Undoubtedly there was, and still is, ground for criticism. Alexandre Dumas thought, not unreasonably, that serious-minded men of that age would not go out to fight each other in such a costume. Edmond About criticized the pose of Crispin supporting on his knee an entire group of spectators, along with the body of poor Pierrot. But Paul de Saint-Victor praised the "truthfulness of the postures, the etching-like precision of the heads, the wise planning of the whole composition." In order to appreciate better the daring fantasy and the wise and invariably picturesque inventiveness of Gérôme, we have only to study further such works as the Frieze destined to be reproduced upon a vase commemorative of the Exposition of London (1853), _Rembrandt Etching_ (exhibited in 1867, purchased by M. E. Fould), which has been admired for its golden half-shadows and freely compared to Gerard Dow, the _Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors_ (1865), _The First Kiss of the Sun_ (1886), the _Poet_, _Thirst_ (1888), and fantasies, such as, _The Amateur of Tulips_, _Whoever you are, here is your Master_; anecdotal portraits throwing side lights on history, such as: _They are Conspiring_, or _Not Convenient_, _Louis XI. visiting Cardinal Balue_, _Promenade of the Court in the Gardens of Versailles_ (1896); animals full of life and prowess, such as: _The Lioness meeting a Jaguar_ and _Ego nominor Leo_, a lion rendered life size; lastly, his studio interiors, in which he has chosen to depict himself exactly as he was, that is to say, a sincere, clear-sighted, and indefatigable workman. In the most recent of these studio pictures, he appears, wearing a sculptor's blouse and occupied in modelling a statuette of a woman. He astonished his friends and admirers, during his last years, by his earnest labours in sculpture. His two groups, _The Gladiators_ and _Anacreon, Bacchus and Cupid_, claimed the attention of the public at the Exposition of 1878; and it was the same with his marble statue of _Omphale_ (1887), his _Tanagra_, his _Dancing Girl_, his bronze _Lion_ (1890, 1891), etc. His efforts to revive the art of coloured or polychrome sculpture, the so-called chryselephantine sculpture, which invokes the aid of various precious elements, constitute one of the most curious and important artistic experiments of modern times, even though the result did not always come up to the expectation.