Lot Essay
Before painting the famous gladiatorial scene, Pollice verso (Phoenix Art Museum), between 1869 and 1876, Gérôme had plaster casts of his famous gladiatorial armor in the Museum of Pompeii made for his models to wear. As he later enumerated, "... helmets, greaves and buckles, ... from these molds casts were taken and coated with metal, so that I have in my possesion exact duplicates of the original pieces, and my model, dressed up in them, is to all intents and purposes a gladiator."
Soon after he finished the painting, he started on his life-size gladiatorial group, The Gladiators, based on the two central figures of Pollice Verso. A life-size casting in bronze, shown at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878, is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
During his preparatory studies for these two major works, Pollice Verso, and The Gladiators, he may have made these oils, the watercolors, and several small bronzes of his "veritable gladiators".
We are grateful to Professor Gerald M. Ackerman for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Soon after he finished the painting, he started on his life-size gladiatorial group, The Gladiators, based on the two central figures of Pollice Verso. A life-size casting in bronze, shown at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878, is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
During his preparatory studies for these two major works, Pollice Verso, and The Gladiators, he may have made these oils, the watercolors, and several small bronzes of his "veritable gladiators".
We are grateful to Professor Gerald M. Ackerman for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.