Signed (on base of statue): J.L. GEROME.
Late in his career, Gérôme turned to the medium of sculpture. Between 1890 and 1893, he executed both sculpted and painted variations on the theme of Pygmalion and Galatea, as the tale is recounted in Ovid's "Metamorphoses." All of those works depict the moment when the sculpture of Galatea was brought to life by the goddess Venus, in fulfillment of Pygmalion's wish for a wife as beautiful as the sculpture he created.
In 1890, Gérôme commented that he had "just begun" a painting of Pygmalion and Galatea. This is one of three known versions in oil of the subject, all likely based on the plaster model of a lifesize marble sculpture (Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California). In each painting, the sculpture appears at a different angle, as though it was being viewed in the round.
[Boussod-Valadon, Paris, 1892; purchased from the artist in March, sold to Yerkes]; Charles Tyson Yerkes, Chicago (1892–d.1905; his estate 1905–10; cat., 1893, no. 111, ill.; his estate sale, Mendelssohn Hall, New York, April 5–8, 1910, no. 21, sold for $4000 to Dugro); Judge P. H. Dugro, New York (from 1910); Louis C. Raegner, New York (until 1927)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Taste of the Seventies," April 2–September 10, 1946, no. 110.
Art Gallery of Toronto. "The Classical Contribution to Western Civilization," December 15, 1948–January 31, 1949, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Classical Contribution to Western Civilization," April 1949, not in catalogue.
Lexington, Va. Washington and Lee University. November 13–December 10, 1955, no. ?
Museum of the City of New York. "Perennial Pygmalion," January 20–May 1958, no. ?
Williamstown, Mass. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. "In the Studio: The Making of Art in Nineteenth-Century France," September 12–October 25, 1981, no. 26.
Saitama, Japan. Museum of Modern Art. "Adam & Eve," October 10–December 6, 1992, no. 3.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Rings: Five Passions in World Art," June 24–September 29, 1996, unnumbered cat.
Canberra. National Gallery of Australia. "Paris in the Late 19th Century," November 30, 1996–February 23, 1997, unnumbered cat.
Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery. "Paris in the Late 19th Century," March 15–May 22, 1997, unnumbered cat.
Munich. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. "Pygmalions Werkstatt," September 8–November 25, 2001, no. 79.
Cologne. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. "Pygmalions Werkstatt," May 24–August 25, 2002, no. 79.
Galleria d'Arte Moderna Bologna. "Il Nudo fra Ideale e Realtà: Dal Neoclassicismo ad Oggi," January 22–May 9, 2004, no. 32.
Oklahoma City Museum of Art. "Artist as Narrator: Nineteenth Century Narrative Art in England and France," September 8–November 27, 2005, no. 43.
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19.Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 40.
Jean-Léon Gérôme. Letter. ?1890 [published in Fanny Field Hering, The Life and Works of Jean Léon Gérôme, New York, 1892, p. 283].
Jean-Léon Gérôme. Letter to Fanny Field Hering. November 1890 [published in Fanny Field Hering, The Life and Works of Jean Léon Gérôme, New York, 1892, p. 285].
Jean-Léon Gérôme. Letter to Fanny Field Hering. January 1891 [published in Fanny Field Hering, The Life and Works of Jean Léon Gérôme, New York, 1892, p. 286].
Catalogue from Collection of Charles T. Yerkes, Chicago, U.S.A. Chicago, 1893, unpaginated, no. 111, ill.
F. G. Stephens. "Mr. Yerkes' Collection at Chicago.—III. The Modern Masters." Magazine of Art 18 (1895), p. 168.
Albert Soubies. J.-L. Gérôme, 1824–1904: Souvenirs et notes. Paris, 1904, p. 9.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX Century." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2, New York, 1966, pp. 172–73, ill.
Gerald M. Ackerman. "Thomas Eakins and His Parisian Masters Gérôme and Bonnat." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 73 (April 1969), pp. 246–47.
Richard Ettinghausen in Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1824–1904. Exh. cat., Dayton Art Institute. [Dayton, Ohio], 1972, p. 95.
John Jacobus. "Matisse's Red Studio." Art News (September 1972), p. 32, ill.
John Rewald. "Should Hoving Be De-accessioned?" Art in America 61 (January–February 1973), p. 28.
Frank Trapp. "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: An Aged Lion Returns, Jean–Léon Gérôme." Burlington Magazine 115 (May 1973), p. 347.
Francis Haskell. Rediscoveries in Art: Some Aspects of Taste, Fashion and Collecting in England and France. Ithaca, N.Y., 1976, p. 116, pl. 255.
David B. Cass. In the Studio: The Making of Art in Nineteenth-Century France. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 1981, pp. 36–37, 43, 48, no. 26, ill.
Gerald M. Ackerman. The Life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme, with a catalogue raisonné. London, 1986, pp. 134–36, 145, 268–69, 318, no. 385, ill. (color and b&w).
Gary Tinterow et al. "Modern Europe." The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 8, New York, 1987, p. 78, ill. (color).
19th-Century European Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. Sotheby's. November 1, 1995, unpaginated.
Marc Gotlieb in Rings: Five Passions in World Art. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art, Atlanta. New York, 1996, pp. 34, 44, 54–55, ill. in color.
Jane Kinsman in Paris in the Late 19th Century. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia. Canberra, 1996, pp. 74–75, 182, ill. (color).
Jon Whiteley in The Dictionary of Art. 12, New York, 1996, p. 488.
Sunanda K. Sanyal. "Allegorizing Representation: Gérôme's Final Phase." Athanor 15 (1997), pp. 38–40, fig. 3.
Gerald M. Ackerman. Jean-Léon Gérôme: Monographie révisée, catalogue raisonné mis à jour. Paris, 2000, pp. 159, 330, no. 385, ill. (color).
Hélène Lafont-Couturier in Gérôme & Goupil: Art and Enterprise. Exh. cat., Dahesh Museum of Art. New York, 2000, p. 21 [French ed., 2000, p. 21].
Barbara Eschenburg. Pygmalions Werkstatt. Exh. cat., Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. Munich, 2001, pp. 73, 172, 210–211, no. 79, ill. (color).
Bernard Vouilloux. Le Tableau vivant: Phyrné, l'orateur et le peintre. Paris, 2002, pp. 162, 397 n. 97, pl. 30.
Susan P. Casteras in Artist as Narrator: Nineteenth Century Narrative Art in England and France. Exh. cat., Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Oklahoma City, 2005, p. 63, 135, no. 43, ill. p. 4 (color).
Petra ten-Doesschate Chu. Nineteenth-Century European Art. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J., 2006, pp. 280–81, fig. 12-13 (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 72, 254, no. 66, ill. (color and bw).
Kathryn Calley Galitz in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 63, 217, no. 40, ill. (color and bw).
Gary Tinterow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, fig. 15 (installation photo, color).
Gary Tinterow in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, fig. 15 (installation photo, color).
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