" height="269" alt="" /></a> +<p class="ins">PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS</p> + <div class="caption"> + <p>PLATE IV.—POLLICE VERSO</p> + + <p>(In a Private Collection, United States)</p> + +<p class="block">The scenes from Roman antiquity repeatedly appealed to +Gérôme's talent, notably in the case of the Games of the Circus, +the dramatic value and brilliant colour of which he fully appreciated. +In <cite>Pollice Verso</cite>, he shows us the victorious gladiator, who, in order +to know whether or not he is to despatch his adversary, turns a +questioning glance towards the Vestals, who invert their thumbs, +decreeing death for the vanquished and gasping opponent.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span>His studio at Bougival held him for many a +long day, while the season lasted. While there, +he worked with extraordinary assiduity, barely +giving himself time enough to appear among his +guests and hastily swallow a few mouthfuls of +the mid-day meal. He owned at one time another +country house at Coulevon, near Vesoul, but this +he sold to one of his former pupils, Muenier. He +remained none the less the chief pride of his +native town, where, even during the artist's life, +there was a street bearing the name of Gérôme.</p> + +<p>His favourite summering place, however, was +in the heart of Normandy at Saint-Martin, near +to Pont-Lévêque, where he possessed a delightful +property.</p> + +<p>"He is a charming man, of rare integrity and +fascination. Very simple, too, like all men of +real power, who need not exert themselves in +order to prove their strength." It is after this +fashion that M. Jules Claretie sums him up in +his exquisite study of <cite>Contemporary Painters and +Sculptors</cite>. M. Frédéric Masson, his faithful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> +friend, has drawn the following excellent portrait +of Gérôme: "A head firmly set upon a long neck, +features vigorously modelled in acute angles, +sunken cheeks, complexion bronzed, eyes brilliant +and strangely black, moustache obstinate +and bristling, hair almost kinky, and sprouting +in massive clumps, … a straight nose set +in a lean face, … figure exceedingly slender +and flexible, waist medium, but well modelled."</p> + +<p>Such he appears in his painting of himself as +a sculptor in his studio, absorbed, in his alert +and perennially youthful old age, by his new +task of making polychrome statues. M. Aimé +Morot, his son-in-law, has shown him to us in +his intimate life, simple, natural, and at one and +the same time alert and caustic. We find him +also thoroughly alive in the fine bust by Carpeaux +and in the medal by Chaplain, now in +the Luxembourg.</p> + +<p>M. Dagnan-Bouveret saw him under another +aspect. In the portrait he has given us, we +have the master authoritatively proclaiming his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> +convictions. This distinguished artist, by the +way, was formerly a pupil of Gérôme's. One +day when he was complimenting the latter upon +his method of teaching, Gérôme replied, in his +loud, assertive voice: "When I undertake to do +a thing, I do it to the very end. I am a man +with a sense of duty."</p> + +<p>As professor at the École des Beaux-Arts he +continued to fulfil his duty for a period of forty +years. While conducting his classes he showed +himself grave and stern, even sardonic when so +inclined. In front of a canvas too thickly coated, +he would exclaim: "The paint shop man will +be pleased"; or perhaps he would move around +to get a side view and then play upon his words, +saying: "How that picture stands out!"</p> + +<p>He had a good many foreigners in his studio, +Spaniards such as La Gandara, Americans like +Bridgman and Harrison, and Russians such as +the celebrated and courageous Verestschagen +who, according to M. Léon Coutil, declared, in +speaking of Gérôme, "Next to my dear Skobelof,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> +he is the most resolute man that I have ever +met."</p> + +<p>Gérôme was frank and unreserved in his +opinions. Having become, so to speak, the official +representative of French painting, he was +exposed to repeated attacks. He did not hesitate +to flout unmercifully and to pursue with a veritable +hatred such artists as had adopted formulas +opposed to his own,—and among them some of +the biggest and the ones least open to discussion. +M. Besnard, who was not a pupil of his, nevertheless +owed him his Prix de Rome.</p> + +<p>Many were the circumstances under which +he showed his energetic firmness; for example, +when the Prince de la Moskowa wished to fix a +quarrel on him and prevent him from exhibiting +<cite>The Death of Mareschal Ney</cite>, he evoked this noble +declaration from Gérôme: "The painter has his +rights as much as the historian."</p> + +<div class="figcenter break-before" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/i_44h.jpg" id="plateV"><img src="images/i_44.jpg" width="400" height="231" alt="" /></a> +<p class="ins">PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS</p> + <div class="caption"> + <p>PLATE V.—THE PRISONER</p> + + <p>(In the Museum of Nantes)</p> + +<p class="block">Gérôme had travelled extensively in the East, for he loved its +vigorous colouring and picturesque customs. Here is a scene +glimpsed from the banks of the Nile, and he has transcribed it in this +superb picture, vibrant with colour and harmonious in composition.