Jean-Léon Gérôme

Jean-Léon Gérôme studied under Paul Delaroche and made his name at the Salon of 1847 with The Cock Fight. His meticulously finished scenes of ancient Rome and the Middle East, such as Pollice Verso, were reproduced so widely by the firm of his father-in-law, Adolphe Goupil, that by 1880 he was arguably the most famous living artist. He taught at the École des Beaux-Arts for decades, with pupils including Thomas Eakins and Osman Hamdi Bey, and fiercely opposed Impressionism.