Focus on The Duel After the Masquerade and explain the History.
Gérôme exhibited Suite d'un bal masqué at the Paris Salon of 1857, then in London the same year with the English merchant Gambart. The painting became famous almost overnight with critics of the Salon speculating about Gerome's sources for the incident depicted in the painting. (The theme seems to have been in fashion; Thomas Couture dealt with the same subject in 1857 with  Le Duel après le bal masqué, now in the Wallace Collection). The painting was acquired in 1858 by the duc d'Aumale. Gérôme borrowed the painting to present it at the Universal Exhibition of 1867, and received the Grand Prix de Peinture. The original is part of the collection of the Musée Condé in Chantilly, France.In 1859, William Thompson Walters purchased The Duel After the Masquerade at the National Academy of Design in New York for $2,500.: 17  The painting is a replica by Gérôme of his 1857 work Suite d'un bal masqué.  It was not unusual for artists to replicate their own paintings; Gérôme also painted versions for Prince Alexander of Russia (now in the Hermitage Museum) and for the Ali Pacha.  Walters asked the manager of the exhibition at the National Academy of Design for a letter of authentication from Gérôme and a comparison of his copy to the original.: 241 In a poll taken in the winter of 1909–1910, Baltimoreans were asked to identify their fifty-five favorite works of art, and  The Duel After the Masquerade topped the list.: 183
William Thompson Walters Ali Pacha Wallace Collection Paris Salon Chantilly Prince Alexander Hermitage Museum duc d'Aumale Baltimore Salon Universal Exhibition of 1867 Thomas Couture Musée Condé