</p> + </div> +</div> + + +<p>And when a prominent politician criticised +the official curriculum without proposing anything +to take its place, it was, according to M.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> +Moreau-Vauthier, again Gérôme who replied: +"Gentlemen, it is easier to be an incendiary than +a fireman!"</p> + +<p>This firmness, however, did not prevent him, +so this same biographer points out, from being +sensitive to such a degree that he could not +bear to watch a cat of Frémiet's preparing to +devour a nest of sparrows. He used to bring +champagne and dainty viands as presents to his +pupils. His humour, so M. Moreau-Vauthier goes +on to say, served as a mask to hide his sentiment. +Poilpot, to whom Gérôme was destined +later to give useful counsels for his panorama +of Reischoffen, was working prior to 1870 in his +studio. One day he went to show him some +drawings. His master, having looked him over, +inquired: "So, then, you have no shirt?" "No, +patron," he replied, "I never wear any." The +next day, Poilpot received a commission for a +copy of an official portrait of Napoleon III, +together with an advance payment of 600 francs. +This pretty anecdote does as much honour to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> +the pride of the one as to the delicacy of the +other.</p> + +<p>Gérôme sincerely loved the youth, the fantasy, +the gaiety of France, and more especially +of Paris. One perceives it in reading the sparkling +preface which he wrote for M. Miguel +Zamacoïs' <cite>Articles of Paris</cite>, blithely illustrated by +M. Guillaume. He was not too proud to appear +at costume balls, nor to continue to take an interest +in them even after he had ceased to attend +them. He once put his name to a picturesque +sign for a doll shop in the "Old Paris" exhibit at +the Exposition. For an advertisement contest he +painted a dog wearing a monocle, with this amusing +inscription and play on words, "<i>O pti cien</i>" +(<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">0 petit chien</i>, i.e., O little dog). He amused +himself by sending to a toy competition, organized +by the prefect of police, a little Pompeiian saleswoman +holding a basket of various toys, and a +diminutive police officer brandishing a white club.</p> + +<p>Gérôme had always wished for a sudden and +brusque death, "without physic and without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> +night-cap." He was spared both physical and +moral decline. At the age of seventy-nine +he climbed the stairs, four steps at a time, and +sprang upon moving omnibuses running. He +died suddenly of a cerebral congestion, on his +return from a dinner which he had attended +together with his colleagues of the Institut, +January 10, 1904.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_ARTISTS_WORK" id="THE_ARTISTS_WORK">THE ARTIST'S WORK</a></h2> + + +<p>It is difficult to enumerate in detail all the +works of Gérôme, whose originality and energy +were inexhaustible. Only a short time before his +death he declared that with the help of the +sketches contained in his cupboards he had +material enough to keep him busy for twenty-five +years longer.</p> + +<p>Instead of attempting to draw up a chronological +list of his paintings, which would be only +approximately correct, even if limited to the more +important, it is more profitable to study this conscientious +artist under his principal aspects.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>Although he made some talented attempts, +Gérôme neither was nor wished to be a portrait +painter, any more than a painter of modern life. +He had, however, as has been pointed out, all the +necessary qualities for this type which demands +so much precision and assurance. In <cite>The Emperor +Napoleon III Receiving the Siamese Ambassadors +at the Palace of Fontainebleau</cite>, now in the +museum at Versailles, there are eighty portraits. +The artist has represented himself, side by side +with Meissonier, and the story is told that a certain +general accorded him a sitting of only ten +minutes.</p> + +<p>Besides the large and somewhat sombre portrait +of Rachel, which adorns the Stairway of +Artists at the Comédie-Française, and which was +painted from existing likenesses and from memory, +there is scarcely anything else to cite than +the portrait of his brother while a student in the +Polytechnic School, a <cite>Head of a Woman</cite> (1853, +at the museum of Nantes), those of M. Leblond, +at Vesoul, mentioned by M. Guillaumin, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> +M. A. T. (1864), of Cléry, the great lawyer, and of +Charles Garnier, the celebrated architect of the +Opéra.</p> + +<p>As a sculptor, Gérôme has left some admirable +busts, among others those of Mme. Sarah Bernhardt, +bequeathed to the National Museum, of +<cite>General Cambriels</cite>, of <cite>Henri Lavoix</cite>, the <cite>Monument +of Paul Baudry</cite> destined for La Roche-sur-Yon, +and, most important of all, the <cite>Equestrian +Statue of the Duc d'Aumale</cite>, which is now to be +seen at Chantilly, and the model for which is +at the museum of Besançon.</p> + +<p>Gérôme had a sincere and profound love for +antiquity; with him it was not the enjoyment +of a contemplative mind, a tranquil amateur art, +but that of an historian, an archaeologist coupled +with the instinct of a dramatist, a psychologue, +let us say, who is eager to discover, in any scene +whatever, in the graceful or violent gestures of +such and such personages of bygone days, +some general application. He was certainly +most anxious to suggest interesting or amusing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> +parallels to modern life, for, in spite of the dissimilarity +of the settings, the tinsels, the decorations, +over which the artist laboured with an +almost devout care of minute detail, human +nature to-day is always more or less close to +the human nature of Greece or Rome.