French Academicism painter, and sculptor. Academicism painting is the style of painting by artists who had Academic formal training via an academy of art who studied Neoclassicism and Romanticism. This art form is also known as "L'art pompier", and "eclecticism", and sometimes linked with "historicism" and "syncretism". Jean-Léon was born in Vesoul (a town in the modern French department of Haute-Saône, not far from Besançon and the border with Switzerland). He was the first born son of Pierre Gérôme, a goldsmith, and Claude Françoise Mélanie Vuillemot. At school in Vesoul, Jean-Léon was a studious child earning high grades. In his final year he received first prize in chemistry, an honourable mention in physics, and another prize in oil painting. His art training was with Claude-Basile Cariage. Claude-Basile was a strict task master in the academic methods. It is thought that Claude-Basile Cariage worked in the atelier of either J B Regnault or of Ingres. His schooling complete, in 1840 at the age of 16, he set out for Paris. He enrolled at the atelier (studio) taught by Paul Delaroche. Jean-Léon was popular with his fellow students at the atelier and, since the income from his father made him relatively well off, his various accommodations at this time in Paris always had an open door. He often cut his own food rations dangerously to keep his friends fed. In his third year of schooling he learned that Claude-Basile Cariage was closing the school. Jean-Léon requested to travel with Claude-Basile to Rome. He did so together with E-J Damery, who had recently won the Prix de Rome, and an English artist from the atelier, Eyre Crowe. In Italy, he spent much time studying the antiquities. His stay in Italy was cut short by a bout of typhoid fever. His mother came to nurse him back to health. He returned to Paris, and studied under Charles Gleyre at the atelier. Jean-Léon was soon commissioned to paint a reproduction for the Queen. For this he was given a studio in the Louvre. It was to be the first of a long series of official commissions. Poet and critic Théophile Gautier took favor of Jean-Léon's paintings. His review made Jean-Léon famous and effectively launched his career. He met and married Marie Goupil. They had four daughters and one son, Jean, who, after attempting a career as a painter, died of consumption in 1891 at the age of 27. The daughters all married prominent men and gave him many grandchildren. Jean-Léon was regularly a guest of the Empress at the Imperial Court at Compiègne; he was a professor at the École; elected a member of the Imperial Institute in 1865; promoted from a knight to an officer in the Legion of Honour in 1867; elected an honorary member of the British Royal Academy in 1869; and awarded a decoration, the Grand Order of the Red Eagle, Third Class, by the King of Prussia. In the autumn of 1869 he was invited to be among the distinguished group of French artistic and literary élite to see the opening of the Suez Canal. During the war his family and himself stayed in England. He traveled extensively such as Turkey in the winter of 1871; Spain and Algiers in 1873; Holland in 1874 (to study Frans Hals); Turkey again in 1879; Egypt in 1880; Greece in 1881; London in 1888; Sicily in 1890 (on the Duc d'Aumale's yacht); and Italy in 1889 (with François Flameng and Victor Clairin). He was a vehement opponent of the Impressionist movement in painting. On the 31st December 1903, Gérôme wrote to his student and former assistant Aublet, "I begin to have enough of life. I've seen too much misery and misfortune in the lives of others. I still see it every day, and I'm getting eager to escape this theatre." Ten days later he had died. He had been a very popular figure and good friend to many. He was buried in the Montmartre Cemetary in front of the statue of Sorrow he had cast in memory of his son Jean.