Portrait of Cécile Vitet

Painter Jean-Léon Gérôme received his formal training at the conservative École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Known for his traditional academic paintings, often depicting scenes from classical antiquity, Gérôme also accepted private portrait commissions. His painting of Madame Cécile Vitet, who was—with her husband Ludovic Vitet—prominent among the intellectuals of the era, is an excellent representation of the sitter, as confirmed by the period photograph upon which the portrait is based. Gérôme believed that photography offered an alternative to established painting formulas. His commitment to achieving the most accurate likeness of Madame Vitet, then in her forties, is evidenced in the smooth, color-saturated surface of the painting, and in the artist’s photographic rendering of light.