Jean Leon Gerome 1861 Catalogue #131
69 x 97.5 cm (25 x 38.5 inches)
M. Robert A. Isaacson, New York Socrates Seeking Alcibiades in the House of Aspasia French
1824-1904
Jean Leon Gerome Galleries
French painter, sculptor, and teacher. Son of a goldsmith, he studied in Paris and painted melodramatic and often erotic historical and mythological compositions, excelling as a draftsman in the linear style of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. His best-known works are scenes inspired by several visits to Egypt. In his later years he produced mostly sculpture. He exerted much influence as a teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; his pupils included Odilon Redon and Thomas Eakins. A staunch defender of the academic tradition, he tried in 1893 to block the government acceptance of the Impressionist works bequeathed by Gustave Caillebotte.