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Pfingstrosen (4th ed., 1870) and Palmblätter (17th ed., 1871), have made him famous. Besides his poems Blumen und Sternen (3d ed., 1870), he published during the Franco-German war of 1870-'71 patriotic effusions under the title of Deutsche Ostern.
GÉRÔME, Jean Léon, a French painter, born in Vesoul, May 11, 1824. In 1841 he went to Paris and studied under Paul Delaroche, whom he accompanied to Italy. He returned to Paris in 1845, and exhibited his first picture in 1847. For several years afterward he travelled in the East, his journeys furnishing him with numerous subjects for pictures. He obtained medals in 1847, 1848, and 1855, and in the last year received the decoration of the legion of honor. In 1863 he became professor of painting in the school of fine arts, and in 1869 was decorated with the order of the red eagle. He has produced many pictures of the life of the ancients, which have placed him at the head of a school of art designated as the Pompeiian or New Greek; and several of his pictures have been criticised as indelicate to the last degree. Among his works are “The Virgin, the Infant Jesus, and St. John,” “Bacchus and Cupid,” “A Greek Interior,” the frieze of the vase commemorative of the London exhibition of 1851, “The Plague at Marseilles,” “The Death of St. Jerome,” and “A Lioness meeting a Jaguar.” His masterpiece in historical art is “The Age of Augustus and the Birth of Jesus Christ,” exhibited in 1855, and purchased by the French government. He exhibited in London in 1871 a naked Nubian girl, entitled “To be Sold,” and “Cleopatra brought to Cæsar in a Basket,” the latter inferior to most of his other works. One of his latest pictures, “The Gladiators,” was purchased in 1873, by Mr. A. T. Stewart of New York, for 80,000 francs.
GERONA. I. A province of Spain, in Catalonia, forming the N. E. extremity of the peninsula, bordering on France and the Mediterranean, and on the provinces of Barcelona and Lérida; area, 2,272 sq. m.; pop. in 1870 (estimated), 325,110. The surface is chiefly covered with the ramifications of the Pyrenees, but fertile valleys frequently intervene. The inhabitants of the interior are mostly engaged in agriculture and cattle rearing; those of the coast in ship building, fishing, and navigation. The principal rivers are the Ter and the Fluvia. Among the towns are Rosas and Figueras, both fortified, Olot, and Ripoll. II. A city (anc. Gerunda), capital of the province, at the confluence of the Ter and Oña, 52 m. N. E. of Barcelona; pop. about 10,000. The chief manufactures are linen and woollen fabrics, paper, soap, earthenware, and hardware. It was captured by Charlemagne, regained by the Moors, and is famous for the sieges it has sustained.
GERRY, Elbridge, an American statesman, fifth vice president of the United States, born in Marblehead, Mass., July 17, 1744, died in Washington, Nov. 23, 1814. He graduated at Harvard college in 1762, and was elected in 1772 representative from Marblehead to the legislature. He at once became a political leader, and an associate of Samuel Adams, Hancock, and Warren. He was placed on the two most important committees, those of safety and supplies, which sat at Cambridge, on the day preceding the battle of Lexington. In January, 1776, he was elected a delegate to the continental congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, was placed on the most important committees, and was generally chairman of the committee of the treasury till the organization of the treasury board in 1780, of which he became presiding officer. He retired from congress in that year, but resumed his seat in 1783. As delegate to the convention which met in Philadelphia in 1787 to revise the articles of confederation, he refused to sign the constitution proposed, but lent it his support as member of congress after it had received the sanction of the people. He served four successive years in congress, and in 1795 retired to private life, residing in Cambridge, till in 1797 he was appointed to accompany Pinckney and Marshall on a special mission to France. He was invited to remain in Paris, though his associates were ordered to quit France, and he then obtained the evidence and assurances upon which the subsequent commission acted. On his return he was unsuccessfully supported by the democratic party of Massachusetts for the office of governor in 1798, and again in 1801, but was elected after an excited canvas in 1810, and was reëlected in 1811. In 1812 he was elected vice president of the United States, but died suddenly in the second year of his term.
GERS, a S. W. department of France, formed from parts of Gascony and Guienne, bordering on the departments of Lot-et-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, Basses-Pyrénées, and Landes; area, 2,425 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 284,717. The surface is in general hilly. It is watered by the Gers (which rises in Hautes-Pyrénées, and flows N. into the Garonne), Save, Adour, and several other rivers. The most important vegetable products are the cereals, flax, and onions. Fruit is scarce. Large quantities of wine and brandy are made, but of ordinary quality. The minerals are of little consequence, but gypsum and a fusible spar used in making glass and porcelain abound. The only manufactures are brandy, coarse woollens, leather, bricks, glass, and earthenware. It is divided into the arrondissements of Auch, Mirande, Condom, Lectoure, and Lombez. Capital, Auch.
GERSON, Jean Charlier de, a French theologian, born at Gerson, near Rheims, Dec. 14, 1363, died in Lyons, July 12, 1429. At the age of 14 he went to Paris to study the humanities and theology, and in 1387 he was selected by the university as one of its deputation to the antipope Clement VII. at Avignon upon the controversy concerning the immaculate conception. About 1393 he was made chancellor
