Focus on this artwork and analyze the Completion and exhibition.
La Païva disliked the finished painting she had commissioned and returned it to Gérôme.  Ackerman notes that La Païva felt the work was too expensive. Gérôme modified the painting  by adding canvas to the back for strength, and it was subsequently  purchased by his father-in-law, Adolphe Goupil (1806–1893) of Goupil & Cie, the leading art dealership in nineteenth-century France.  Gérôme first met Goupil in 1859 and married his daughter Marie several years later. Cleopatra and Caesar was one of three works Gérôme presented at the Salon of 1866 where it was exhibited with the title César et Cléopâtre.  The painting appeared at the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition in 1871 under the longer name Cléopâtre apportée à César dans un tapis (Cleopatra brought to Caesar in a carpet).
Royal Academy of Arts La Païva Cleopatra Goupil & Cie Salon of 1866 Goupil