Paestum

1846

Fails the Prix de Rome

In 1846 Gérôme tried for the prestigious Prix de Rome but failed at the final stage: his figure drawing was inadequate.

1847

The 1847 Salon: “The Cockfight” and Gautier’s review

Having finished his first large painting at the end of 1846, Gérôme confessed to Delaroche that it seemed to him “weak and flat”; his teacher advised sending it to the Salon all the same. The canvas was hung high up, yet critics noticed it, Théophile Gautier among them, and “The Cockfight” won a third-class medal: 1847 proved decisive for his career.

1848

The 1848 Revolution: the Guard and a contest for the Republic’s image

During the February Revolution Gérôme intervened actively in politics for the only time in his life: by some accounts he joined the National Guard and was elected captain of a unit, but nothing is known for certain about what he did. Shortly before the June Uprising he entered a competition for a painting glorifying the Republic (more than 700 artists took part): his sketch of a two-metre woman in a laurel wreath with a sword and an olive branch reached the final of the first round and earned 500 francs, but after Louis Napoleon was elected president the competition was annulled.

1848

The “artists’ phalanstery” in rue de Fleurus

During the revolution Gérôme, Henri Picou and Jean Hamon set up house at 27 rue de Fleurus: each had his own studio, and household chores and expenses were shared. Friends gathered there two or three times a month for musical evenings, and critics later called the phalanstery’s circle the “school of Gérôme”.

1850

The scandal over “Greek Interior”

The sketch “Greek Interior” — in essence a picture of a brothel — caused the biggest scandal at the Salon of 1850, with critics demanding that the police not allow such indecency. At the height of the row the picture was bought by President Louis Napoleon (by other accounts, by Prince Napoléon Joseph Bonaparte), a great honour for the young artist.

1853

An advance for “The Age of Augustus” and a first look at Istanbul

Emperor Napoleon III announced the 1855 World’s Fair, and Gérôme asked for a commission to paint an allegory on a subject of his own choosing — the glorification of the Emperor Augustus; as early as February 1853 he received an advance of 5,000 francs out of a budget of 20,000 to travel for landscapes and ethnographic types. That same year he visited the East for the first time — Istanbul, with the actor Edmond Got; the short stay awakened a wish to know the life of the “real Asia”.