Jean-Leon Gerome Getty

Jean-Leon Gerome

The Getty Museum was great I really enjoyed walking through all of the different wings and the different mediums of art and styles within those mediums. I picked Jean-Leon Gerome's paintings. Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down) and The Duel after the Masked Ball. Gerome was a painter and sculpture who did portraits, historic paintings, Greek mythology. His styles were Academicism and Orientalism. Gerome lived from May 11, 1824-January 10, 1904 he was one of the most successful artist from France. Gerome was a Painter and a sculptor. JeanLeonGerome.com- The Complete Works. Web. 16 Aug. 2010. "Born at Vesoul (Haute-Saone), he went to Paris in 1840 where he studied under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy (1843-1844). He visited Florence, Rome, the Vatican and Pompeii, but he was more attracted to the world of nature. "In 1840 I was sixteen; I had just finished my classical studies and I left for Paris, where I entered the atelier of M. Delaroche. He was an excellent professor, who gave me and my comrades excellent advice which we followed, and we've turned out all right. He prescribed the study of Phidias [i.e., casts after the friezes and Parthenon], nothing but Phidias, outside of drawing and painting from the model, which we did during the mornings. [...] My comrades and I, we exerted ourselves in studying after nature to limit, never thinking that we had done well, because we were sincere and sincerity is the master quality of a painter."

Taken by a fever, he was forced to return to Paris in 1844. On his return he followed, like many other students of Delaroche, into the atelier of Charles Gleyre and studied there for a brief time. He then attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1846 he tried to enter the prestigious Prix de Rome, but failed in the final stage because his figure drawing was inadequate." In 1846 Gerome worked on improving his painting on the cockfight. He received third class medal for it, which brought him fame and work so he decided to turn away from his path of trying to win the prix de Rome. A turning point in his career was in the salon in 1857 where his work became very popular. He married Marie Goupil (1842-1912) He had one son and four daughters. In 1856 Gerome made a trip to Egypt, which lead to paintings of orientalist style. He captured their religion and landscapes of the native people in his work. In 1872 he sculpted his first work. It was made of bronze; it was a gladiator with his foot on his victim it was based on his work Pollice Verso (Thumbs down). Gerome had lots of success with his sculptures. Gerome died on January 10, 1904.

Pollice Verso Is an oil painting on canvas made by Jean-Leon Gerome in 1872.

It is a painting of a gladiator in the coliseum in Rome showing the judgment if his opponent dies or lives. The gladiator puts his hand