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diff --git a/44340-0.txt b/44340-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad1be6f --- /dev/null +++ b/44340-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1226 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44340 *** + + MASTERPIECES + IN COLOUR + EDITED BY - - + M. HENRY ROUJON + + + GÉRÔME + + (1824-1904) + + + + + _IN THE SAME SERIES_ + + REYNOLDS + HOLBEIN + VELASQUEZ + BURNE-JONES + GREUZE + LE BRUN + TURNER + CHARDIN + BOTTICELLI + MILLET + ROMNEY + RAEBURN + REMBRANDT + SARGENT + BELLINI + CONSTABLE + FRA ANGELICO + MEMLING + ROSSETTI + FRAGONARD + RAPHAEL + DÜRER + LEIGHTON + LAWRENCE + HOLMAN HUNT + HOGARTH + TITIAN + WATTEAU + MILLAIS + MURILLO + LUINI + WATTS + FRANZ HALS + INGRES + CARLO DOLCI + COROT + GAINSBOROUGH + DELACROIX + TINTORETTO + FRA LIPPO LIPPI + VAN DYCK + PUVIS DE CHAVANNES + DA VINCI + MEISSONIER + WHISTLER + GEROME + RUBENS + VERONESE + BOUCHER + VAN EYCK + MANTEGNA + + + _IN PREPARATION_ + + FROMENTIN + PERUGINO + + + + +[Illustration: PLATE I.--YOUNG GREEKS ENGAGED IN COCK FIGHTING + + PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS + +(In the Luxembourg Museum, Paris) + +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.] + + + + + GÉRÔME + + BY ALBERT KEIM + + TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH + BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER + + ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT + REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR + + [Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.] + + FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + NEW YORK--PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY + FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + + _Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + + CONTENTS + + + Page + Introduction 11 + + Life of Gérôme 17 + + The Artist's Work 43 + + The Art of Gérôme 72 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Plates + I. Young Greeks Engaged in Cock Fighting Frontispiece + (In the Luxembourg Museum) + + Page + II. Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors 14 + (In the Versailles Museum) + + III. Anacreon, with Bacchus and Cupid 24 + (In the Toulouse Museum) + + IV. Pollice Verso 34 + (In a Private Collection, United States) + + V. The Prisoner 40 + (In the Nantes Museum) + + VI. The Last Prayer 50 + (In a Private Collection, United States) + + VII. The Vendor of Rugs 60 + (In a Private Collection, United States) + + VIII. The Two Majesties 70 + (In a Private Collection, United States) + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTION + + +Gérôme 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 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. + +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 _Death of +the Duc de Guise_, 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: PLATE II.--RECEPTION OF THE SIAMESE AMBASSADORS + + PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS + +(In the Museum at Versailles) + +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.] + +Although it is some years since he passed away, Gérôme has left behind +him living memories among his friends and pupils, many of 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. + +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. + +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 _Winter Duel in the Bois de Boulogne after the Masked Ball_, 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. + +But what matter the means through which 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? + +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. + +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. + + + + +THE LIFE OF GÉRÔME + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +At the age of fourteen, he copied a picture by Decamps, which had found +its way to Vesoul 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. + +It is pleasant to picture the young man setting forth alone by +_diligence_ and applying himself bravely to the task of acquiring +talent and renown. + +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. + +Delaroche, who has aptly been called the 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Upon his return, he studied for a time under Gleyre, after which he +worked for some months on Delaroche's _Bonaparte Crossing the Alps_. + +In 1847, Gérôme made his début at the Salon with a veritable +master-stroke. At an exposition where Delacroix's _Shipwrecked Bark_ +and Couture's _Roman Orgy_ monopolized the public gaze, the young +artist attracted keen attention by his _Young Greeks Engaged in Cock +Fighting_. Théophile Gautier enthusiastically proclaimed the merits of +this work, which brought Gérôme much valued praise and some influential +supporters. + +We shall revert again to this significant canvas, 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. + +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. + +Gérôme was betaking himself to the offices of the _Artiste_, 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. + +"But that is I, myself!" cried the young man with keen emotion, and he +showed his drawing to the author of _Enamels and Cameos_. + +Continuing to draw his inspiration from antiquity, he set to work with +a stouter heart, in 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. + +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. + +It was about this same period that he received a first class medal and +found himself well advanced upon the road to fame. + +"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. + +[Illustration: PLATE III.--ANACREON WITH BACCHUS AND CUPID + + PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS + +(In the Museum at Toulouse) + +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.] + +He was haunted by a longing to visit Greece, and more especially the +Orient, with its marvellous skies, its resplendent colours, its +barbaric and motley races of men. + +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 _Recreation in Camp, Souvenir +of Moldavia_. 