Jean-Leon Gérôme

TitleJean-Leon Gérôme

Daten.d.

MediumPlaster

DimensionsOverall: 22 × 13 × 9 1/2 in.

Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, Gift of Samuel P. Avery, 1868

Object number83-S

Label TextGérôme (1824-1904) was one of the most popular instructors of both European and American artists who studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts during the last half of the nineteenth century. His strong academic manner was carefully studied and emulated by hundreds of students, not the least of whom were Americans Thomas Eakins, Julian Alden Weir, George DeForest Brush, Kenyon Cox and Frederick Arthur Bridgman. In Moreau-Vauthier's herme bust of the great teacher, Gérôme looks to the left and sports his characteristic moustache.
This bust was a gift to the Academy from the New York art dealer and collector Samuel P. Avery. Avery may have bought the work in Paris where this or another cast was exhibited at the Salon in 1864 (cat. no. 2714). According to his diaries, Avery bought several of Moreau-Vauthier's terra-cotta sculptures over the years and was certainly a major dealer in the paintings of Gérôme.