GERARD, variously surnamed Tum, Tunc, Tenque, or Thom (c. Γ040-1120), founder of the order of the knights hospitallers of St John or of Malta, was born at Amalfi about the year 1040. According to other accounts Martigues in Provence was his birthplace, while one authority even names the Château d’Avesnes in Hainault. Whether as a soldier or a merchant, he in the course of the latter part of the 11th century found his way to Jerusalem, where a hospice had for some time existed for the convenience of those who wished to visit the holy places. Of this institution Gerard became guardian or provost at a date not later than 1100; and here he organized that religious order of St John which received papal recognition from Pascal II. in 1113, by a bull which was renewed and confirmed by Calixtus II. shortly before the death of Gerard in 1120.

GERARD, John (1545-1608), herbalist and surgeon, was born towards the end of 1545 at Nantwich in Cheshire. He was educated at Wisterson, or Willa t 3t0n, 2 miles from Nantwich, and eventually, after spending some time in travelling, took up his abode in London, where he exercised his profession. For more than twenty years he also acted as superintendent of the gardens of Lord Burghley, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth. In 1596 he published a catalogue of plants cultivated in his own garden, 1039 in number, inclusive of varieties of the same species. Their English as well as their Latin names are given in a revised edition of the catalogue issued in 1599. In 1597 appeared Gerard’s well-known IIerball, described by him in its pre face as ’ ' the first fruits of these mine own labours,” but more truly an adaptation of the Stirpium historice pemptades of Rembert Dodoens, published in 1583, or rather of a translation of the whole or part of the same by Dr Priest, with L’Obel’s arrangement. Of the numerous illustrations of the IIerball sixteen appear to be original, the remainder are mostly impressions from the wood blocks employed by Jacob Theodorus (Tabernaemontanus) in his leones Stirpium, published at Frankfort in 1590. A second edition of the Rerball, with considerable improvements and additions, was brought out by Thomas Johnson in 1633, and reprinted in 1636. Gerard was elected a member of the court of assistants of the barber-surgeons in 1595, by which company he was appointed an examiner in 1598, junior warden in 1605, and master in 1608. He died in February 1612, and was buried at St Andrews, Holborn.

See Johnson’s preface to his edition of the Herball ; and A Catalogue of Plants cultivated in the Garden of John Gerard in the years 1596-1599, edited with Notes, References to Gerards Herball, the Addition of modern Names, and a Life of the Author, by Benjamin Daydon Jackson, F.L.S., privately printed, Lond. , 1876, 4to.

GÉRARD, François, Baron (1770-1837), was born on May 4, 1770, at Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador. At the age of twelve Gérard left Rome with his family for Paris, and there obtained admission into the Pension du Roi. From the Pension he passed to the studio of Pajou (sculptor), which he left at the end of two years for that of the painter Brenet, whom he quitted almost immediately to place himself under David. In 1789 Gérard competed for the Prix de Rome, which was carried off by his comrade Girodet. In the following year (1790) he again presented himself, but the death of his father prevented the completion of his work, and obliged him to accompany his mother to Rome.

In 1791 he returned to Paris; but his poverty was so great that he was forced to forego his studies in favour of employment which should bring in immediate profit. David at once availed himself of his help, and one of that master’s most celebrated portraits—Le Pelletier de St Fargeau—is due to the hand of “le petit Gérard.” This portrait was executed early in 1793, the year in which Gérard, at the request of David, was named a member of the revolutionary tribunal, from the fatal decisions of which he, however, invariably absented himself. In 1794 he obtained the first prize in a competition, the subject of which was “The Tenth of August,” and, further stimulated by the successes of his rival and friend Girodet in the Salons of 1793 and 1794, Gérard (nobly aided by Isabey the miniaturist) produced in 1795 his famous “Bélisaire.” In 1796 a portrait of his generous friend (Louvre) obtained undisputed success, and the money received from Isabey for these two works enabled Gérard to execute in 1797 his “Psyche et 1’Amour.” At last, in 1799, his portrait of Madame Bonaparte established his position as one of the first portrait painters of the day. In 1808 as many as eight, in 1810 no less than fourteen portraits by him, were exhibited at the Salon, and these figures afford only an indication of the enormous numbers which he executed yearly; all the leading figures of the empire and of the restoration, all the most celebrated men and women of Europe, sat to Gérard. This extraordinary vogue was due partly to the charm of his manner and conversation, for his salon was as much frequented as his studio; Madame de Stael, Canning, Talleyrand, the duke of Wellington, have all borne witness to the attraction of his society. Rich and famous, Gérard was stung by remorse for earlier ambitions abandoned; at intervals he had indeed striven to prove his strength with Girodet and other rivals, and his “Bataille d’Austerlitz” (1810) showed a breadth of invention and style which are even more conspicuous in “L’Entrée d’Henri IV.” (Versailles),—the work with which in 1817 he did homage to the Bourbons. After this date Gérard declined, watching with impotent grief the progress of the Romantic school. Loaded with honours—baron of the empire, member of the Institute, officer of the legion of honour, first painter to the king—he worked on sad and discouraged; the revolution of 1830 added to his disquiet; and in 1837 on 11th January, after three days of fever, he died. By his portraits Gérard is best remembered; the colour of his paintings has suffered, but his drawings show in uninjured delicacy the purity of his line; and those of women are specially remarkable for a virginal simplicity and frankness of expression.

Μ. Ch. Lenomιant published in 1846 Essai de Biographic ct de Critique sur François Gérard, a second edition of which appeared in 1847; and Μ. Delécluze devoted several pages to the same subject, in his λvork Louis David, son école et son temps.

GÉRARD, Jean IgnaceIsidore (1803-1847), a French caricaturist generally known by the pseudonym of Grandville—the professional name of his grandparents, whowaere actors—was born at Nancy, 13th September 1803 He received his first instruction in drawing from his father, a miniature painter, and at the age of twenty-one came to Paris, where he soon afterwards published a collection of lithographs entitled Les tribulations de la petite jyropñété. He followed this by Les plaisirs de tout âge, and La sibylle des salons ; but the work which first established his fame was Metamorphoses du jour, published in 1828, a series of 70 scenes in which individuals with the bodies of men and faces of animals are made to play a human comedy. These drawings are remarkable for the extraordinary skill with which human characteristics are represented in animal features, but they are liable to the olyection of attempting to express by the pencil what can be properly done only by the pen; while at the same time, in conquering difficulties incident to his purpose, much ingenuity and labour has been wasted which might have been employed otherwise with better results. The success of this work led to his being engaged as artistic contributor to various periodicals such as La Silhouette, L'Artiste, La Caricature, Le Charivari ', and his political caricatures, which were characterized by marvellous fertility of satirical humour, soon came to enjoy a general popularity which never diminished. Besides supplying illustrations for various standard works, such as the songs of Béranger, the fables of La Fontaine, Don Quixote, Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, he also continued the issue of various lithographic collections, among which may be mentioned La vie privée et publique des animaux, Les cent proverbes, L'autre monde, and Les fieurs animées. Though the designs of Gérard are occasionally unnatural and absurd, they usually display keen analysis of character and marvellous inventive ingenuity, and his humour is always tempered and refined by delicacy of sentiment and a vein of sober thoughtfulness. He died of mental disease 17th March 1847.

A short notice of Gérard, under the name of Grandville, is contained in Theophile Gautier’s Portraits Contemporains. See also Charles Blanc, Grandville, Paris, 1855.