id: 124256 accession number: 1945.25 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1945.25 updated: 2024-03-26 01:58:00.851000 Lion on the Watch, c. 1885. Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904). Oil on wood panel; framed: 105 x 133 x 13.5 cm (41 5/16 x 52 3/8 x 5 5/16 in.); unframed: 72.3 x 100.5 cm (28 7/16 x 39 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. F. W. Gehring in memory of her husband, F. W. Gehring 1945.25 title: Lion on the Watch title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1885 creation date earliest: 1880 creation date latest: 1890 current location: creditline: Gift of Mrs. F. W. Gehring in memory of her husband, F. W. Gehring copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on wood panel department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904) - artist Born in Vesoul near the Swiss border, Jean-Léon Gérôme grew up in comfort. His goldsmith father approved of his decision to become an artist and supported his study in Paris with Delaroche (q.v.) during the early 1840s. Delaroche's interest in historical reconstruction, precise detail, and smooth picture surface had a significant effect on the young student. After failing to win the Prix de Rome in 1846, which his father pressured him to enter, Gérôme decided to make his name at the Salons. His debut there in 1847 with A Cock Fight (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) was a huge success and brought him and his fellow neo-Grecs, as they were called, much attention. Several important commissions and purchases followed, including church decoration and the huge historical picture The Age of Augustus (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) that emulated the kind of classicizing panorama of Delaroche in the hemicycle for the École des Beaux-Arts. Gérôme also studied briefly with Charles Gleyre (1808-1874) after Delaroche closed his studio in 1842. Gleyre's travel and sketches from the Near and Middle East may also have played a critical role in introducing the young artist to another major interest of his career, orientalist subject matter. With the twenty thousand francs paid for The Age of Augustus, the artist treated himself to a trip to Constantinople with his actor-friend Edmond Got. Further travels to the Middle East followed, and Gérôme exhibited his first Egyptian themes in the 1857 Salon. In the 1878 Universal Exposition in Paris, he exhibited his first attempts at sculpture, which corresponded closely with his painted works, first following their themes, then serving as models for his canvases, especially the Pygmalion pictures. During the 1880s he was, like several other artists, drawn to incorporate polychromy and various precious and semi-precious materials into his sculpture; this was known to be a widespread practice among ancient sculptors, and it heightened the illusion of lifelikeness as well as the decorative aspect of these works. Although he had not succeeded at the École des Beaux-Arts, Gérôme received one of three prestigious professorships in 1863 following the somewhat controversial reforms of the fine arts institutions in Paris. His official rather than academic achievements made him a good candidate to lead the new generation of French painters out of the decadence into which many believed French art had fallen. He taught hundreds of students in his atelier at the École as well as at his independent studio and had an especially strong impact on his American students, such as Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847-1928). Although the majority of Gérôme's students remember him as an exacting but fair master, he showed intractable resistance to the new modes of impressionism and symbolism and campaigned against the acceptance of Gustave Caillebotte's (1843-1893) bequest of such art to the French state. In 1863 Gérôme married Marie Goupil, the daughter of well-known international art dealer Adolphe Goupil, who became the exclusive representative of his work. Goupil not only sold his son-in-law's pictures through his branches in Europe and New York, but he also disseminated their reputation through photographic reproductions.1 Gérôme received all the highest honors awarded to nineteenth-century artists and achieved considerable financial success. 1. See Linda Whiteley, "Goupil, (Jean-Michel-) Adolphe," Dictionary of Art (London, 1996), 13:228; and Musée Goupil, Conservatoire de L'image Industrielle Bordeaux, État des lieux 1 (Bordeaux, 1994), esp. 9-36. --- measurements: Framed: 105 x 133 x 13.5 cm (41 5/16 x 52 3/8 x 5 5/16 in.); Unframed: 72.3 x 100.5 cm (28 7/16 x 39 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: j. l. gerome translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter opening date: 1956-03-08T05:00:00 Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 8-April 15, 1956). title: Jean-Leon Gerome (1824 - 1904) opening date: 1972-11-10T05:00:00 Jean-Leon Gerome (1824 - 1904). Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH (organizer) (November 10-December 31, 1972); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (January 26-March 11, 1973); Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD (April 6-May 20, 1973). title: Animals as Romantic Icons in French Art opening date: 1986-04-06T04:00:00 Animals as Romantic Icons in French Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 6-July 27, 1986). title: Jean-Léon Gérôme opening date: 2010-06-15T00:00:00 Jean-Léon Gérôme. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (June 15-September 12, 2010); Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (organizer) (October 18, 2010-January 23, 2011). title: Gallery One 2012 opening date: 2012-12-12T05:00:00 Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Dayton Art Institute; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery. Jean-Léon Gérôme 1824-1904 (1972-73), no. 35 (repr.).', 'opening_date': '1904-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (6/15/2010 - 9/12/2010) and Musée d\'Orsay, Paris (10/18/2010 - 1/23/2011): "Jean-Léon Gérôme"', 'opening_date': '2010-06-15T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE Frederick Gehring, Cleveland. Given to the CMA in 1945. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 293-295, Vol. I, no. 105 url: Ackerman, Gerald M. Jean-Léon Gérôme: monographie révisée, catalogue raisonné mis à jour. Courbevoie: ACR, 2000. page number: Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 372-373, cat. 529 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1945.25/1945.25_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1945.25/1945.25_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1945.25/1945.25_full.tif