Lot Essay
Qui que tu sois, voici ton mâitre!
Il l'est, le fut, ou le doit être!
--Voltaire
The gathering of lions, leopards, tigers and a panther tamed at the feet of Cupid is the climax if not the last of Gérôme's series of paintings of the larger felines. Gérôme studied the big cats throughout his life. He sketched them in zoos and in the menageries of circuses, convinced that the healthiest and least injured animals were those in captivity. He even canceled appointments to follow circuses on their routes when they contained good specimens. And for a while, according to family tradition, he kept a retired circus animal, toothless and benign, as a pet. Gérôme is caught at work on Love, the Conqueror in a photo taken in his studio on the Boulevard de Clichy (Fig 1). Neatly dressed--indeed looking very dapper for a man of 65--he sits very upright, a Mahlstock steadying his hand as he works on a painting on an easel before him; oil sketches of lions and the other cats are spread around him. The contemporary Bathsheba is on a second easel, and there are an intriguing number of accessories visible in the two rooms observed, including the bird cage he is sitting on, used as a prop since 1847 when it inspired the housing for the two roosters of The Cock Fight (See lot 32).
Gérôme's earliest cat picture was of a panther creeping over a hill which he gave to the critic Théophile Gautier (Panthère Noire Aux Aguets, 1851, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Lions became a permanent part of his repertoire with the commission for The Christian Martyrs (1883, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore). Despite his protests to Mr. Walters, who ordered the subject in 1863, he evidently didn't start to get really busy on the commission until the mid-1870s, at least that's when lions start to appear in a series of paintings that continued until the end of his life. Most of these contain a rather comfortable, lounging lion, most likely the tame lion he kept in the house, who, like our domestic cats, must have spent most of his time napping. As was often the case in the nineteenth century, Gérôme's close friends probably addressed him by his middle name. Thus his fondness for his pet was backed by an associative pun on his own name: the first of the cat pictures, St. Jerome, (1874, lost) depicts the saint sleeping on the floor of his cave, using the lion as his pillow. One can easily read it as "Léon-Gérôme"; and another lion painting, Nominor Leo, or My name is Leo (1883, Garret Museum, Vesoul) insists on the relationship. Tigers appear in some seven works after 1883. And at the same time, the figure of cupid starts showing up in a number of pictures; the figure was probably developed for his series of four pictures about Anacreon, who is tormented by Cupid (1881-1889) (Private Collection, Barcelona). The pert figure of the cupid was modeled after his last daughter, Madeleine, born in 1875, and is recognizable by comparison with other portraits of her by her father. Therefore, despite the fantastic nature of the picture, Gérôme's inspiration came from his immediate surroundings.
We are grateful to Professor Gerald M. Ackerman for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Il l'est, le fut, ou le doit être!
--Voltaire
The gathering of lions, leopards, tigers and a panther tamed at the feet of Cupid is the climax if not the last of Gérôme's series of paintings of the larger felines. Gérôme studied the big cats throughout his life. He sketched them in zoos and in the menageries of circuses, convinced that the healthiest and least injured animals were those in captivity. He even canceled appointments to follow circuses on their routes when they contained good specimens. And for a while, according to family tradition, he kept a retired circus animal, toothless and benign, as a pet. Gérôme is caught at work on Love, the Conqueror in a photo taken in his studio on the Boulevard de Clichy (Fig 1). Neatly dressed--indeed looking very dapper for a man of 65--he sits very upright, a Mahlstock steadying his hand as he works on a painting on an easel before him; oil sketches of lions and the other cats are spread around him. The contemporary Bathsheba is on a second easel, and there are an intriguing number of accessories visible in the two rooms observed, including the bird cage he is sitting on, used as a prop since 1847 when it inspired the housing for the two roosters of The Cock Fight (See lot 32).
Gérôme's earliest cat picture was of a panther creeping over a hill which he gave to the critic Théophile Gautier (Panthère Noire Aux Aguets, 1851, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Lions became a permanent part of his repertoire with the commission for The Christian Martyrs (1883, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore). Despite his protests to Mr. Walters, who ordered the subject in 1863, he evidently didn't start to get really busy on the commission until the mid-1870s, at least that's when lions start to appear in a series of paintings that continued until the end of his life. Most of these contain a rather comfortable, lounging lion, most likely the tame lion he kept in the house, who, like our domestic cats, must have spent most of his time napping. As was often the case in the nineteenth century, Gérôme's close friends probably addressed him by his middle name. Thus his fondness for his pet was backed by an associative pun on his own name: the first of the cat pictures, St. Jerome, (1874, lost) depicts the saint sleeping on the floor of his cave, using the lion as his pillow. One can easily read it as "Léon-Gérôme"; and another lion painting, Nominor Leo, or My name is Leo (1883, Garret Museum, Vesoul) insists on the relationship. Tigers appear in some seven works after 1883. And at the same time, the figure of cupid starts showing up in a number of pictures; the figure was probably developed for his series of four pictures about Anacreon, who is tormented by Cupid (1881-1889) (Private Collection, Barcelona). The pert figure of the cupid was modeled after his last daughter, Madeleine, born in 1875, and is recognizable by comparison with other portraits of her by her father. Therefore, despite the fantastic nature of the picture, Gérôme's inspiration came from his immediate surroundings.
We are grateful to Professor Gerald M. Ackerman for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.