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Théodore Géricault

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Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (French: [ʒɑ̃lwi ɑ̃dʁe teɔdɔʁ ʒeʁiko]; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is The Raft of the Medusa. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romantic movement.

Théodore Géricault
Théodore Géricault by Horace Vernet, c. 1822–1823
Born
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault

(1791-09-26)26 September 1791
Rouen, Normandy, France
Died26 January 1824(1824-01-26) (aged 32)
Paris, France
NationalityFrench
Known forPainting, lithography
Notable workThe Raft of the Medusa
MovementRomanticism

Early life

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Self-portrait, c. 1808–1812

Born in Rouen, France, Géricault moved to Paris with his family probably in 1797, where Théodore's father obtained employment in the family tobacco business based at the Hôtel de Longueville on the Place du Carrousel. Géricault's artistic abilities were likely first recognized by the painter and art dealer Jean-Louis Laneuville. Laneuville lived at the Hotel de Longueville alongside Jean-Baptiste Caruel, Théodore Géricault's maternal uncle, and other members of the extended Géricault family.[1] In 1808, Géricault began training at the studio of Carle Vernet, where he was educated in the tradition of English sporting art by Carle Vernet. In 1810, Géricault began studying classical figure composition under Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, a rigorous classicist who disapproved of his student's impulsive temperament while recognizing his talent.[2] Géricault soon left the classroom, choosing to study at the Louvre, where from 1810 to 1815 he copied paintings by Rubens, Titian, Velázquez and Rembrandt.

During this period at the Louvre he discovered a vitality he found lacking in the prevailing school of Neoclassicism.[2] Much of his time was spent in Versailles, where he found the stables of the palace open to him, and where he gained his knowledge of the anatomy and action of horses.[3]

Success

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The Charging Chasseur, 1812

Géricault's first major work, The Charging Chasseur, exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1812, revealed the influence of the style of Rubens and an interest in the depiction of contemporary subject matter. This youthful success, ambitious and monumental, was followed by a change in direction: for the next several years Géricault produced a series of small studies of horses and cavalrymen.[4]

He exhibited Wounded Cuirassier at the Salon in 1814, a work more labored and less well received.[4] Géricault in a fit of disappointment entered the army and served for a time in the garrison of Versailles.[3] In the nearly two years that followed the 1814 Salon, he also underwent a self-imposed study of figure construction and composition, all the while evidencing a personal predilection for drama and expressive force.[5] The studies and finished drawings from this time attest to Géricault's immersion in military and Napoléonic subjects in his early career, fascination with the anatomy and movement of horses, and attraction to Oriental subjects, particularly scenes of mounted warriors.[6]

 
Study of the Head of a Youth, c. 1821–1824

A trip to Florence, Rome, and Naples (1816–17), prompted in part by the desire to flee from a romantic entanglement with his aunt,[7] ignited a fascination with Michelangelo. Rome itself inspired the preparation of a monumental canvas, the Race of the Barberi Horses, a work of epic composition and abstracted theme that promised to be "entirely without parallel in its time".[8] However, Géricault never completed the painting and returned to France.

The Raft of the Medusa

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Main article: The Raft of the Medusa
 
The Raft of the Medusa, 1819

Géricault continually returned to the military themes of his early paintings, and the series of lithographs he undertook on military subjects after his return from Italy are considered some of the earliest masterworks in that medium. Perhaps his most significant, and certainly most ambitious work, is The Raft of the Medusa (1818–19), which depicted the aftermath of a contemporary French shipwreck, Méduse, in which the captain had left the crew and passengers to die.

The incident became a national scandal, and Géricault's dramatic interpretation presented a contemporary tragedy on a monumental scale. The painting's notoriety stemmed from its indictment of a corrupt establishment, but it also dramatized a more eternal theme, that of man's struggle with nature.[9] It surely excited the imagination of the young Eugène Delacroix, who posed for one of the dying figures.[10]

The classical depiction of the figures and structure of the composition stand in contrast to the turbulence of the subject, so that the painting constitutes an important bridge between neo-classicism and romanticism. It fuses many influences: the Last Judgment of Michelangelo, the monumental approach to contemporary events by Antoine-Jean Gros, figure groupings by Henry Fuseli, and possibly the painting Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley.[11]

The painting ignited political controversy when first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1819; it then traveled to England in 1820, accompanied by Géricault himself, where it received much praise.

While in London, Géricault witnessed urban poverty, made drawings of his impressions, and published lithographs based on these observations which were free of sentimentality.[12] He associated much there with Charlet, the lithographer and caricaturist.[3] In 1821, while still in England, he painted The Derby of Epsom.

Later life

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Monument at Géricault's tomb, by sculptor Antoine Étex

After his return to France in 1821, Géricault was inspired to paint a series of ten portraits of the insane. These were the patients of a friend, Dr. Étienne-Jean Georget (a pioneer in psychiatric medicine), with each subject exhibiting a different affliction.[13] There are five remaining portraits from the series, including Insane Woman.

The paintings are noteworthy for their bravura style, expressive realism, and for their documenting of the psychological discomfort of individuals, made all the more poignant by the history of insanity in Géricault's family, as well as the artist's own fragile mental health.[14] His observations of the human subject were not confined to the living, for some remarkable still-lifes—painted studies of severed heads and limbs—have also been ascribed to the artist.[15]

Géricault's last efforts were directed toward preliminary studies for several epic compositions, including the Opening of the Doors of the Spanish Inquisition and the African Slave Trade.[16] The preparatory drawings suggest works of great ambition, but Géricault's waning health intervened. Weakened by riding accidents and chronic tubercular infection, Géricault died in Paris in 1824 after a long period of suffering. His bronze figure reclines, brush in hand, on his tomb at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, above a low-relief panel of The Raft of the Medusa.

Works

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Les Monomanes (Portraits of the Insane)

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Source:[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Titon Laneuville – Hôtel de Longueville". Gericaultlife.com. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b See (Eitner 1987), p. 1.
  3. ^ a b c One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1906). "Géricault, Jean-Louis André Théodore" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  4. ^ a b See (Eitner 1987), p. 2.
  5. ^ See (Eitner 1987), p. 3.
  6. ^ Kurlander, Amy (June 2014). "Théodore Géricault: Drawings, Watercolors, and Small Oils From Private Collections". Jill Newhouse Gallery.
  7. ^ Lüthy, Hans: The Temperament of Gericault, Theodore Gericault, p. 7. Salander-O'Reilly, 1987. In 1818 Alexandrine-Modeste Caruel gave birth to his son (christened Georges-Hippolyte and given into the care of the family doctor who then sent the child to Normandy where he was raised in obscurity). See also Wheelock Whitney, Géricault in Italy, New Haven/London 1997, and Marc Fehlmann, Das Zürcher Skizzenbuch von Théodore Géricault, Berne 2003.
  8. ^ See (Eitner 1987), pp. 3–4.
  9. ^ See (Eitner 1987), p. 4.
  10. ^ See (Riding 2003), p. 73: "Having studied the painting by candlelight in the confines of Géricault's studio, he walked into the street and broke into a terrified run".
  11. ^ See (Riding 2003), p. 77.
  12. ^ See (Eitner 1987), p. 5.
  13. ^ See (Eitner 1987), pp. 5–6.
  14. ^ Patrick Noon: Crossing the Channel, page 162. Tate Publishing Ltd, 2003.
  15. ^ Constable to Delacroix Tate Britain 2003 exhibition. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  16. ^ See (Eitner 1987), p. 6.
  17. ^ "Riderless Racers in Rome". The Walters Art Museum.
  18. ^ Pollitt, Ben (9 August 2015). "Théodore Géricault, Portraits of the Insane". smarthistory.org. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  19. ^ Burgos JS (2021). "A new portrait by Géricault". The Lancet. Neurology. 20 (2): 90–91. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(20)30479-8. PMID 33484650.

Works cited

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Further reading

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