Jean-Léon Gérôme

The son of a goldsmith Gérôme was renowned as a painter and enjoyed success during his lifetime. He came to Paris in 1841, enrolled in the Écolè des Beaux-Arts the following year. He made his debut as a painter at the Salon in 1847 and won acclaim there that would only increase with time. It was not until he was almost fifty that Gérôme became interested in sculpture, when he presented a sculpted work for the first time at the Exposition of 1878. This first group entitled Gladiateurs was the central motif of his famous painting Pollice verso which painted in 1874. Sadly this sculptural group was not well understood and received by the public. However in time the body of his sculptural work would win him as much praise as his painting. Like his canvases his sculptures revealed his fascination with the East and its culture.