1818
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Return from Russia is a 1818 by Théodore Géricault, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a tired soldier trudging through snow, his horse following behind. This print is one of the first French lithographs to use two colors—black for the lines and ochre for the shadows. Géricault even brushed white watercolor on the bottom to make the snow look real. It feels like a quick sketch, but it’s carefully planned. Look up how lithographs work—they’re like giant crayon drawings on stone.
Géricault was an accomplished lithographer who realized the potential of the medium. Two stones were used to print this image—one for the design printed in black and the other to create the broad areas of tone printed in ochre. This is one of the earliest French lithographs in which a second color is somewhat integrated into the image instead of just being used for the overall background. Géricault added white watercolor to indicate snow on the lower portion of the scene. Unlike other artists who glorified the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), Gericault portrayed a realistic image of the misery…
This print was created at a time when Théodore Géricault was focusing on military subjects in his prints, drawings, and paintings.
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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