</p> + +<p>"Exhibit that picture, it will bring you honour," +said Paul Delaroche to his pupil, who had shown +him, with much misgiving, the <cite>Young Greeks +Occupied in Cock Fighting</cite>. "It shows originality +and style." And that was his first success (1847). +The grace of the young figures won much admiration. +Planche praised the harmony of the composition +as a whole. As to Théophile Gautier, +he showed himself, as we have already said, +highly enthusiastic; he declared that the features +of the boy were drawn with extreme subtlety. +"As to the cocks," he added, "they are true +prodigies of drawing, animation, and colour; +neither Snyders, nor Woenic, nor Oudry, nor +Desportes, nor Rousseau, nor any of the known +animal painters have attained, after twenty years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> +of labour, the perfection which M. Gérôme has +reached at the first attempt." Let us note immediately +that Gérôme was, as a matter of fact, +a very great painter of animals. His dogs, his +horses, and his lions are the work of a masterly +observer.</p> + +<p>Closely following upon the <cite>Cock Fight</cite>, we +must recall <cite>Anacreon with Bacchus and Cupid</cite> +(1848, Toulouse Museum) which Gérôme himself +characterized as a "lifeless picture," and which +nevertheless earned him a second class medal. +Later on he was destined to treat this same subject +in marble (Salon of 1881). The polished and +somewhat affected grace of <cite>Anacreon</cite> must have +especially pleased the painter, because in 1889 he +produced a whole series of compositions of delicious +daintiness, entitled <cite>Cupid Tipsy</cite>. On the +same order of ideas, mention must be made of +<cite>Bacchus and Cupid Intoxicated</cite> (1850, Bordeaux +Museum), and in addition to these, under the +head of what may be called his Hellenic canvases,—in +which he succeeded in conjuring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> +up with magic skill the splendours and graces +of that immortal mother of letters and arts, +Greece beloved by the gods,—the following +pictures, <cite>The Idyll</cite> (1853), full of charm and +solid erudition; <cite>The Greek Interior</cite> (1856), of sure +and penetrating art; <cite>King Candaules</cite> (1859), in +which the sumptuous beauty of Nyssia illumines +the bed-chamber of a Heraclid, 700 years B.C., +and in which the interest of the picturesque +anecdote is enhanced by the artist's marvellous +documentary knowledge.</p> + +<p>In the same group must be mentioned <cite>Phryne +before the Tribunal</cite> (1861, reëxhibited in 1867), +of charming subtlety, but with a little too much +emphasis, perhaps, on the irony of its psychology; +and, of course, <cite>Socrates Seeking Alcibiades +at the House of Aspasia</cite>, analogous in inspiration, +and, as it happens, belonging to the same year; +and lastly <cite>Daphnis and Chloe</cite> (1898).</p> + +<div class="figcenter break-before" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/i_55h.jpg" id="plateVI"><img src="images/i_55.jpg" width="400" height="239" alt="" /></a> +<p class="ins">PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS</p> + <div class="caption"> + <p>PLATE VI.—THE LAST PRAYER</p> + + <p>(In a Private Collection, United States)</p> + +<p class="block">The amphitheatre is filled to overflowing with the crowd that has +gathered to witness the martyrdom of the Christians. Around the +vast circle, unhappy victims agonize upon the cross. In one +corner of the arena, a group of men and women, condemned to die, +confess their new faith in an ardent prayer, while from the opened +subterraneous passage the ravenous beasts are advancing upon +their human prey.</p> + </div> +</div> + + +<p>Italy also, with all her memories, furnished +Gérôme with scenes of striking contrast, evoked +from the vanished past, spectacles at once sumptuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> +and barbaric. He caught this atmosphere +with rare felicity. <cite>Paestum</cite> (1851) commands attention +because of its group of buffaloes, which +the Goncourts praised for "their ponderous +weight of head, the solidity of their huge bulk, +the grouping of their attitudes, the shagginess +of their coats, the prevailing sense of grateful +coolness."</p> + +<p>It is necessary to assign a place apart, in this +series, for the <cite>Augustan Age, Birth of Christ</cite> +(1855, Amiens Museum). In his own private +opinion, confided to his cousin Timbal, Gérôme +held that this enormous composition, measuring +ten metres in length by seven in height, +lacked inventiveness and originality. It is true +that the artist's personality is not clearly revealed +in this picture, which is a sort of vast commentary +on a phrase by Bossuet, and indisputably +draws its inspiration from the <cite>Apotheosis of +Homer</cite> by Ingres. Nevertheless, no one can dispute +its noble qualities, and to borrow a phrase +from Théophile Gautier, its "high philosophic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> +significance." Beside Augustus Caesar deified +appears Rome, in the form of a woman, helmeted, +armed with a buckler, and clad in a red +chlamys; then Tiberius, standing on the right, +then statesmen and poets, Caesar, Cleopatra, +Anthony, Brutus, and Cassius grouped together; +lastly the throng of all nations on their knees, +admirably rendered. In the centre, relatively +unimportant in this immense assemblage, are the +Virgin Mary, the Infant Jesus, and St. Joseph, +treated in a curious fashion, modelled on the +manner of Giotto. "It is the chief ornament of +the Amiens Museum," Gérôme would say jestingly; +for he had largely lost respect for this +prolonged and important effort which represented +two years' work of a serious and diligent +student of history.