Art Blogging: Jean-Leon Gerome

This the second day of a week-long blog post series on my favorite artists and their work. Today's featured artist is Jean-Leon Gerome, a French Orientalist who lived from 1824 to 1904. He won a Salon prize in 1847 and subsequently traveled to the Near East, where he painted scores of canvases about idealized life in the Arab world. His photographically-realistic depictions fit well into the Neoclassical tradition.

To the right, you see his most famous work "Pygmalion and Galatea." It is a simply breathtaking execution of romantic art. The canvas almost drips with passion as the sculptor embraces the newly-human Galatea. The woman's body arches with flawless anatomical depiction as stone turns to flesh slowly, from her head to her feet.

This work came with a paired canvas, showing the same scene from the opposite perspective. Together or alone, they are perhaps the summit of the visual expression of love between men and women.

Besides, any artist who will paint dueling clowns is worth a look.