Gallery, Baltimore), Delacroix's Fight Between a Lion and a Tiger, Eugene Fromentin 's Arabs at the Fountain, and two bronzes by Antoine Lo uis Barye. Altho ugh he is known for simila rly exotic images, Jean-Leon Gerome was represented in the Warren collection not by a seraglio scene, but by an historical subject. Painted in 1873, L'Eminence Grise is a masterpiece of his highly fini shed, tightly painted academic style (fi g. 2). Gerome depicts Frarn;:ois de Clerc du Trembly, called the "Gray Cardinal," descending a staircase in the Chatea u Richelieu, indiffere nt to the ingratiating bows of the courtiers to his right. Gerome meticu lo usly recreated the grand staircase of the chateau (which had been destroyed during the French Revolution) and gave no less ca re to the lustrous display of costumes and tapestry. Immediately upon its completion, the painting was sold to
James H . Stebbins, a major American collecto r. Mrs. Warren acquired it from the Stebbins auction in New York in February 1889; it was the first major painting by Gerome to enter a Boston collection. 11 The Gerome was joined by a small genre scene by a no ther exempl ary French academician, Jean Auguste Do minique Ingres. His Cardinal Bibbiena Espousing His Niece to Raphael of 181 3 was believed to h ave been commissioned by Queen Caroline Murat of Naples; Mrs. Warren acquired it so metime after 18 82. Ingres had planned a series of paintings on the life of Raphael, an artist he idolized not only for stylistic reasons but also for the Renaissance system of patronage he had enjoyed. H e completed only two pictures of th e series, Mrs. Warren's, now known as The Betrothal of Raphael, and the better known Raphael
2 Jean-Leon Gerome, L'Eminence Grise, 1873, 68.5 x 101 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of Susan Cornelia Warren.
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