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