</p> + +<p>The two flawless masterpieces of Gérôme, the +eloquent interpreter of ancient Rome, are unquestionably +his <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Ave Caesar, Morituri te Salutant</cite> +(1859), purchased by Mathews, in which, in the +presence of a bloated, overfed Vitellius, sitting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> +pacifically in his imperial box, not far from the +white Vestals, crowned with verbena, gladiators +are fighting and dying in the circus, and <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Pollice +Verso</cite> (1874) in which these same gladiators are +represented, no longer as Roman soldiers, but +in the exact costume that they wear at the +moment when the Emperor and the crowd, +ravenous for carnage, turn down their thumbs +as signal for the death stroke. This work, published +by Goupil, did not appear at the Salon. +We must cite further <cite>Gaius Maximus</cite>, the <cite>Chariot +Race</cite>, which aroused legitimate enthusiasm in +America; The <cite>Wild Beasts Entering the Arena</cite> +(1902) and we must not forget that Gérôme also +expended his energy as a sculptor upon these +same attractive gladiatorial figures.</p> + +<p>Striking and pathetic contrast is also earnestly +striven for and strongly rendered in <cite>The Death +of Caesar</cite> (1859, 1867). One almost needs to be an +incomparable "stage manager" in order to show +the body of Caesar after this fashion, in the +foreground, in the chamber deserted by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> +Senators; one Conscript Father, as a touch of +satire, has fallen asleep. The effect is powerful, +even though it has been sought for with too +obvious care. Undoubtedly Nadar had the laugh +on his side when he compared the body of +Caesar to a bundle of linen and called the picture +"The Day of the Washerwoman." Gérôme +appreciated the humour of this pleasantry. It +is equally true that Baudelaire applauded the +picture, exclaiming: "Certainly this time M. +Gérôme's imagination has outdone itself; it +passed through a fortunate crisis when it conceived +of Caesar alone, stretched upon the +ground before his overturned throne … this +terrible epitome tells everything."</p> + +<p>The clever erudition of the painter, who had +already revealed himself as an adherent of the +so-called group of "Pompeiians," in the <cite>Gyneceum</cite> +(1850),—in which we perceive a group of +nude women in the court of a house in Herculaneum,—asserts +itself once more, coupled with +an incisive touch of epigram in <cite>Two Augurs Unable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> +to Look at Each Other Without Laughing</cite>, +and similarly in the <cite>Cave Canem</cite>, now at Vesoul +(in front of a Roman house a slave is playing +the role of watch dog), in the <cite>Sale of Slaves at +Rome</cite> (1884), etc.</p> + +<p>A similar ingenuity, with greater amplitude, +constitutes the charm and the surprise of <cite>Cleopatra +and Caesar</cite> (1886). Cleopatra has had herself +brought into Caesar's cabinet in the palace +at Alexandria, concealed in a bundle of clothing. +"Her appearance there," said Maxime du Camp, +who also praised the interest of the accessories, +treated with exquisite care, "is perfectly chaste, in +spite of her nudity." All the details are executed +with a masterly command of picturesqueness +and accuracy.</p> + +<p>As a religious painter Gérôme has to his +credit the <cite>Virgin, Infant Jesus, and St. John</cite> (1848), +a youthful work imitated from Perugino, a <cite>St. +George</cite>, in the church of Saint-Georges at Vesoul, +a <cite>St. Martin Cutting his Mantle</cite>, in the ancient +refectory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, a <cite>Death<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> +of St. Jerome</cite> (1878) at Saint-Séverin, a <cite>Moses on +Mt. Sinai</cite>, and <cite>The Plague at Marsailles</cite>, and, most +important of all, <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Golgotha Consummatum Est</cite>, intensely +lugubrious and symbolic in aspect, with +Christ and the two thieves appearing, through the +desolate atmosphere, like writhing shadows on +the cross. This conception cost the author a violent +diatribe from Veuillot, while Edmund About, +although making certain reservations, wrote on +the other side: "The entire sum of qualities that +are distinctive of M. Gérôme will be found in +this picture."</p> + +<p>As a painter of exotic life Gérôme remains an +observer of the highest order. If he has not +wholly revealed Italy to us in his <cite>Guardians of +the Herd</cite> and his <cite lang="it" xml:lang="it">Pifferari</cite> (1855, 1857), he has at +least done so in the case of Egypt, still deeply +impregnated with an ancient and splendid civilization, +naïve and at the same time venerable, +Egypt before the advent of tourists, a luminous +land where the Nile and the Desert reign supreme, +a land of magnificence and of savagery. Landscapes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> +of this Egypt of poetic mystery, and of +Palestine as well, childish or perverse <i>almas</i>, +rude Albanian Chiefs, Turbaned Turks,—one +never wearies of these decorative effects, these +clear visions, these scenes of animation, whether +violent or delicate, the people, the vegetation, the +fabrics, all resplendent under the marvellous sky +of the Orient.