Fighting Horses
c. 1820
Théodore Géricault
Théodore Géricault (French, 1791–1824)
Drawings
Fighting Horses, c. 1820. Théodore Géricault (French, 1791–1824). Watercolor over graphite; sheet: 21.7 x 29.4 cm (8 9/16 x 11 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1929.13 Théodore Géricault turned away from traditional subjects such as mythology and the Bible in favor of modernity, emotion, and drama. He was fascinated by the power and physical beauty of horses and depicted them often. Géricault himself was an avid rider and his paintings and drawings on this theme are characterized by vigor and movement. In this watercolor, he focused on a conflict, in which a groom struggles to separate a pair of fighting horses—a scene that appeared only a few times throughout his many interpretations of similar subjects. A sketchbook, now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, shows that the artist carefully studied the animals, including the kicking white stallion at center, in graphite before beginning this finished work. Théodore Géricault began this work with sketches from life, which became a graphite underdrawing beneath the watercolors.
- Maker/Artist
- Géricault, Théodore
- Classification
- Drawing
- Formatted Medium
- watercolor over graphite
- Medium
- watercolor, over, graphite
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 21.7 x 29.4 cm (8 9/16 x 11 9/16 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: on old label (now removed), in brown ink: This drawing by Géricault was / the property of The Marquis of / Hertford & left to Sir Richard / Wallace, who in time bequethed / it to Sir John Murray Scott / Bart: / Purchased by Leggatt Bros at / the sale of Sir John Murray / Scott's Drawings etc, at 5 / Connaught Place Marble Arch. / Feb: 9th 1914.; on old label (now removed): across top, in graphite: 41 [circled] Dr. Bellingham Smith; down center, in brown ink: J. L. A. T. Géricault / Horses Fighting / Colles Marquess of Hertford / Sir Richard Wallace and / Sir John Murray Scott / Exhib. Burlington Fine Arts Club / 1922 . No 52. / Pictures drawings & Sculptures of French School / of the last 100 years.
- Departments
- Drawings
- Accession Number
- 1929.13
- Credit Line
- Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund
- Exhibitions
- French Art Since Eighteen Hundred, Drawings in the Classic and Romantic Tradition before 1830, Exhibition of Drawings from the Museum Collection Supplemented by Loans from Local Collections, The Work of Théodore Géricault and Honoré Daumier, Drawings from the Museum Collection, Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection, Drawings from the Museum Collection, French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections, Drawings from the Museum Collection, 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans, 19th-Century French Drawings, Watercolors by the Masters: Dürer to Cézanne, Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter, Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition, Italian and French Drawings, The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings, Nineteenth Century: 125 Master Drawings, The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings, Drawings, European Watercolors Through the 18th Century, Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands, French Drawings, The Artist and the Animal: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Animal Medical Center, Géricault, Brush Drawings, Goya, Gericault and Delacroix, Master Drawings by Géricault, Treasures on Paper, Gericault: Romantic Paintings and Drawings, Géricault, French Drawings from the Collection, Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, <em>Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture of the French School of the Last 100 Years</em>. Burlington Fine Arts Club, London (1922)., <em>Collection of Paintings, Porcelain, Bronzes, Decorative Furniture, and Other Works of Art Lent for Exhibition</em>. Bethnal Green Branch of the South Kensington Museum (June 1872).
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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