Théodore Géricault from Private Collections

Athanassoglou-Kallmayer, p. 153 ). Indeed, Géricault’s lodgings were in a working class neighborhood and the street life he found so stimulating included the draft horses and laboring men of the London wharves, stables, and working fields. This impressive watercolor belongs to a group of drawings and prints by Géricault on the subject of the coal wagon, a key part of the life of London during this time. The Thames was dominated by boats filled with coal from the mines in the north, and among the many types of wagons transporting raw materials and goods in the streets was the coal wagon with its supremely weighty, dirty, indispensable load. Pulled slowly by powerful horses and driven by coal heavers—men who performed one of the most physically dangerous, arduous jobs in London—the coal wagon was a frequent subject of popular description. Two of Géricault’s lithographs from the English suite of 1821 , Various Subjects Drawn from Life and on Stone , depict the proletarian figure of the coal heaver with his distinctive cap. Entrance to the Adelphi Wharf shows the men and horses from the rear as they disappear into the darkness of an arch at the wharf. Another lithograph sets the coal wagon in a landscape, holding the horses and men at a distance from the viewer. In an important watercolor in the British Museum (fig. 16 ) the solemn cortège of wagon, horses and men proceeds into the pitch-black tunnel that terminates a bleak, industrial landscape. The present study engages the straining, powerful bodies of two horses and the intimidating demeanor of one coal heaver at close range. Armed with a determined expression and large, coarse features, the coal heaver raises his whip to bring one of his drays into line. (AK)

Fig. 16 The Coal Waggon , The British Museum ( 1968 - 2 - 10 - 28 )