</p> + +<p>In the company of this intrepid, venturesome +and observant traveller, we witness the passage +of <cite>Egyptian Recruits Crossing the Desert</cite>, we are +present at <cite>Prayers in the House of an Albanian +Chief</cite>, we pause in the <cite>Plain of Thebes</cite>, not far +from <cite>Memmon and Sesostris</cite>, and we watch the +<cite>Camels at the Drinking Trough</cite>, so admirably +realized. Gérôme, who had a gift for finding +the right and pleasing phrase, gave this rather +neat definition of a camel: "The Ship of the Sea +of Sand."</p> + +<p>Similarly, the <cite>Egyptian Straw-chopper</cite> (1861, +again exhibited in 1867, and purchased by M. +Werlé) symbolizes, simply yet forcefully, agricultural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> +Egypt, and all the varied shadings of +her pastoral poetry. Then again, there is <cite>The +Prisoner</cite> (1863), in which a boat is making its +way along the vast and pacific Nile. Two negro +oarsmen, the master, a bashibazouk, are in the +prow; and in the stern, beside a buffoon, who +apparently derides him, while twanging the +strings of a guitar, the prisoner lies cross-wise, +fast bound, and abandons himself to his cruel +destiny. There, in a setting of enchanted beauty, +we have the chief actors in this original drama, +in which dream and reality are blended.</p> + +<p>What a horde of types, some of them bizarre, +others simply comic! There are, taking them as +they come, a <cite>Turkish Butcher in Jerusalem</cite> (1863), +<cite>The Alma</cite> (Professional Singing Girl—1864), <cite>The +Slaves in the Market Place</cite>, <cite>The Clothing Merchant +at Cairo</cite>, <cite>The Albanians Playing Chess</cite> +(1867), The <cite>Itinerant Merchant at Cairo</cite> (1869). +Then there is the <cite>Promenade of the Harem</cite>, and +still others, the <cite>Santon</cite> (Turkish Monk) <cite>at the +Door of the Mosque</cite> and <cite>Women at the Bath</cite><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> +(1876), the <cite>Arab and his Courser</cite> and <cite>The Return +from the Hunt</cite> (1878).</p> + +<div class="figcenter break-before" style="width: 313px;"> +<a href="images/i_66h.jpg" id="plateVII"><img src="images/i_66.jpg" width="313" height="400" alt="" /></a> +<p class="ins">PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS</p> + <div class="caption"> + <p>PLATE VII.—THE VENDOR OF RUGS</p> + + <p>(In a Private Collection, United States)</p> + +<p class="block">From his numerous journeys to the East, Gérôme brought back +many curious memoranda of picturesque scenes, which he subsequently +converted into brilliant canvases. He excelled in reproducing +the caressing beauty of shimmering carpets and the rippling +sheen of silken textures.</p> + </div> +</div> + + +<p>In the company of this experienced and reliable +guide, we wander from <cite>Jerusalem</cite> (1868) +to the <cite>Great Bath at Broussa</cite> (1885), from a <cite>Corner +of Cairo</cite> to <cite>Medinet</cite> and <cite>Fayoum</cite>. Here we +have the severed heads in the <cite>Mosque of El Hecanin</cite>, +the nude woman in the <cite>Moorish Bath</cite>, all the +barbarity and all the grace of the Orient,—and +invariably the anecdote, whether agreeable or +sinister, blends with the matchless splendour of +the landscape.</p> + +<p>To this list must be added <cite>Recreation in Camp, +a Souvenir of Moldavia</cite> (Salon of 1854), in which +a soldier is dancing before his assembled comrades, +to the sound of drums, fifes, and violins. +A sentinel keeps watch. It is a picture taken in +the act, and intensely real.</p> + +<p>It is easy to detect the historian, or, to adopt +the expression of M. Jules Claretie, the "Memoir +Maker," possessed of the true gift, agreeable and +individual, lurking behind every one of the works<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> +of this authoritative orientalist. He dedicated +himself quite naturally and with great success to +the interpretation of history and of the historic +and literary anecdote.</p> + +<p>His love of contrasts, his gift for depicting +locality and somehow conveying the very atmosphere +belonging to the varied scenes that are to +be brought before the spectator's eye, give amplitude +to such attractive little compositions as <cite>Louis +XIV. and Molière</cite> (1863), and <cite>A Collaboration</cite> (1874); +evoke the whole sombre tragedy of the death of +Maréchal Ney, <cite>December 7, 1815, Nine o'clock in +the Morning</cite> (1868); and appeal successively to +our curiosity, our sympathy, or our admiration, +with a Frederick II., conqueror of Silesia, playing +on his flute, the <cite>King Flutist</cite> (1874, purchased by +M. H. Oppenheim), <cite>His Gray Eminence</cite> (1874), in +which the austere and dominant Father Joseph is +making his way alone, down the stairway, in the +presence of the obsequious courtiers; a Bonaparte +day-dreaming before the Sphinx, <cite>Oedipus</cite> (1886), a +<cite>Bonaparte at Cairo</cite> gazing at the town from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> +back of his Arab horse, a <cite>Bonaparte in Egypt</cite>, +mounted on a white dromedary, dreaming of his +omnipotence, of his conquest of the universe, and +surrounded by his overdriven soldiers.