Jean–Léon Gérôme (1824-1904)

The exhibition Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) is the result of an ambitious joint project co-organised by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Musée d’Orsay and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. It constitutes the first major monographic exhibition to be devoted to this French painter and sculptor since the one held around thirty years ago in the US, and will be based on the detailed art historical studies and catalogues of the artist’s work that have appeared in recent years. In the spring of 2011 Madrid will host a reduced version of the large scale exhibition that has been presented in Los Angeles and Paris over the course of 2010, with a selection of 55 works including some of Gérôme’s most famous compositions. The oils and sculptures on display will reveal all the key characteristics of his art and will allow for an analysis of his theatrical concept of history painting, use of realism, interest in detail evident in his Orientalist works, and use of polychromy in his sculptural oeuvre.