ARTISTS AND AUTHORS it, and discerning the boy's talent, gave him a letter to Paul Delaroche, encour- aging him to go to Paris and there to take up the study of art as a-profession. At seventeen years of age, with his father's consent and $250 in his pocket, G£rome went up to Paris, and presenting his letter to Delaroche, was well re- ceived by him, and entered the School of Fine Arts (Ecole des Beaux-Arts) as his pupil. He had been with Delaroche three years and had proved himself one of the most loyal and diligent of his pupils, when an event occurred, insignificant in it- self, but which was to have an important influence upon his life and give a new direction to his talent. French studios are not as a rule very orderly places. The young men who frequent them are left pretty much to themselves, with no one to govern them or to oversee them. The artist they are studying under makes, at the most, a brief daily visit, going the round of the easels, saying a word or two to each pu- pil, although it often happens that he says nothing, and then departs for his prop- er work, leaving his pupils to their own devices. The students are for the most part like young men everywhere, a turbulent set, full of animal spirits, which sometimes carry them beyond reasonable bounds. It was a boisterous outbreak of this sort, but far wilder than common, that occurred in the studio of Delaroche, and which brought about the crisis in Gerome's life to which we have alluded. Fortunately for him, the incident took place while Ge'rdme was on a visit tc his parents at Vesoul, so that he was in no way implicated in the affair. He came back to find the studio closed ; Delaroche, deeply disturbed, had dismissed all his pupils and announced his intention to visit Italy. His studio was to be taken during his absence, by Gleyre, and he advised those of his pupils in whom he took a personal interest, to continue their studies under his successor. Ge'rdme was one of those to whom he gave this advice, but Ge'rdme was too much attached to his master to leave him for another, and bluntly announced his purpose of fol- lowing him to Rome. A few of the other pupils of Delaroche were of the same mind, and they all set out for Italy together. Arrived in Rome, GeYdme, always a hard worker, threw himself energetically into his studies ; drawing the ancient buildings, the Capitol, the Colosseum ; sketching in the Forum and on the Cam- pagna ; copying the pictures and the statues, saturating his mind in the spirit of antique art, and schooling his hand in its forms, until he had laid up a rich store. of material for use in future pictures. On his return to Paris he worked for a while in Gleyre's studio, but when Delaroche came back from Italy, Ge'rdme again joined him and renewed his old relation as pupil and assistant — working, among other tasks, on the painting of " Charlemagne Crossing the Alps," a com- mission given to Delaroche by the Government, for the Grande Galerie des Ba~ (atlles at Versailles : a vast apartment lined with pictures of all the victories of the French from Soissons to Solferino. Such work as this, however, had little interest for Gerdme. His mind at this time was full of the Greeks and Romans ; his enthusiasm for Napoleon, which later was to give birth to so many pictures, had not yet awakened ; nor did he