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, Gérôme made a sort of +hero-worship of Napoleon and the Napoleonic +epic, resembling in this respect his friend, M. +Frédéric Masson, the celebrated historian of the +Emperor, who was better qualified than any other +writer to pay an eloquent tribute to this <cite>Bonaparte +in Egypt</cite>.</p> + +<p>"Bonaparte is no longer on the road to Syria, +he is on the road to India; he is hesitating between +the two halves of the world that he holds +in his hands; he is weighing the destiny of Alexander +against the destiny of Cæsar; he is asking +himself whether Asia, to which he holds the +key, is a fair exchange for Europe which he has +just quitted; and while his dream embraces the +universe, he leaves his human rubbish heap to +suffer."</p> + +<p>Gérôme is wholly himself when he has an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> +anecdote to give us, whether it be subtle, humorous, +kindly, or dramatic, and even,—why not use +the word?—melodramatic.</p> + +<p>Classified thus, <cite>The Duel after the Masquerade</cite> +fully deserves its brilliant reputation. Reproduced, +not only in lithographs and engravings, +but even transferred to the theatre (given at the +Gymnase, in 1881, by Mme. Fould), its subject +has become a matter of general knowledge. It is +winter in the Bois de Boulogne. A number of +people in fancy costume are bending over a +wounded Pierrot, while one of the witnesses of +this improvised duel is leading away the murderer, +the Harlequin.</p> + +<p>One can see at once what a tremendous appeal +a subject like this would have for the general +public.</p> + +<p>This singular drama, taking place in the snow, +all this joyousness ending in bloodshed and perhaps +death, is so fantastic that it leaves a lasting +impression. It was, by the way, as M. Guillaumin +has explained, suggested by an actual duel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> +that took place between Deluns-Montaud, the +Harlequin, and the Prefect of Police Bortelle, +the Pierrot.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly there was, and still is, ground +for criticism. Alexandre Dumas thought, not unreasonably, +that serious-minded men of that age +would not go out to fight each other in such a +costume. Edmond About criticized the pose of +Crispin supporting on his knee an entire group of +spectators, along with the body of poor Pierrot. +But Paul de Saint-Victor praised the "truthfulness +of the postures, the etching-like precision +of the heads, the wise planning of the whole +composition."</p> + +<p>In order to appreciate better the daring fantasy +and the wise and invariably picturesque inventiveness +of Gérôme, we have only to study further +such works as the Frieze destined to be +reproduced upon a vase commemorative of the +Exposition of London (1853), <cite>Rembrandt Etching</cite> +(exhibited in 1867, purchased by M. E. Fould), +which has been admired for its golden half-shadows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> +and freely compared to Gerard Dow, the +<cite>Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors</cite> (1865), <cite>The +First Kiss of the Sun</cite> (1886), the <cite>Poet</cite>, <cite>Thirst</cite> (1888), +and fantasies, such as, <cite>The Amateur of Tulips</cite>, +<cite>Whoever you are, here is your Master</cite>; anecdotal +portraits throwing side lights on history, such as: +<cite>They are Conspiring</cite>, or <cite>Not Convenient</cite>, <cite>Louis XI. +visiting Cardinal Balue</cite>, <cite>Promenade of the Court +in the Gardens of Versailles</cite> (1896); animals full of +life and prowess, such as: <cite>The Lioness meeting a +Jaguar</cite> and <cite lang="la" xml:lang="la">Ego nominor Leo</cite>, a lion rendered life +size; lastly, his studio interiors, in which he has +chosen to depict himself exactly as he was, that is +to say, a sincere, clear-sighted, and indefatigable +workman.</p> + +<p>In the most recent of these studio pictures, he +appears, wearing a sculptor's blouse and occupied +in modelling a statuette of a woman. He astonished +his friends and admirers, during his last +years, by his earnest labours in sculpture. His +two groups, <cite>The Gladiators</cite> and <cite>Anacreon, Bacchus +and Cupid</cite>, claimed the attention of the public<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> +at the Exposition of 1878; and it was the same +with his marble statue of <cite>Omphale</cite> (1887), his +<cite>Tanagra</cite>, his <cite>Dancing Girl</cite>, his bronze <cite>Lion</cite> (1890, +1891), etc.</p> + +<p>His efforts to revive the art of coloured or +polychrome sculpture, the so-called chryselephantine +sculpture, which invokes the aid of various +precious elements, constitute one of the most +curious and important artistic experiments of +modern times, even though the result did not +always come up to the expectation.