Jean-Léon Gérôme

Jean-Léon Gérôme was born in France on 11 May 1824 and trained in the academic tradition that prized technical precision and classical subjects. He worked in oils and sculpture, moving between historical reconstructions, Greek myth, portraits, and the Orientalist scenes that fed European fascination with the East. Alongside Meissonier and Cabanel, he became one of the three most successful artists of the Second Empire, and his studio drew students from across continents — Mary Cassatt, Thomas Eakins, Edwin Lord Weeks, Osman Hamdi Bey among them. He died on 10 January 1904, leaving behind a bod…