New acquisition celebrated with guest speaker from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris

To commemorate its recent bicentenary year, the Fitzwilliam Museum acquired a newly discovered portrait by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904).

Gérôme was one of the great French painters of the 19th century. The world’s foremost expert on Gérôme, Edouard Papet, the Musée d’Orsay’s Senior Curator for Sculpture, is giving a talk on the artist and his works on Friday 30 June.  Visitors will be able to view the portrait on display in the Impressionist Gallery and speak with curators at the event. 

The picture had remained in the artist’s collection until his death in 1904 and was thought lost until its reappearance at auction in France in 2013. Recent cleaning has confirmed it as a masterpiece.

The dramatic full-length 'swagger-portrait' is of Claude-Armand Gérôme, (1827-50) the artist's younger brother. A very personal work by the artist from the early prime of his career, it was exhibited at the 1848 Salon in Paris. The portrait earned Gérôme a Second Class medal, helping to consolidate his standing as one of the foremost artists of his time. His brother, Claude-Armand would tragically die of meningitis two years later. 

The acquisition of the Portrait of Claude-Armand Gérôme was made possible through the generosity of The Art Fund and a number of other generous foundations and individuals.

For more information and tickets for the event with Edouard Papet, Jean-Léon Gérôme: A certain taste for archaeology, click here.

14 June 2017