</p> + +<p>On February 2, 1892, in an unpublished letter +addressed to M. Germain Bapst, who desired +information concerning the artist's experiment, +Gérôme wrote: "I have always been struck +with a sense of the coldness of statues if, when +the work is once finished, it is left in its natural +state. I have already made some experiments +and am continuing my efforts, for I am +anxious to bring before the eyes of the public +a few demonstrations that I hope will be conclusive. +I know that there are a great many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> +protests. The world always protests against anything +which is, I will not merely say new, but +even renewed; for it disturbs a good many people +in their tranquillity and their routine." And after +having first shown that ancient architecture was +adorned with colours and that in chryselephantine +sculpture the Greeks combined gold, tin, and +ivory, that they painted the marble and united it +with various metals, Gérôme added: "Shall I +succeed? At least I shall have the honour of +having made the attempt."</p> + +<p>In the interesting study which M. Germain +Bapst devoted to this question, after having, as +we have seen, consulted the artist himself, he +recalled the fact that both in chateaux and in +churches the Mediæval statuary was coloured. +In Greece, the Minerva Parthenos contained a +weight of gold equivalent to more than 2,200,000 +francs in the French currency of to-day. The +statue of Jupiter at Olympus was partly of ivory +and partly of gold.</p> + +<div class="figcenter break-before" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/i_77h.jpg" id="plateVIII"><img src="images/i_77.jpg" width="400" height="220" alt="" /></a> +<p class="ins">PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS</p> + <div class="caption"> + <p>PLATE VIII.—THE TWO MAJESTIES</p> + + <p>(In a Private Collection, United States)</p> + +<p class="block">In the mournful immensity of African solitudes, the king of +planets mounts towards the zenith, darting his fires upon the arid +land that he consumes, while the other king of the desert, the lion, +contemplates the triumphant ascension of his rival in the sky. +Gérôme has rendered the scene with an eloquence all the greater +because he has employed such simple means.</p></div> +</div> + + +<p>Towards the middle of the nineteenth century,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> +the Duc de Luynes undertook, in collaboration +with the architect Dubau, to produce an example of +chryselephantine sculpture, which cost him more +than 500,000 francs and was placed on view at +the Exposition Universelle held in the Palais de +l'Industrie in 1855.</p> + +<p>Gérôme in his turn made a like attempt, in +his <cite>Bellona</cite>, in which, to remedy the cold immobility +of the material, he coloured both the +ivory and the marble and at the same time invoked +the aid of silver, bronze, gold, and enamel. +He had associated with him several experienced +collaborators, such as M. Siot-Decauville, who +was to cast the face of Bellona in bronze, Messrs. +Moreau-Vauthier and Delacour to point the ivory, +M. Gautruche to attend to the verde-antique and +the electroplating. Lastly, Gallé, and M. Lalique +as well, made a number of trial models for the +little head of Medusa.</p> + +<p>Among the other examples of Gérôme's sculpture, +mention must be made of <cite>The Entrance of +Bonaparte into Cairo</cite> (1897), <cite>Bonaparte</cite>, a bust<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> +(1897), <cite>Timour-Lang, the Lion Tamer</cite> (1898), <cite>Frederick +the Great</cite> (1899), <cite>Washington</cite> (1901), <cite>The expiring +Eagle of Waterloo</cite>, <cite>The Bowlers</cite> (1902), +<cite>Cupid the Metallurgist</cite>, a statue in bronze, <cite>Corinth</cite>, +a statue in polychrome marble and bronze +(1904).</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_ART_OF_GEROME" id="THE_ART_OF_GEROME">THE ART OF GÉRÔME</a></h2> + + +<p>"If you wish to be happy," Gérôme used to +say to his pupils, "remain students all your lives." +For his own part he applied himself ceaselessly to +his studies, trusting nothing to chance. He had +an extraordinarily methodical and orderly mind, +even in regard to the smallest details. It is related +that, when he was absent on his travels, he +would notify his models several months in advance, +so that they would be on hand to pose for +him in his studio, from the very day of his arrival.</p> + +<p>Being partly a traditionalist and partly an independent, +he did not always possess the gift of +pleasing the critics, and he loved them none too +well. And when one of them asked him one day +for a sketch, he replied, "I do not pay to be applauded."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> +But he was exceedingly strict in his +self-criticism. In one of his notes entrusted to his +relative Timbal, he wrote: "I am my own severest +critic…. I am under no delusion regarding +my works."</p> + +<p>On the other hand, and it is well to dwell upon +this in order to grasp his personality, Gérôme was +far from being an eclectic. Of the work of Puvis +de Chavannes he said with virulence: "It won't +stand analysis, it is a series of mannikins set on +the ground all out of plumb, and nothing seems +to fit in." And he made a play upon words by +employing, in place of Puvis, the Latin word +<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">pulvis</i>, which signifies dust.</p> + +<p>After his appointment as professor at the École +des Beaux-Arts, he did his best to have Manet +banished from it. He couched his protest in the +following energetic terms: "I am certain that +Manet was capable of painting good pictures. +But he chose to be the apostle of a decadent +fashion, the scrap-work school of art. I, for my +part, have been chosen by the State to teach the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> +orthography of art to young students…. I do +not think it right to offer them as a model the +extremely arbitrary and sensational work of a +man who, although gifted with rare qualities, did +not develop them." In his opinion, it would have +been more suitable to exhibit such works in a +bar-room than at the Beaux-Arts. M. Coutil relates +that Gérôme said further on this same subject: +"The first merit a painting should have is to +be luminous and alluring in colour, and not dull +and obscure."