“The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme”
“Snake Charmer,” by Jean-Léon Gérôme (c.1870). ©Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA. Photo by Michael Agee “By the time Gerôme died in 1904, he was recognized in America as a celebrated lion of the French art world, but also regularly criticized as a second-rate master.” That’s co-curator Mary Morton on the once prolific and ubiquitous Jean-Leon Gérôme (b.1824), a descriptive realist and a painter of historical and fanciful panoramas who was also, in his handling and finish, an artistic heir (or second-generation follower) of Paul Delaroche and Jean-August Dominique Ingres. Gérôme avoided the heroic depictions of Jacques-Louis David and his circle – all those fellows with last names that began with the letter “G,” like Gérard, Girodet, and Gros – and early on became the proclaimed leader of the Néo-Grec school, “with its lighthearted take on classical antiquity,” as the other co-curator, Scott C. Allan, neatly describes it. However, beginning in 1857, Gérôme’s artistic production tilted heavily towards Orientalist and historical genre pictures, with the later focusing on antiquity, the 17th century, and the Age of Napoleon. One of these works, “The Death of…
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