1816
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Man Clutching a Horse in Water, after Poussin's "Deluge" (recto); Compositional Study? (possibly for "Poussin's Deluge") (verso) is a 1816 by Théodore Géricault, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A man grips a horse’s mane as waves swallow them both. The paper is small, but the fear feels huge. Géricault copied this scene from an old painting by Poussin. He wasn’t just practicing—he was learning how to draw strong, simple lines that tell a story. The dark washes make the water look heavy and real. To see how Poussin first painted this flood, look up *The Cleveland Museum of Art*.
Géricault's drawing of a man clutching the mane of a horse as they struggle together to stay afloat is a direct copy of a detail from one of Nicolas Poussin's (1594-1665) most celebrated paintings, The Deluge, or Winter (see photo). Small in scale but monumental in feeling, the sheet exemplifies the artist's "antique manner" of drawing, which he began to develop around 1815. This style, with its heavy contour lines and broad washes, developed in tandem with Géricault's renewed interest in copying works of art from the past, such as prints after ancient sculpture and works by Raphael…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (French: ; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer.
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