A Chat by the Fireside

In the early years of his career, Gérôme produced works of moderate success and he engaged in the typical studies and travels of a budding artist of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.[5] Gérôme would undertake several more journeys through the Middle East and North Africa during his lifetime, during which he would gather props that would be brought back to France and used in the execution of his paintings.His debut as a sculptor came in 1878 at the Paris International Exhibition where he entered The Gladiators, an impressive life-size bronze rendering of the figures from his 1872 painting Pollice Verso.[12] Gérôme may have brought back an antique from his travels and also may be making a deliberate choice to paint the Ottoman military as relatively primitive.Rather, Gérôme would gather costumes, props, and even set pieces while he travelled and bring them back to France where he would arrange scenes to paint.Here, Gérôme has dressed a pair of his regular models in costumes he collected from his travels and set them among accoutrements that would suggest an eastern interior.
The Snake Charmer ( Le Charmeur de Serpent ), painted by Gérôme in 1879. Gérôme uses his depiction of dilapidated tiles to hint at a civilization past its prime. In this earlier painting, Gérôme also depicts the performance of the nude boy charming the snake to comment on the fallen morality of the East as well.
Jean-Léon GérômeMovementOrientalismacademicismSpencer Museum of ArtThe University of KansasLawrence, KansasOrientalistThe Spencer Museum of ArtOttomanVesoulPaul DelarocheAcadémie des Beaux-ArtsParis SalonThe Cock FightNeo-Grecthe NileSinai Desertthe LevantJerusalemDamascusImpressionistsParis International ExhibitionPollice VersomusketIznik fritwareThe Snake CharmertüfenkJanissariesAuspicious IncidentOttoman ArmyPlace VendômeFrances Lehman Loeb Art CenterVassar CollegePoughkeepsieThe Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonHoustonThe Dayton Art InstituteDaytonThe Minneapolis Institute of ArtMinneapolisThe Walters Art MuseumBaltimoreThe J. Paul Getty MuseumLa Musée d'OrsayThe Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtKansas CityThe Duel After the MasqueradePhryne Before the AreopagusCleopatra and CaesarThe Slave MarketThe Death of CaesarThe Execution of Marshal NeyBashi-BazoukPrayer in the MosqueReception of the Grand Condé at VersaillesThe Tulip FollyThe Christian Martyrs' Last PrayerSlave Market in Ancient RomeBonaparte Before the SphinxBathshebaPygmalion and GalateaThe Birth of VenusTruth Coming Out of Her WellOmphaleTanagraList of pupils