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. + +This painting found a place in the exposition of 1855, together with +_The Age of Augustus_, 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 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. + +At this time he was scarcely more than thirty years old. A most +brilliant career henceforth lay open before him. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +He returned to Paris with an ample harvest of sketches, a supply of +curious, novel, and striking 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. + +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. + +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 landscapes by +evoking, with an ever new lavishness of detail, curious or affecting +scenes from Greek and Roman antiquity. + +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. + +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." + +He was destined to make still other journeys, 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. + +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 _After the +Masquerade_ for the sum of 20,000 francs. In 1865 he received from the +Beaux-Arts and the Imperial Household an order for _The Reception of +the Siamese Ambassadors at Fontainebleau_. + +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. + +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. + +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. +_A Collaboration_, _Rex Tibicen_ (The King Flutist), and _His Gray +Eminence_, exhibited simultaneously, revealed him in full possession of +his ingenious and many-sided art. + +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 studio to do his modelling, and Frémiet, +by way of exchange, would come to paint in his. His two groups, +_Gladiators_ and _Anacreon, Bacchus and Cupid_, 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." + +He was yet to gain still further honours: a first class medal as +sculptor, in 1881; to be declared _Hors Concours_ (Not entered for +Competition) at the Expositions of 1889 and 1900; and to be named Grand +Officer of the Legion of Honour. + +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 _Grief_. + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.--POLLICE VERSO + + PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS + +(In a Private Collection, United States) + +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 _Pollice Verso_, 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.] + +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. + +His favourite summering place, however, was in the heart of Normandy +at Saint-Martin, near to Pont-Lévêque, where he possessed a delightful +property. + +"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 _Contemporary Painters +and Sculptors_. M. Frédéric Masson, his faithful 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." + +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. + +M. Dagnan-Bouveret saw him under another aspect. In the portrait he +has given us, we have the master authoritatively proclaiming his +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." + +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!" + +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, he +is the most resolute man that I have ever met." + +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. + +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 _The Death of Mareschal +Ney_, he evoked this noble declaration from Gérôme: "The painter has +his rights as much as the historian." + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--THE PRISONER + + PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS + +(In the Museum of Nantes) + +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.] + +And when a prominent politician criticised the official curriculum +without proposing anything to take its place, it was, according to +M. Moreau-Vauthier, again Gérôme who replied: "Gentlemen, it is +easier to be an incendiary than a fireman!" + +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 the pride of the one as to the +delicacy of the other. + +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' _Articles of Paris_, +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, "_O pti cien_" (_0 petit chien_, +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. + +Gérôme had always wished for a sudden and brusque death, "without +physic and without 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. + + + + +THE ARTIST'S WORK + + +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. + +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. + +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 _The +Emperor Napoleon III Receiving the Siamese Ambassadors at the Palace +of Fontainebleau_, 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. + +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 _Head of a Woman_ (1853, at the museum of +Nantes), those of M. Leblond, at Vesoul, mentioned by M. Guillaumin, +of M. A. T. (1864), of Cléry, the great lawyer, and of Charles +Garnier, the celebrated architect of the Opéra. + +As a sculptor, Gérôme has left some admirable busts, among others those +of Mme. Sarah Bernhardt, bequeathed to the National Museum, of _General +Cambriels_, of _Henri Lavoix_, the _Monument of Paul Baudry_ destined +for La Roche-sur-Yon, and, most important of all, the _Equestrian +Statue of the Duc d'Aumale_, which is now to be seen at Chantilly, and +the model for which is at the museum of Besançon. + +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 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. + +"Exhibit that picture, it