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Sheet of Sketches (verso)

Théodore Géricault

1819

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Romanticism Early 19th Century

Dominant colour

Sheet of Sketches (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 a sheet of quick pencil sketches: men wrestling horses, women in loose robes, a few scribbled heads. Géricault drew these outdoors, near a spring in the Fontainebleau forest. The men look like the ones he studied in Italy—peasants at horse races, muscles straining before the race starts. The women’s shapes show through from the other side of the paper, copied from ancient Roman wall paintings he saw in Pompeii. Look up more of his work under Théodore Géricault (French, 1791–1824).

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.