Théodore Géricault

With Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, by 2000;
Private Collection

London, Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, Nineteenth Century French Drawings and some Sculpture, exhib. cat., 2000, no. 13, reproduced

Window mounted. There is some very slight discoloration to the sheet and minor areas of surface dirt in places. Otherwise in very good condition with the medium fresh throughout. Sold in a giltwood frame.
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In 1820-21 Géricault spent eighteen months working in England while his epic painting, The Raft of the Medusa, was exhibited in London.  As a man with an obsessive passion for horses, this time afforded him the opportunity to indulge in the very English tradition of equestrian painting and the present watercolour is an elegant example of his interpretation of this subject.

Closely comparable to a number of similar equestrian watercolours executed by Gericault during his English sojourn¹ the present work is a quintessential example from this period, tempering the inherent formality of the horse and rider’s pose with playful details such as the breath steaming out from the horse’s mouth and nostrils.  While the watercolor itself is unequivocally from the artist's English period, the alternative head study in the upper right corner is a wonderful addition to the work, in which the horse’s somewhat crazed expression is more reminiscent of Géricault’s equine creations from earlier in his career, when one would expect to see the animals caught up in the heat of battle rather than out on an early morning trot.

From a photograph, Philippe Grunchec has kindly confirmed the attribution.

¹ G. Bazin, Théodore Géricault: étude critique, documents et catalogue raisonné, vol. VII, Paris 1987, nos. 2246, 2248, 2253-2257 and 2260.