will bring you honour," said Paul Delaroche +to his pupil, who had shown him, with much misgiving, the _Young Greeks +Occupied in Cock Fighting_. "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 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. + +Closely following upon the _Cock Fight_, we must recall _Anacreon +with Bacchus and Cupid_ (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 _Anacreon_ must have especially pleased the painter, because +in 1889 he produced a whole series of compositions of delicious +daintiness, entitled _Cupid Tipsy_. On the same order of ideas, mention +must be made of _Bacchus and Cupid Intoxicated_ (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 up +with magic skill the splendours and graces of that immortal mother of +letters and arts, Greece beloved by the gods,--the following pictures, +_The Idyll_ (1853), full of charm and solid erudition; _The Greek +Interior_ (1856), of sure and penetrating art; _King Candaules_ (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. + +In the same group must be mentioned _Phryne before the Tribunal_ (1861, +reëxhibited in 1867), of charming subtlety, but with a little too much +emphasis, perhaps, on the irony of its psychology; and, of course, +_Socrates Seeking Alcibiades at the House of Aspasia_, analogous in +inspiration, and, as it happens, belonging to the same year; and lastly +_Daphnis and Chloe_ (1898). + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE LAST PRAYER + + PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS + +(In a Private Collection, United States) + +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.] + +Italy also, with all her memories, furnished Gérôme with scenes of +striking contrast, evoked from the vanished past, spectacles at once +sumptuous and barbaric. He caught this atmosphere with rare +felicity. _Paestum_ (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." + +It is necessary to assign a place apart, in this series, for the +_Augustan Age, Birth of Christ_ (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 _Apotheosis of Homer_ by Ingres. +Nevertheless, no one can dispute its noble qualities, and to borrow a +phrase from Théophile Gautier, its "high philosophic 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. + +The two flawless masterpieces of Gérôme, the eloquent interpreter of +ancient Rome, are unquestionably his _Ave Caesar, Morituri te Salutant_ +(1859), purchased by Mathews, in which, in the presence of a bloated, +overfed Vitellius, sitting pacifically in his imperial box, not far +from the white Vestals, crowned with verbena, gladiators are fighting +and dying in the circus, and _Pollice Verso_ (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 _Gaius Maximus_, the _Chariot Race_, which +aroused legitimate enthusiasm in America; The _Wild Beasts Entering +the Arena_ (1902) and we must not forget that Gérôme also expended his +energy as a sculptor upon these same attractive gladiatorial figures. + +Striking and pathetic contrast is also earnestly striven for and +strongly rendered in _The Death of Caesar_ (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 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." + +The clever erudition of the painter, who had already revealed himself +as an adherent of the so-called group of "Pompeiians," in the +_Gyneceum_ (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 _Two Augurs Unable to Look at +Each Other Without Laughing_, and similarly in the _Cave Canem_, now at +Vesoul (in front of a Roman house a slave is playing the role of watch +dog), in the _Sale of Slaves at Rome_ (1884), etc. + +A similar ingenuity, with greater amplitude, constitutes the charm +and the surprise of _Cleopatra and Caesar_ (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. + +As a religious painter Gérôme has to his credit the _Virgin, +Infant Jesus, and St. John_ (1848), a youthful work imitated +from Perugino, a _St. George_, in the church of Saint-Georges at +Vesoul, a _St. Martin Cutting his Mantle_, in the ancient refectory +of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, a _Death of St. Jerome_ (1878) at +Saint-Séverin, a _Moses on Mt. Sinai_, and _The Plague at Marsailles_, +and, most important of all, _Golgotha Consummatum Est_, 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." + +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 _Guardians of +the Herd_ and his _Pifferari_ (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 of this Egypt of poetic mystery, and of Palestine as +well, childish or perverse _almas_, 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. + +In the company of this intrepid, venturesome and observant traveller, +we witness the passage of _Egyptian Recruits Crossing the Desert_, we +are present at _Prayers in the House of an Albanian Chief_, we pause +in the _Plain of Thebes_, not far from _Memmon and Sesostris_, and +we watch the _Camels at the Drinking Trough_, 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." + +Similarly, the _Egyptian Straw-chopper_ (1861, again exhibited in +1867, and purchased by M. Werlé) symbolizes, simply yet forcefully, +agricultural Egypt, and all the varied shadings of her pastoral +poetry. Then again, there is _The Prisoner_ (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. + +What a horde of types, some of them bizarre, others simply comic! There +are, taking them as they come, a _Turkish Butcher in Jerusalem_ (1863), +_The Alma_ (Professional Singing Girl--1864), _The Slaves in the Market +Place_, _The Clothing Merchant at Cairo_, _The Albanians Playing Chess_ +(1867), The _Itinerant Merchant at Cairo_ (1869). Then there is the +_Promenade of the Harem_, and still others, the _Santon_ (Turkish Monk) +_at the Door of the Mosque_ and _Women at the Bath_ (1876), the +_Arab and his Courser_ and _The Return from the Hunt_ (1878). + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.