Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault is now identified as a pioneer of Romanticism in French painting. He loved horses, and dramatic images of rearing horses feature in his work. He was born at Rouen, and from 1808 trained in Paris with Carle Vernet. But after two years he left Vernet - saying 'One of my horses would have devoured six of his' - to go to the Neo-classican painter Pierre Guérin, with whom his friend Delacroix later studied.
Géricault was influenced by the military subjects of Baron Gros and by works in the Louvre, notably those by Rubens and Renaissance Venetian painters. A visit to Italy in 1816-7 intensified Géricault's appreciation of Michelangelo. On his return to Paris he painted his most famous work, 'The Raft of the Medusa' (Paris, The Louvre), a scene of modern drama on a vast scale and executed in the heroic manner, which he exhibited at the Salon of 1819.
An admirer of English art, like Delacroix, he visited England in 1820-1, returning in a state of poor health. From his last years date an exceptional series of portraits, commissioned by a friend, of the inmates of a lunatic asylum.
For earlier works see parts 1 - 4 also. This is part 5 of a 7-part series on the works of Théodore Géricault:
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| 1820-24 Mameluke soldier holding a lance brown ink and grey wash over graphite on cream wove paper 33.5 x 24.9 cm Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| 1820-24 Flayed Horse pigmented wax 23.2 x 21.7 x 11.7 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1820-24 Five horses seen from the rump, in a stable oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| 1820-23 An oriental holding a horse watercolour and graphite on cream wove paper 20.7 x 26.4 cm Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| c1820 Three children playing with a donkey lithograph on off-white wove paper 21.3 x 34.2 cm Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| c1820 The Virgin of the Sacred Heart graphite on paper 22.5 x 15.7 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1820 Studies of horses graphite on white wove paper 19 x 23 cm Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| c1820 Portrait of an artist in his studio oil on canvas 147 x 114 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| c1820 Dervish in his stall oil on paper, mounted on canvas 25.4 x 34.2 cm Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA |
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| 1821 Epson Derby oil on canvas 92 x 123 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| 1821 Entrance to the Adelphi Wharf lithograph 33 x 39.6 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1821 A Party of Life-Guards lithograph 27.3 x 34.2 cm (image) Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| 1821 The Piper lithograph (size not given) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1821 The Flemish Farrier lithograph 22.7 x 31.4 cm (image) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1821 The English Farrier lithograph 28 x 37 cm (image) The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| 1821 An Arabian Horse lithograph (size not given) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1821 A French Farrier Lithograph (size not given) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| Title Page lithograph |
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| Pity the Sorrows of a Poor Old Man! lithograph in black on ivory wove paper 31.7 x 37.1 cm (image) |
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| Horses going to a Fair lithograph in black on buff wove paper 25.4 x 35.6 cm (image) |
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| A Party of Life Guards lithograph in black on ivory wove paper 27.5 x 34.4 cm (image) |
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| Horses exercising lithograph in black on ivory wove paper 29.2 x 41.1 cm (image) |
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| The Coal Wagon lithograph in black on ivory wove paper 19.5 x 31.1 cm (image) |
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| A Paraleytic Woman lithograph in black on ivory wove paper 22.6 x 31.7 cm (image) |
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| Entrance to the Adelphi Wharf lithograph in black on ivory wove paper 25.2 x 30.8 cm (image) |
1821-22 The White Horse Tavern: Discouraged by what he believed to be the conservative tastes of the French art establishment, Géricault traveled to England and exhibited his work in London in 1820–21. Received with critical acclaim, he engaged with the local manner, which included an embrace of naturalistic compositions and a more muted palette. Here he depicts a weary uniformed postman receiving a drink from a waiter outside a roadside inn. He focuses attention on the horses, contrasting their detailed muscular frames with the summarily rendered figures and landscape. The inn’s sign, which translates as “White Horse” even though a black one is illustrated, locates the scene in France, possibly outside Paris, explicitly alluding to Géricault’s mingling of British painting conventions and a French context.
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| 1821-22 The White Horse Tavern oil on canvas 54 x 44.5 cm Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| 1821-23 Coal wagon hauled by seven horses graphite and grey-blue and brown watercolour on cream modern laid paper.17 x 27 cm Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| c1821-24 Head of a youth oil on canvas 46 x 38 cm The Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide |
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| 1822 Passage through Mt. Saint-Bernard lithograph 35.6 x 41.5 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1822 Horses from the Auvergne lithograph on white wove paper 22.8 x 30.5 cm (cropped here) Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| 1822 Coal wagon drawn by horses Lithograph 19.2 x 30.5 cm (plate) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1822 British horse and jockey lithograph on wove paper 20 x 23.6 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1822 Two Post Horses at the door of a stable lithograph 34.2 x 43.8 cm (plate) |
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| 1822 Two horses exercised by a jockey lithograph 22.3 x 38.5 cm The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| 1822 The French Blacksmith lithograph 27.1 x 36.1 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1822 The Blacksmith's Shop graphite and brown wash heightened with white on wove paper 31.3 x 39.7 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1823 Ro-Ro climbing a hill lithograph 23.6 x 32.2 cm (plate) |
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| 1823 Postman or two harnessed horses lithograph on chine collé 12.8 x 17 cm (image) The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| 1823 A horse being eaten by a lion lithograph 20.8 x 26.3 cm |
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