Théodore Géricault from Private Collections

21 . Three Stabled Horses Feeding

c. 1822 – 23 Watercolor over graphite 8 ⅜ x 14 ¼ inches ( 21 . 3 x 36 . 2 cm)

provenance Private Collection, Paris, in 2004 .

Collection of Roberta J.M. Olson and Alexander B.V. Johnson

A consummate rider, Géricault was also fascinated by the equine physique and he tirelessly studied the anatomy of different types of horses and individual specimens. The present sheet is reminiscent of several drawn and painted studies of the powerful croupes of different horses, positioned at different angles from the viewer. As Eitner noted in correspondence of May 2004 , this striking example, broadly conceived and executed in a lively, apparently spontaneous manner, seems to have been done from life. It may have been intended as a study for a watercolor or lithograph; the closest parallel among Géricault’s finished works is an elaborately detailed, large watercolor of three stabled horses at the trough, now in the Bonna collection. (AK)