--THE VENDOR OF RUGS + + PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS + +(In a Private Collection, United States) + +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.] + +In the company of this experienced and reliable guide, we wander from +_Jerusalem_ (1868) to the _Great Bath at Broussa_ (1885), from a +_Corner of Cairo_ to _Medinet_ and _Fayoum_. Here we have the severed +heads in the _Mosque of El Hecanin_, the nude woman in the _Moorish +Bath_, 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. + +To this list must be added _Recreation in Camp, a Souvenir of Moldavia_ +(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. + +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 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. + +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 _Louis XIV. and Molière_ (1863), +and _A Collaboration_ (1874); evoke the whole sombre tragedy of the +death of Maréchal Ney, _December 7, 1815, Nine o'clock in the Morning_ +(1868); and appeal successively to our curiosity, our sympathy, or our +admiration, with a Frederick II., conqueror of Silesia, playing on +his flute, the _King Flutist_ (1874, purchased by M. H. Oppenheim), +_His Gray Eminence_ (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, _Oedipus_ (1886), a _Bonaparte at Cairo_ gazing at the town +from the back of his Arab horse, a _Bonaparte in Egypt_, mounted on a +white dromedary, dreaming of his omnipotence, of his conquest of the +universe, and surrounded by his overdriven soldiers. + +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 _Bonaparte in Egypt_. + +"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." + +Gérôme is wholly himself when he has an anecdote to give us, whether +it be subtle, humorous, kindly, or dramatic, and even,--why not use the +word?--melodramatic. + +Classified thus, _The Duel after the Masquerade_ 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. + +One can see at once what a tremendous appeal a subject like this would +have for the general public. + +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 that took place between Deluns-Montaud, +the Harlequin, and the Prefect of Police Bortelle, the Pierrot. + +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." + +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), _Rembrandt Etching_ +(exhibited in 1867, purchased by M. E. Fould), which has been admired +for its golden half-shadows and freely compared to Gerard Dow, the +_Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors_ (1865), _The First Kiss of +the Sun_ (1886), the _Poet_, _Thirst_ (1888), and fantasies, such +as, _The Amateur of Tulips_, _Whoever you are, here is your Master_; +anecdotal portraits throwing side lights on history, such as: _They are +Conspiring_, or _Not Convenient_, _Louis XI. visiting Cardinal Balue_, +_Promenade of the Court in the Gardens of Versailles_ (1896); animals +full of life and prowess, such as: _The Lioness meeting a Jaguar_ +and _Ego nominor Leo_, 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. + +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, _The Gladiators_ and +_Anacreon, Bacchus and Cupid_, claimed the attention of the public at +the Exposition of 1878; and it was the same with his marble statue of +_Omphale_ (1887), his _Tanagra_, his _Dancing Girl_, his bronze _Lion_ +(1890, 1891), etc. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--THE TWO MAJESTIES + + PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS + +(In a Private Collection, United States) + +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.] + +Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, 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. + +Gérôme in his turn made a like attempt, in his _Bellona_, 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. + +Among the other examples of Gérôme's sculpture, mention must be made +of _The Entrance of Bonaparte into Cairo_ (1897), _Bonaparte_, a +bust (1897), _Timour-Lang, the Lion Tamer_ (1898), _Frederick the +Great_ (1899), _Washington_ (1901), _The expiring Eagle of Waterloo_, +_The Bowlers_ (1902), _Cupid the Metallurgist_, a statue in bronze, +_Corinth_, a statue in polychrome marble and bronze (1904). + + + + +THE ART OF GÉRÔME + + +"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. + +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." 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." + +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 _pulvis_, which signifies dust. + +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 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." + +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." + +Messrs. Moreau-Vauthier and Dagnan-Bouveret have given some very +accurate and useful details regarding his methods of instruction and +of work. They have shown him to us at his task, both as painter and +professor. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 personal +interpretation that must always be more or less inaccurate. + +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. + +Truth, which he once depicted in her well, killed by liars and +mountebanks (_Mendacibus in histrionibus occisa in puteo jacet alma +Veritas_, 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. + +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 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. + +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." + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +The following correction have been made: + +p. 17 honoured placed among -> placed changed to place + +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). Italics is represented with +underscore. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gérôme, by Albert Keim + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44340 *** |