Théodore Géricault from Private Collections

to London in 1820 and 1821 , captured one aspect of his English sojourn, his depictions of thoroughbreds and fashionable scenes of sport. The enigmatic series of ten ‘portraits’ of the insane of c. 1821 – 23 , five of which are known today, is the staggering, disturbing achievement of his later years. The enormous importance of drawing in Géricault’s oeuvre has been a part of the scholarly account for decades, even as his drawings—which comprise more than half the corpus of his work—remain largely unknown to general viewers. As independent works and as preparation for major paintings and lithographs, drawing was integral to Géricault’s habits of regular observation, study, and inventive variation. In the case of his large, multi-figural projects, The Race of the Barberi Horses and Raft of the Medusa , Géricault’s study drawings are indispensable to our understanding of the artist’s aesthetic commitments. While seeking to portray contemporary life in a vividly realistic mode, he was also devoted, during this period, to a classical ideal of representation in which the male body, effectively placed in a monumental composition, is the fulcrum of physical and allegorical energies. Other studies and finished drawings in various media, including pen and ink, wash, gouache, and watercolor, attest to Géricault’s immersion in military and Napoléonic subjects in his early career; his lifelong fascination with the physical anatomy and movement of horses; and his attraction to Oriental subjects, particularly scenes of mounted warriors. The great drawings and watercolors from the English sojourns of 1820 – 21 depict the contemporary life of London and focus especially on laborers, work horses and the poor with an unprecedented naturalism. We should not be surprised by the rich formal and thematic range of Géricault’s drawings. Viewed in its entirety, his practice was predicated not on a single career path, such as that of an academic painter or lithographic illustrator, but on the desire to synthesize art and reality as he explored the subjects, artistic formats, and media to which he was committed. In this regard, Géricault was an exemplary early Romantic artist and a precursor to modern art. Drawing offered Géricault far greater freedom for exploration and experiment than the more technically cumbersome and publically determined medium of painting. He was mostly self-taught, and drawing was essential to procedures of