Pygmalion and Galatea

Gerome was raised in the strict French academic style, a descendent of Neo- Classicism and the art of the Romantic's like Ingres who emphasized line and superior draftsmanship. Neo- Classicism was the revival of the artistic styles and subject matter of ancient Greece and Rome.

Gerome was trained in the classics and borrowed from Greek mythology when choosing subject matter for his works. When a group of artists, later called the Impressionists, began their own movement in the late 1800's, it was a reaction against the strict academic style that Gerome embodied.

Gerome was not only a painter but a sculptor as well. His interest in the antique crossed over into his sculpture and he became interested in the tradition of polychrome sculpture.
In polychrome statuary the skin, hair, eyes, lips and other part of the figure was colored using tainted wax. Polychrome sculpture had been rediscovered after a few small statuettes had been uncovered in Greece in the late 1800's.

Perhaps Gerome's most well known piece is his "Pygmalion and Galatea" taken from the Greek myth of a sculptor falling in love with his own creation. In this work the artists skill at both painting and sculpture is clearly evident.