And so it was .. that after noon on July 7th, 93 degree heat welcomed visitors to New York.  At the Hamburg Pier, foot of Third Street in Hoboken, the 142 officers and men of the S.S. Wieland made ready to get underway.  The Hamburg-American Packet Company Ocean Steamers sailed for Cherbourg every Thursday and July 7th, 1881 was no exception.  Cabin passengers would pay $100 for first class, one way, and $60 for second class, with round trip at reduced rates.  Crossing the Atlantic took about eleven days, pier to pier.

The Wieland would stop first at Plymouth, to disembark London bound passengers and merchandise, then complete the passage across the channel to Cherbourg.  Connections to Paris were made via Railway transit, from Cherbourg to Paris, which would take eight hours.  The Hamburg-American Packet Company also offered return trips from the Continent, which would depart from Havre, the time by rail from Paris to Havre being only 4 hours.

Theodore Gegoux was on time to board the Wieland, which set sail from New York harbor that very day July 7th bound for Europe.  Gegoux was listed in the news among the cabin passengers, likely having paid for a round trip.  His nature not being one to miss out on the "reduced rates".  Gegoux was likely in a Second Class cabin since the accommodations were nearly as fine as First Class.  As stated in the company brochure:

If Gegoux did choose Second Class for his excursion, the commission from Mrs. Spencer’s portrait alone would have covered the cost.

Gegoux would return from Europe to New York aboard the S.S. Cimbria, departing Havre on September 24th and arriving at New York harbor on October 5, 1881.  Gegoux was listed on the Cimbria manifest; he was number 112 of 115 Cabin passengers.  Again, likely in Second Class.  An ill-fated steamship, the Cimbria was a dual masted steamer, which crossed the Atlantic in about eleven days.  Tragically the Cimbria would, in January 1883, go to the bottom near Hamburg with 389 souls all of whom perished.  The loss of life was the result of a collision in the fog with the British ship Sulton.

When Gegoux traveled to Europe in 1881, he studied the old masters for several months.  Gegoux describes his European trip in his auto-biography:

Please note that Gegoux stated, in his 1925 autobiography, that his "lamp light effect" was a copy of Pierre-Paul Prud’hon.  Subsequent scholarship has determined that Gegoux must have actually copied Pierre-Narcisse Guerin's work Clytemnestra Hesitating before Stabbing the Sleeping Agamemnon Paris Salon 1817.  This has been theorized because Prud’hon is not known to have executed a painting of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon.  Further, the Guerin painting is the definitive work on the subject.  Therefore it is believed to be the case that Gegoux was mistaken in his writing.

Throughout his career Gegoux denied any formal training in the arts.  As of this writing, no record has been found among the Louvre archives of a registration, which Gegoux would have been required to file for permission to study at the Louvre.  Many parts of the records for 1881 are missing or non-existent.  Nonetheless, during this three month period in the summer of 1881 he studied in Paris and Luxembourg, copying master paintings.  As a result of this trip, Gegoux completed three masterpiece copies.  Not surprisingly his subsequent work shows a flair for lighting effects; of the sky (Breton); of the moon (Vernet), and of lamps (Guerin).

"The Blessing of Wheat at Artois" 1857 .. Jules Breton (1827 - 1906). Exhibited at the 1857 Paris Salon, this work translates the customs of this rural community on an epic scale.  In his rendering of a priestly procession on the plain of Courrieres, Breton emphasized that the Christian faith of the Community was intact.	"Clair de Lune" 1771 .. Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714 - 1789). Exhibited at the 1773 Paris Salon, this work is also known as "Seaport by Moonlight", a nocturnal scene featuring a "bright moon", which Gegoux referred to as "the moonlight effect of Joseph Vernet".	"Clytemnestra Hesitating before Stabbing the Sleeping Agamemnon" 1817 .. Pierre-Narcisse Guerin (1774 – 1833). Exhibited at the 1817 Paris Salon, this work depicts the moments before Clytemnestra, with the aide of her lover Aegisthus, is to murder her unsuspecting husband Agamemnon.

Gegoux's copy of "The Blessing of Wheat at Artois" 1857, Jules Breton, is the only known example of Gegoux's Paris studies which stills exist today.

The readers are reminded that Gegoux was but 30 years of age and in the prime of his life.  Romance could hardly be surprising, but "no names are mentioned".