Théodore Géricault from Private Collections

22 . Boar Attacked by Dogs

c. 1821 – 23 Graphite and wash on paper 7 ⅝ x 10 inches ( 19 . 4 x 25 . 4 cm) Signed lower left

provenance (Possibly) sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 4 – 5 , 1927 [as Sanglier faisant tête , crayon et encre de Chine, signé, no. 201 de la vente Madame de X**, per Bazin]; W. M. Brady & Co.

l i terature Clément 1879 ( 1974 ), no. 17 ; Bazin, vol. VII, no. 770 (lithograph by Boulanger illus.).

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

This drawing was previously known only through the reproductive lithograph made by the Romantic painter and illustrator Louis Boulanger, as catalogued by Clément and reproduced by Bazin. A work dating from the end of the artist’s career, it is comparable to several studies and small paintings of animals hunting cited in Bazin (VII, nos. 768 ff.) These works give compelling form to the hostile energies unleashed in animal battle and have an intensity which which sets them apart from the refined depictions of sporting subjects that occupied much of Géricault’s time in England. An anatomically precise pencil study of a boar’s head and hoofs, now in the Musée Condé, appears to be related to this arresting, beautifully executed wash (fig. 22 ). (AK)

Fig. 22 Boar Head and Hoofs , Musée Condé (DE 313 )