Théodore Géricault from Private Collections

19 . Man Restraining a Horse (Verso: Study for “The Plasterer’s Horse”)

c. 1821 – 1822 Pencil on paper 7 ⅞ x 10 ¾ inches ( 20 x 27 . 2 cm)

provenance sale, Sotheby’s Monaco, December 3 , 1989 , lot 519 ; Jill Newhouse ( 1989 ).

Collection Andrea Woodner

This double-sided sheet offers insights into Géricault’s working process for composing his late, great lithographs of horses at work. The recto addresses a favorite theme of Géricault’s—a contest of forces between man and beast—as a groom or farrier pushes back at a rearing horse. The study explores ideas that Géricault developed separately in different lithographs. The motif of the horse in harness between the shafts of a loaded cart points to The Plasterer’s Horse (fig. 19 ), part of the suite of lithographs titled Studies of Horses (Études de chevaux) , now believed to have been published in 1823 . In addition, the frieze-like disposition of elements across the sheet and the physical positions of the horse are comparable to those of A French Farrier (fig. 20 ), first published in 1821 as part of the English suite of lithographs , Various Subjects Drawn on Stone , and reprised in the French suite in reverse, with the horse on the left and farrier on the right, as Le maréchal français (fig. 21 ). Géricault’s lithographs of these series included several depictions of draft horses being shod by a sturdy farrier, his sleeves rolled up past his elbows to reveal a muscular arm.

In correspondence from June 2003 , Eitner described the verso’s sketches of a horse in harness and the fragment of a horse’s hind legs as representing two different stages

Fig. 20 A French Farrier (Delteil 41 ) Fig. 21 Le maréchal français (Delteil 84 )