Sheet of Sketches (recto and verso)

1819

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Sheet of Sketches (recto and verso) is a 1819 by Théodore Géricault, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Théodore Géricault
When & what style?: 1819 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see two sides of the same sheet: quick pencil drawings of men wrestling horses on one side, women in loose robes on the back. Géricault drew these outside, near a spring in the Fontainebleau forest. The men look like studies he did in Italy—same tense bodies, same struggle. The women on the back are faint, almost ghostly, copied from old Roman wall paintings. Look up more drawings from The Cleveland Museum of Art to see how artists practice.

The story of this work

Overview

The inscription at the upper left of the sheet states that Géricault executed these studies at the spring of the Magdelaine, near the forest of Fontainebleau, which he visited in 1819. The male figures closely resemble the earlier studies he made while in Italy of peasants during horse races at annual Roman carnivals. Here, men struggle to keep control of their unseen animals during the moments before the race. The verso female figures, visible though the paper, derive directly from Pompeiian paintings of bacchanals, or revelers participating in festivals honoring Bacchus, the god of wine.