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.
GÉRÔME
BY ALBERT KEIM
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY FREDERIC TABER COOPER
ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT
REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR