Théodore Géricault
Théodore Géricault | |
---|---|
Born | Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault 26 September 1791 |
Died | 26 January 1824 Paris, France | (aged 32)
Nationality | French |
Known for | Painting, lithography |
Notable work | The Raft of the Medusa |
Movement | Romanticism |
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (French: [ʒɑ̃ lwi 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.
Early life
Born in
During this period at the Louvre he discovered a vitality he found lacking in the prevailing school of
Success
Géricault's first major work,
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]
A trip to Florence, Rome, and Naples (1816–17), prompted in part by the desire to flee from a romantic entanglement with his aunt,[6] 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".[7] However, Géricault never completed the painting and returned to France.
The Raft of the Medusa
Géricault continually returned to the military themes of his early paintings, and the series of
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.[8] It surely excited the imagination of the young Eugène Delacroix, who posed for one of the dying figures.[9]
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
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.
Later life
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.
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.
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.[15] 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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Bust of a Black Man, 1808 (Ajuda National Palace)
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Wounded Cuirassier Leaving the Field of Battle, 1814
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Horse Head, 1815
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Riderless Racers in Rome, 1817 (The Walters Art Museum[16])
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The Capture of a Wild Horse, 1817
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Portrait of Laure Bro, 1818
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Portrait of a young man 1818
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Heroic Landscape with Fishermen, 1818
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Portrait Study of a Youth, c. 1818–1820
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Horse in the Storm, 1820–1821
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TheDerby of Epsom, 1821
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White Arabian Horse, before 1824
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Nude, Musée Bonnat (Bayonne)
Les Monomanes (Portraits of the Insane)[17]
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Portrait of a Kleptomaniac (French: Portrait d'un Cleptomane aka Le Monomane du Vol), 1822 (Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent)
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Man Suffering from Delusions of Military Rank (French: Le Monomane du Commandement Militaire), 1822 (Collection Oskar Reinhart am Römerholz, Winterthur)
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Portrait of a Woman Suffering from Obsessive Envy (La Monomane de l'envie), 1822 (Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon)
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Portrait of a Child Snatcher aka The Child Thief aka The Madman-Kidnapper (French: Le Monomane du vol d'enfants), 1822–1823 (Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts)
See also
- Joseph (art model), remembered for his professional relationship with Géricault
References
- ^ "Titon Laneuville – Hôtel de Longueville". Gericaultlife.com. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ a b See (Eitner 1987), p. 1.
- ^ New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- ^ a b See (Eitner 1987), p. 2.
- ^ See (Eitner 1987), p. 3.
- ^ 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.
- ^ See (Eitner 1987), pp. 3–4.
- ^ See (Eitner 1987), p. 4.
- ^ 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".
- ^ See (Riding 2003), p. 77.
- ^ See (Eitner 1987), p. 5.
- ^ See (Eitner 1987), pp. 5–6.
- ^ Patrick Noon: Crossing the Channel, page 162. Tate Publishing Ltd, 2003.
- ^ Constable to Delacroix Tate Britain 2003 exhibition. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ See (Eitner 1987), p. 6.
- The Walters Art Museum.
- ^ Pollitt, Ben (9 August 2015). "Théodore Géricault, Portraits of the Insane". smarthistory.org. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
- PMID 33484650.
Works cited
- Ciofalo, John J. (2009), The Raft: A Play about the Tragic Life of Théodore Géricault
- Salander-O'Reilly
- Whitney, Wheelock (1997), Gericault in Italy, New Haven/London: Yale University Press
- Riding, Christine (2003), "The Raft of the Medusa in Britain", Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism, Tate Publishing
Further reading
- French painting 1774–1830: the Age of Revolution. New York; Detroit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Detroit Institute of Arts. 1975. (see index)
External links
- Media related to Théodore Géricault at Wikimedia Commons
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 768.
- The Zurich Sketchbook by Théodore Géricault
- Géricault Life Magazine
- Théodore Géricault in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website