Théodore Géricault from Private Collections

4 . Two Ladies Leaning on a Wall (Verso: Landscape with Houses, probably a View of Montmartre) c. 1814–15 Black chalk, brown and white gouache on paper Verso: pencil 7 ⅝ x 5 ⅞ inches ( 19 . 5 x 15 cm) Collection stamp lower right: Lugt 1124 a (Collection Maurice Gobin)

provenance Destouches Collection; Maurice Gobin.

exhi b i t ions New York, Marie Sterner Galleries, First Exhibition in America of Géricault , 1936 , no. 37 ; Bernheim-Jeune 1937 , no. 107 .

Didier-Aaron, Inc.

Correspondence from Eitner, dated January 2000 , identifies this drawing as work by Géricault of c. 1815 , and relates it to a group of drawings of the same period that are based on compositions by John Flaxman. Flaxman, through George Romney, had been greatly influenced by Henry Fuseli in Rome in the 1770 s. It is this mixture of influences which gives this drawing its very distinctive character. Géricault’s drawing is specifically based on a 1793 illustration by Flaxman for plate 7 of his Iliad, Venus in Disguise, Luring Helen into Paris’ Room (fig. 4 ) , focusing on the group of three ladies’ maids on the right hand side of the composition. Géricault was inspired to do several repetitions of Flaxman’s composition, one of which is in the Zoubaloff sketchbook (Musée du Louvre), the only surviving complete sketchbook by Géricault.

Fig. 4 John Flaxman (British, 1755 – 1826 ) Venus in Disguise, Luring Helen into Paris’ Room plate 7 of Iliad , published 1793