Théodore Géricault

François Martial Marcille (acquired by 1845)
Camille Marcille (son of the above, acquired by 1850)
Eudoxe Marcille (a gift from the above, his brother, on 30th January 1850)
P. Chevrier-Marcille (acquired by 1924)
Private Collection
Sale: Binoche, Paris, 25th November 1997, lot 7
Purchased at the above sale by the late owner

Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Dessins de l'Ecole moderne, 1884, no. 325
Paris, Centennale de l'art français, 1889, no. 270
Paris, Hotel Jean Charpentier, Exposition d'Œuvres de Géricault, 1924, no. 77
New York, San Diego, Houston, Master Drawings, 1985-86, no. 43, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Grand Palais, Géricault, 1991-92, no. 92, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz,  Linie, Licht und Schatten. Meisterzeichnungen und Skulpturen der Sammlung Jan und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 1999, no. 72, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, The Timeless Eye. Master Drawings from the Jan and Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski Collection, 1999, no. 85, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Miradas sin Tiempo. Dibujos, Pinturas y Esculturas de la Coleccion Jan y Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2000, no. 100, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, La Passion du Dessin. Collection Jan et Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2002, no. 90, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Vienna, Albertina, Goya bis Picasso. Meisterwerke der Sammlung Jan Krugier und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2005, no. 15, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Das Ewige Auge - Von Rembrandt bis Picasso. Meisterwerke der Sammlung Jan Krugier und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2007, no. 83, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Charles Blanc, Histoire des peintres français au XIXe siècle, Paris, 1845, vol. I, p. 440
Charles Clément, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, March 1867, p. 248
Charles Clément, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, October 1867, p. 362, catalogued no. 74 (as Marche de Silène)
Charles Clément, Géricault, étude biographique et critique avec le catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre du maître, Paris, 1868 & 1879, pp. 104, 218, 344, catalogued no. 81 (as Marche de Silène)
Philippe de Chennevieres, 'Exposition rétrospective des dessins, 1789 à 1889', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, August 1889, p. 137
Henry de Chennevieres, 'Silhouettes de collectionneurs. M. Eudoxe Marcille', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, October 1890, illustrated p. 309
Leon Rosenthal, La peinture romantique, Paris, 1900, pp. 139-140, note 4, 142
Leon Rosenthal, 'L'exposition du centenaire de Géricault', in L'Amour de l'art, June 1924, p. 204
Klaus Berger & Diane Chalmers Johnson, 'Art as confrontation: the Black Man in the Work of Géricault', in The Massachusetts Review, Spring 1969, illustrated p. 44, fig. 26
Lorenz Eitner, Charles Clément: Géricault. Réimpression de l'édition définitive de 1879, Paris, 1973, catalogued p. 464, no. 81
Lorenz Eitner, 'Géricault's "Black Standard Bearer"', in The Stanford Museum, 1973, vol. II, pp. 3 & 9, n. 2
Lorenz Eitner, Géricault, His Life and Work, London, 1983, mentioned p. 335, nn. 23 & 28
Germain Bazin, Théodore Géricault, Etude critique, Documents et Catalogue Raisonné, vol. IV, Le Voyage en Italie, Paris, 1990, no. 1254, mentioned p. 27, catalogued and illustrated p. 159 (titled La Marche de Silène)
Wheelock Whitney, Gericault in Italy, London, 1997, catalogued, discussed & illustrated in colour pp. 176-177

Executed on wove paper. Both sides of the sheet are visible in the present frame, the extreme edges of the recto visible and attached to the mount. There is a tiny hole in the sheet just below the left wrist of the trumpeting figure behind Silenus, and the sheet has yellowed slightly over time. On the verso, the recto composition is faintly visible and there is some scattered tiny spotting, and a small circa 1cm stain just below the centre. This work is in good condition. Held in a decorative gilt frame with a light beige mount, under glass. The recto is visible through a layer of perspex. The old backboard of this work, bearing labels and inscriptions relating to the Marcille collection, has been removed and will be sold with the work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work is one of some twenty-five highly finished drawings featuring nymphs and centaurs that Géricault completed in Rome. Describing the group Lorenz Eitner writes as follows: 

'Drawn on dark-toned paper, washed with ink, sparingly touched with watercolour, and highlighted with bold strokes of white gouache, they are in effect monochromatic paintings on paper. Nothing quite like them is to be found in Gericault's earlier work in which drawings had always served as working studies or as exercises. Their closest antecendents are the dramatic compositions in the 'antique manner' of 1815-16, from which they are evidently descended. But those earlier, rougher drawings were made for the privacy of sketch books; they differed in style, technique, degree of finish, and, to all appearances, in purpose... Though the themes are still mainly erotic, as in the earlier drawings, the mood has shifted into an entirely different key: Arcadian serenity now replaces the former violence. The new subjects - an Ancient Sacrifice, Leda and the Swan, the Triumphal Procession of Silenus [the present work], a Centaur Carrying off a Woman, Satyr and Nymph - are more conventional than those of the earlier darker fantasies. The spirit that animates these images of pagan revelry, love and pursuit is playfully exuberant...

... a current of sensuous excitement runs through them all. Voluptuous assaults, more in the nature of dance than rape, enlace the bodies in graceful arabesques. Aggressive males, half-human or wholly animal - shaggy satyr, centaur, bull and swan - act out their passions; the pliant or resisting nymphs, entirely human in their nakedness, easily dominate the melée. ...the change in tone and style that is apparent in his Roman mythologies surely reflects a brightened outlook and return to cheerfulness... If it were not for the protestations in his letters, one might think, looking at these drawings, that in the Roman winter of 1817 Géricault was happy.' (Eitner, 1982, p. 104)   

A study for the present work in black chalk is in the collection of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris (Bazin, vol. IV, no. 1252). A lithograph also exists (Bazin, vol. IV, no. 1254A), and a related pen and ink is in a private collection (Bazin, vol. VI, no. 1256).

A very similar version of the same subject, medium and size, is in the collection of the Musée des Beaux Arts, Orléans (Bazin, vol. IV, no. 1255).