Napoleon Entering Cairo

1864–1904

The studio everyone wanted to join

Places in Gérôme’s atelier were limited and keenly sought: only the best students were admitted. Students progressed from drawing after antique works and casts to drawing from the live model and only then were allowed to paint in oils; he attended every Wednesday and Saturday and was known as a severe critic, but helped his students outside the school too, inviting them to his own studio and recommending them to the Salon.

1864–1904

The most “riotous” studio of the École

According to John Milner, who studied with Gérôme, his atelier was the most “riotous” and “lewd” of all the studios at the École: newcomers were put through bizarre initiation rites — slashing each other’s canvases, being thrown down stairs, out of windows and onto upturned stools, and fencing on the model’s dais, nude and with paintbrushes loaded with paint.

1895

Eight illustrations for the Bible

In 1895 Gérôme was invited to take part in an illustrated edition of the Bible involving twenty-two academic artists of the day, including Alma-Tadema, Burne-Jones, Tissot, Puvis de Chavannes and Repin; he made eight entirely traditional illustrations, five of which are now of unknown whereabouts.