MASTERPIECES
IN COLOUR
EDITED BY - -
M. HENRY ROUJON

GÉRÔME

(1824–1904)

IN THE SAME SERIES

IN PREPARATION

PIERRE LAFITTE & CIE, PARIS

PLATE I.—YOUNG GREEKS ENGAGED IN COCK FIGHTING

(In the Luxembourg Museum, Paris)

This was Gérôme's first picture. It was exhibited at the Salon of 1847, and achieved a brilliant success. Théophile Gautier, who was a critic hard to please, bestowed upon it some enviable praise. In later years the artist found much to censure in his early work; but the public, less severely critical, admired the graceful nudity of the young forms and the combative ardour of the two adversaries.