Théodore Géricault from Private Collections

3 . A Stable Hand Grooming a Horse

c. 1814 Pencil, light brown wash on paper 11 ⅜ x 8 ⅝ inches ( 29 . 1 x 22 . 1 cm) Collection stamp lower right: Lugt 2103 b (Collection Pierre Olivier Dubaut) provenance Binder Collection, Paris; Richard Goetz; Pierre Olivier Dubaut; Jacqueline Dubaut, from whom purchased in 1973 by the father of the previous owner; sale, Christie’s London, July 5 , 2011 , lot 101 . exhi b i t ions Paris, Hôtel Charpentier, Centenaire de Géricault, 1924 , no. 220 ; Rouen, Musée des Beaux Arts, Géricault, 1924 , no. 11 . l i terature Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Dürer to Delacroix, Master Drawings from Stockholm , October 27 , 1985 –January 5 , 1986 , (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, February 1 –April 13 , 1986 , The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, May 10 –July 20 , 1986 ), p. 147 , no. 67 ; Bazin, under no. 2595 ; Paris 1991 , p. 394 , under no. 250 ; Per Bjurström, Drawings in Swedish Public Collections: French Drawings: Nineteenth Century , Stockholm, 1986 , no. 1565 . This composition is known in three versions, all in graphite and wash. One example, in the Art Institute of Chicago (fig. 2 ), is part of an album of sketches from 1813 – 14 and the other, in the Swedish National Museum, Stockholm (fig. 3 ), is nearly identical to the work in Chicago, though somewhat smaller and more square in format. In his correspondence of October 2004 , Eitner states that the present drawing, the largest of the three, is Géricault’s copy of the drawing in the Chicago album. In all three works, the pencil work and wash animate a compelling exchange between man and animal, whose gazes meet as the stable hand attends to the horse’s daily care. According to the authors of the 1991 catalogue of the Géricault retrospective in Paris, the painter Alfred de Dreux (a follower of Géricault and nephew of a close friend), adapted this composition as part of a series of equestrian lithographs. The lithograph was executed by Emile Lassalle, printed by Lemercier, and published by Goupil in 1858 with the title Après la promenade (Paris 1991 , p. 394 , under no. 250 ). (AK) Collection of Michael A. Rubenstein

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