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At this time he was scarcely more than thirty years old. A most brilliant career henceforth lay open before him.
G?r?me remains, beyond question, the unrivalled painter of Egypt, whose aspects, enchanting and sinister alike, he has reproduced in a series of pictures of finished workmanship and vibrant colouring.
It was in 1856 that, together with a few friends, among others Bartholdi, then twenty-two years old, he undertook his long tour through Egypt. To-day, one can go to Cairo or up the Nile as casually as to Nice or Italy and with almost as little trouble. In those days it was not a question of a simple excursion, of which any and every amateur tourist would be capable, but of a veritable expedition.
Unforeseen adventures appealed to G?r?me, for he was brave, energetic, and eager for new sensations. M. Fr?d?ric Masson, the eminent historian, who was one of his companions through the desert, has since shown him to us, in a series of graphic recollections, as perpetually on his feet, indefatigable, ready to endure any and every vicissitude for the sake of sketching a site or a silhouette.
His stay in Egypt was for G?r?me a period of enchantment. He has left, in regard to it, some hasty but expressive notes. He passed four months on the Nile, well filled months, consecrated to fishing, hunting, and painting, all the way from Diametta to Philae. He remained the four succeeding months at Cairo, in an old dwelling that Suliman Pasha rented to the young Frenchmen. "Happy epoch!" wrote the painter, "Care-free, full of hope, and with the future before us. The sky was blue."
He returned to Paris with an ample harvest of sketches, a supply of curious, novel, and striking themes to work up. M. Moreau-Vauthier shows him to us at that period of his existence, full of unflagging energy and pleasant enthusiasm, in the company of Brion, Lambert, Schutzenberger, and Toulmouche,--not to forget his monkey Jacques, who took his place at the family table arrayed in coat and white cravat, but would slink away and hide himself in shame when, as a punishment for some misdeed, they decked him out as a ragpicker.
What jolly parties were held in that "Tea Chest," in which G?r?me then had his studio, Rue de Notre-Dame-des-Champs! It was the scene of many a festival, entertainment, and joyous puppet show, attended by spectators such as Rachel , her sister, George Sand, Baudry, Cabanel, H?bert, and others.
This was, nevertheless, an epoch of prolific work and constant research. G?r?me passed ceaselessly from one type of painting to another; one might say that he rested from his exotic landscapes by evoking, with an ever new lavishness of detail, curious or affecting scenes from Greek and Roman antiquity.
Thus rewards and successes multiplied, and he experienced all the joys of triumph. Already honorary member of the Academy of Besan?on, he was appointed professor at the ?cole des Beaux-Arts in 1863, and in 1865, member of the Institut, where he succeeded Heim.
Meanwhile he fought a duel with revolvers and was gravely wounded. His mother hastened once again to his bedside and saved his life a second time. Since the ball had passed through his right arm, complications affecting his hand were feared. The artist declared that if necessary he would learn to paint with his left. No sooner was he cured than off he started again, bound for Egypt, whence he passed to Arabia and, more venturesome than ever, continued on his way, as one of his biographers phrased it, "making sketches clear to the summit of Mt. Sinai."
He was destined to make still other journeys, notably that of 1868 in company of Messrs. Bonnet, Fr?d?ric Masson, and Lenoir; and his companions paid tribute to his unfailing spirits and his powers of endurance. But at the age of forty he married. The bride was Mlle. Goupil, daughter of the well-known picture dealer.
G?r?me was also numbered among Compi?gne's habitual visitors, along with Berlioz, Gustave Dor?, Guillaume, Merim?e, Viollet-le-Duc, and others. M. Moreau-Vauthier, who with pious zeal has collected the more interesting anecdotes of his life, relates that he had a special gift for organizing charades: he was scene setter and costumer. At Fontainebleau, he took the Empress out alone in a row-boat.
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