</p> + +<p>He had, for that matter, no more tolerance for +Millet than for Sisley, Monet, and Pissaro. On +one occasion, he assured M. Jules Claretie that if +Millet could return and again send his canvases +to the Salon, he would refuse them over again! +And, when his distinguished interlocutor protested, +"Oh, come now, Gérôme, you don't mean +that!" he declared unhesitatingly, "I mean just +that, and nothing else."</p> + +<p>Messrs. Moreau-Vauthier and Dagnan-Bouveret +have given some very accurate and useful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> +details regarding his methods of instruction and +of work. They have shown him to us at his task, +both as painter and professor.</p> + +<p>He emphasized the importance of construction, +and of the character of the form, rather than +the form itself, which is a matter of temperament. +He insisted that a scene must be visualized in its +completeness, as a harmonious and fully significant +whole. Emile Augier, for instance, with +whom he felt no annoyance at being compared, +the excellent comedian, Got, the younger Dumas, +Gounod,—all of these he loved for their absolute +clarity, and he demanded it of them. He declared +that one has no right to paint off-hand, +without a model; and he also held that one has +no right to make hasty, careless sketches.</p> + +<p>His method was distinguished by its scrupulous +and admirable precision. Impeccable order +always reigned in his studio. M. Dagnan-Bouveret +writes that his palette and brushes were +scrupulously cared for. He used to overspread +his canvases with a uniform foundation of half-tones<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> +more or less warm or cold, using preparations +made by Troigras. He roughed in the +whole picture very rapidly, and this first rough +draft, according to connoisseurs, was always +extremely interesting.</p> + +<p>In his paintings, he proved that the strength +of colouring is in inverse proportion to the intensity +of light. He had a marvellous faculty for +making the delicate shadings of nature correspond +with the psychological sentiments that their +aspects evoke. From this comes his amazing +variety.</p> + +<p>A man of wide reading and deep culture, +Gérôme had a profound love for the truth, for +reality just as it is, holding that it is the artist's +first duty to know his place, his time, his episode, +and the one special angle of vision that will give +the rarest and most fruitful results.</p> + +<p>On the eve of his death, he was still lauding +the merits of photography, which has the advantage +of being able to snatch a document straight +out of life, without falsifying it by giving it a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> +personal interpretation that must always be more +or less inaccurate.</p> + +<p>Whatever allowance must be made for what +we may call the personal equation of an artist, +his own individual temperament, it is not unprofitable +to recall this opinion of Gérôme's, for +it helps us to acquire a better conception of his +art, based as it was upon accuracy and unwavering +truth.</p> + +<p>Truth, which he once depicted in her well, +killed by liars and mountebanks (<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mendacibus in +histrionibus occisa in puteo jacet alma Veritas</i>, +Salon of 1895), always charmed and inspired +him. He rendered it more attractive by his admirable +sincerity, by his chivalrous and imaginative +spirit, as well as by his archeological and +ethnographic learning.</p> + +<p>Thanks to this lofty conscientiousness in research, +his work, erudite and entertaining at the +same time, making distant and vanished civilizations +live again, and reproducing atmospheres +and local settings with a delicacy that at times<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> +is a trifle specious, but always incomparably picturesque, +cannot fail to please and charm to-day +as it did yesterday, and to-morrow as it does +to-day.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, it is with good reason that M. +Soubies has lauded his fine attention to detail, +and that M. Thiebaut-Sisson has summed him +up in the following terms: "The artist created +his formula for himself. He extracted from it +the maximum effect that it contained." And +even while we glorify and venerate those painters +gifted with a graver or more lyric vision, a +bolder or more laboured craftsmanship, we must +freely subscribe to the opinion of Edmond About +when he said of Gérôme: "He is the subtlest, the +most ingenious, the most brilliant … of his +generation."</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="transnote"> +<p><b>Transcriber's note:</b></p> + +<p>The following correction have been made:<br /> + +<a href="#Page_17">p. 17</a> honoured placed among -> placed changed to place</p> + +<p>Illustrations were moved to paragraph breaks and a missing comma +was added. Everything else has been retained as printed (including +ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines). 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