Jean Leon Gérôme Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Jean Leon Gérôme is considered one of the most important painters from the Academic movement, and besides to being a painter, he was also an educator with a long, list of students. The range of his works included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.

He went to Paris in 1840 where he studied under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy in 1843–44. He visited Florence, Rome, the Vatican, and Pompeii, but he was more attracted to the world of nature. On his return, he entered the workshop of Charles Gleyre and studied there for a brief time. He then attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

In 1852, Jean Leon Gérôme received a commission from the court of Napoleon III, for the painting of a large historical canvas, The Age Of Augustus, The Birth Of Christ. Thanks to a considerable down payment, he was able to travel East for the first time in 1853 to Constantinople for sketches and research. The following year he went to Greece and Turkey. On his return, in 1854, he completed another important commission, decorating the Chapel of St. Jerome in the church of St. Séverin in Paris.

In 1856, he visited Egypt for the first time. This would herald the start of many orientalist paintings depicting Arab religion, genre scenes, and North African landscapes.

Jean Leon Gérôme's reputation was enhanced at the Salon of 1857 by a collection of a variety of works of a more popular kind including, The Duel after the Masked Ball, Egyptian Recruits Crossing the Desert, Memnon and Sesostris, and Camels At a Watering Trough.

Jean Leon Gérôme was elected, on his fifth attempt, a member of the Institut de France in 1865. Already a knight in the Légion d'Honneur, he was promoted to an officer in 1867. In 1869, he was elected an honorary member of the British Royal Academy. His fame had become such that he was invited, to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

He was appointed as one of the three professors at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He started with sixteen students, most who had come over from his own studio, but the list of would be famous students would be a who's who of the art world.