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 - 5 also. This is part 6 of a 7-part series on the works of Théodore Géricault:
1822 The Passage of Mount Saint Bernard: In this lithograph, Théodore Géricault depicted Napoleon Bonaparte as a young general leading French troops through the Alps via the treacherous Great Saint Bernard Pass. Napoleon had to bring his men, supplies, and weapons (all detailed here) through the mountains in order to cross into Northern Italy and fight the enemy Austrian army. The resulting French victory helped establish Napoleon as a popular military hero, which eventually enabled his ascent to emperor in 1804.
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| 1822 The Passage of Mount Saint Bernard lithograph in black on ivory wove paper 35.9 x 41.7 cm (image) |
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| c1822-23 The Giaour watercolour over graphite on paper 21.1 x 23.8 cm The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| 1822-23 The plaster oven oil on canvas 50 x 71 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| 1822-23 Scene in a stable with cobbled floor brush drawing in brown wash, over graphite 20.6 x 26.8 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1822-23 Combat of Oriental Horsemen brush and brown wash, over graphite 19.4 x 27.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1823 Farm horses lithograph printed in black ink on chine collé 19.1 x 26.7 cm |
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| 1823 Dead horse lithograph on wove paper 18.5 x 22.8 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1823 Cuirassiers charging lithograph on wove paper 25.7 x 33.8 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1823 Cart horse out of the Limons 31.3 x 39.7 cm (cropped in here) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1823 The Church of Saint Nicholas, Rouen lithograph on chine collé 45 x 31.5 cm (sheet) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1823 Study of soldiers fighting civilians graphite on paper 20.5 x 28 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1823 Marechal Ferrant’s stable lithograph printed in black ink on chine collé 20.3 x 25.4 cm |
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| 1823 Light Artillery Officer of the Imperial Guard lithograph on paper 15.9 x 18.7 cm |
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| 1823 The muddy ones lithograph printed in black ink on chine collé 19.4 x 24.4 cm |
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| 1823 The Infidel lithograph on wove paper 25.4 x 34.2 cm (sheet) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1823 The Farrier's Shed lithograph 42.1 x 57.9 cm The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| 1823 Wagoner climbing a hill lithograph 27.7 x 38,5 cm (sheet) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1823 Three horses led by a groom to be skinned lithograph 11.5 x 20 cm (plate) |
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| 1823 The Trumpet of the Hussars Lithograph 10.8 x 14.7 cm (plate) |
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| 1923 Dappled Horse lithograph 16 x 22.5 cm (plate) |
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| c1823 The liberation of the prisoners of the Inquisition black pencil and red chalk on paper, size given as "Large format" Louvre, Paris |
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| c1823 Dappled draught horse being shod graphite pencil, pen and brown ink, and brush with brown and grey wash on paper 16.3 x 23.2 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| n.d. A centaur abducting a nymph pen and brown ink, over a brown ink sketch, gouache highlights, a few lines of reconstituted black stone on oiled paper 20.5 x 24.5 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. A centaur abducting a nymph in front of another centaur on the ground pen and brown ink, some lines of reconstituted black stone, gouache highlights, on oiled paper 17.5 x 25.5 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d Studies of horses and a blacksmith, for the painting 'The Farrier' graphite? on paper 27.7 x 42.3 cm The British Museum, London |
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| n.d Portraits of a woman and three children graphite on paper 24 x 28.7 cm The British Museum, London |
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| n.d Dead cat oil on canvas 50 x 80 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Bay horse, in the stable black pencil, brown wash, & watercolour on paper 19.5 x 24.5 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Assassination of Fualdès on March 19, 1817: translation of the corpse pen and brown ink, brown wash over graphite 21 x 27 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Arabian horse, profile to the left graphite & watercolour on paper 18 x 23 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. A groom and a horse at a stable door graphite & brown wash on paper 15.4 x 20.3 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. A Couple embracing black pencil, pen & brown ink, white gouache & brown wash on blue paper 13.5 x 21.3 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Climbers (medium not given) 57.2 x 48.3 cm Detroit Institute of Arts, MI |
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| n.d. Carabinieri officer training his troops black pencil, brush, watercolour, white gouache, brown wash on grey-green paper 25.4 x 21.4 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Carabinieri officer standing in a landscape pen and brown ink, highlights of watercolour and brown wash 39 x 31 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Carabiniere standing, leaning against a rock pen anf brown ink, brown wash & watercolour 19.3 x 11.6 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Boy and girl on an embankment black pencil on paper 18.6 x 14.3 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Feline studies black pencil on paper 31.7 x 40.3 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Farm horses lithograph (size not given) Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museums, Cambridge, MA |
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| n.d. Episode of the Egyptian Campaign black pencil, brush and brown wash, grey wash and white gouache highlights on brown paper 20.5 x 28.3 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| n.d. Dressage: a man holding a horse by the bridle pen and Graphite, brown ink, brown wash & watercolour on paper 20 x 28.6. cm |
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| n.d. Deer hunting black pencil, brown wash, white gouache on brown paper 18 x 22.6 cm Louvre, Paris |
