Théodore Géricault

With Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox Ltd, London, by 1990;
Private Collection, United Kingdom

London, Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, 19^th Century French Drawings, 1990

W. Whitney, Géricault in Italy, New Haven and London 1997, no. 205, reproduced and discussed on p. 160

Hinge mounted to a piece of card. There is some very minor discoloration to the four edges of the sheet, most probably as a result of an old mount. Otherwise in good condition with the medium fresh and vibrant throughout. Sold in a giltwood frame.
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This highly energetic sheet of seven studies for Leda and the Swan was created by Géricault in preparation for his exquisite portrayal of the same subject (Fig. 1), dated to 1816-17 and now in the Musée du Louvre.  The painting was created by the artist during his stay in Rome, the moment in Gericault’s career when he began to move away from the predominantly military subjects that had, until this point, dominated his oeuvre.  This change came about, in part, due to his exposure to the work of Michelangelo, whose influence can, not surprisingly, first be detected in the young Géricault’s work from his time in Rome.  Indeed, this influence is no more keenly felt than when one looks at Géricault’s final composition for his Leda in the Louvre, in which he unashamedly mirrors the pose of Michelangelo’s Adam from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Drawings of a mythological, erotic and broadly classical theme seem to have streamed from the young Gericault during his time in the Eternal City, with The Idyll ¹ and Satyr and Nymph ² as well as two versions of the Procession of Silenus ³ just a few examples of works from this period that clearly illustrate the effects of an earlier influence on the artist.  It is into this celebrated corpus of drawings, described by Whitney as 'among the undisputed glories of his brief career', that the present work must, undoubtedly, be placed.

One of seven known preparatory drawings in pen and brown ink for Leda and the Swan, four of which are now housed in the collection of the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris and another in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon, the present work is by far the largest and most impressive of this group.  While all of these other preparatory drawings are comprised of a single study, the present sheet features seven, all of which are carefully considered and show Gericault’s creative mind at its most active as he explored a number of the compositional options available to him before settling on Leda’s final pose.

¹ Whitney, op. cit., no. 197, reproduced,

² Ibid., no. 196, reproduced

³ Ibid., nos. 218-219, both reproduced