Double-sided horse studies/ Feuille d’étude de chevaux double face, 1820-1821
Recto: two horses, preparatory study for the lithograph "Les Boueux" ("The Muddy Ones")
Verso: four studies of horse heads (including two preparatory studies for the watercolor "Plowing in England"), a study of a life guard with the rump of his horse (preparatory to the lithograph "A Party of Life Guards") and a dog.
In these studies, probably executed during one of his stays in England in 1820-1821, Géricault reveals his fascination for horses. His pencil stroke is masterful, nervous and unrepentant. Two of them were later used in lithographic compositions published between 1821 and 1823, providing us with an insight into the artist's creative process.
While the most accomplished study for Les Boueux can be considered the recto of the sheet, the juxtaposition of the various studies on the verso, arranged around the ghostly figure of a life guard, creates a highly pleasing dynamic.
- Théodore Géricault or the fiery life of a Romantic artist
Théodore Géricault was born in Rouen in 1791 into a wealthy family from the Manche region. His father, a magistrate and wealthy landowner, ran a tobacco factory. The family moved to Paris around 1796, and in 1810 Théodore Géricault entered Carle Vernet's studio, where he met his son Horace. He then studied with Pierre-Narcisse Guérin before enrolling on February 5, 1811 at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he pursued a classical training based on copying the masters at the Louvre Museum.
Géricault was expelled from the École des Beaux-Arts in 1812 for his misconduct; he then rented a back store on rue de la Michodière, where he painted one of his first masterpieces, a portrait of an officer of the imperial guard (the Lieutenant Dieudonné) charging while on horseback. This painting was exhibited at the 1812 Salon and won him the gold medal at the age of 21! Géricault became a sought-after painter, specializing in military subjects.
Géricault falled in love with his aunt Alexandrine Caruel de Saint-Martin (the wife of his mother's brother). Aged 28 years younger than her husband, she was only 6 years older than him. From this affair, which lasted for many years, a son Georges-Hippolyte was born in 1818.
After a short engagement in King Louis XVIII's Company of Grey Musketeers, Géricault, disappointed at not winning the Prix de Rome, spent two years in Italy. On his return in 1817, he embarked on the creation of his masterpiece, The Raft of the Medusa, which was exhibited in the Louvre in 1819 and was negatively received by the critics.
The presentation of the Raft in London in 1820 brought Géricault to the English capital, first for a two-month period between April and June 1820, then again in 1821 after a return to the continent and a stay in Brussels. The painting was triumphantly received in England (partly for the opposite political reasons to those that had led to its unsuccessful reception in France), and 50,000 visitors flocked to Bullock's gallery where it was exhibited during six months.
In November 1821, Géricault returned home very weakened by a venereal disease contracted probably during his stay in England. He fell off his horse several times, and in August 1823 broke his back in a fall. He died at the age of thirty-two on January 24, 1824, after a long agony.
2. Géricault's stays in England, a key stage in his career
Géricault's stays in England, where he was acclaimed by the press and received by the London Society, enabled him to discover both the work of the English landscape painters (Constable and Turner in particular) and horse racing, but also to explore the theme of horses in greater depth through his depiction of street scenes from London life.
In his book Les Chevaux de Géricault (Géricault's Horses), Bruno Chénique analyzes these representations of horses, which, in his view, go far beyond the simple representation of animals and constitute a strange psycho-physionomy of the artist: "the soul of a man, his instincts, his gentleness, his violence, his sexual and mortifying impulses".
3. Drawing description
While Géricault's graphic output is abundant, preparatory graphic elements for Géricault's prints published following his stay in England are quite rare.
The two horses depicted on the recto were later used in the lithograph "Les Boueux" (The Muddy Ones) published by Mrs Hulin in 1823 (in the Quatre sujets divers portfolio). The sacks of oats covering the horses' heads have been removed in the final composition.
The various studies on the verso are organized around the ghostly silhouette (barely sketched in pencil) of a life guard shown on foot, next to his horse, whose rump has been studied in detail. This figure is faithfully reproduced in A Party of Life Guards, one of the thirteen prints (including the title page) making up the "English portfolio" entitled Various Subjects Drawn from Life and on stone by J. [sic] Gericault, printed in London in 1821.
It is interesting to note that these studies of English military men are quite rare in Géricault's work: Germain Bazin's catalogue raisonné lists only three other ones, two of which are in public collections (at the Louvre and the Paris ENSB).
Two draught horses pulling a plough with a barely sketched wheel appear in the background of our life guard. These two horses are matching those in the background of the watercolour entitled Plowing in England (catalogue raisonné no. 2180, sold at Christie's on 11/15/1985).
On the top of the verso, we have two expressive horse heads and the quickly sketched silhouette of a dog. All of them evoke other works by Géricault but do not seem to be directly linked to any specific known artwork.
4. Framing
Our drawing is presented in a stuccoed and gilded wood frame from the first quarter of the 19th century. The drawing is included in a double-sided Marie-Louise and can be displayed on both sides.
Main bibliographical references
Germain Bazin, Théodore Géricault : Étude critique, documents et catalogue raisonné, Paris, La Bibliothèque des arts, Wildenstein Institute, Tome VII, 1997
Bruno Chenique, Les chevaux de Géricault, Bibliothèque de l'Image, Paris, 2002