To celebrate the bicentenary of the death of Théodore Géricault, the renowned 19th-century painter and author of the famous Raft of the Medusa, the Museum of Romantic Life is offering a unique exhibition centered around an equally unique theme: the horse. A powerful and omnipresent motif in the artist's work, which unfolds before our eyes through a hundred works, from May 15 to September 15.
The horse as seen by Géricault
With Géricault's Horses, this institution in the 9th arrondissement offers us a new perspective on the romantic painter, through the various facets of the horse. Ancient horse, English horse, military horse, horse races, equestrian portraits, head portraits, hindquarters portraits... Public and private collections stand on the walls of the Museum of Romantic Life for a pictorial rediscovery of this animal, with about ten paintings and hundreds of drawings, ranging from simple sketches to masterful sheets.
Théodore Géricault, Cheval retenu par des esclaves, 1817. Rouen, musée des Beaux-Arts © GrandPalaisRmn / Philipp Bernard
The Equestrian World: A Life, A Passion...
Théophile Gautier, a French poet, said in 1848: "since the friezes of the Parthenon, where Phidias paraded his long cavalcades, no artist has captured the ideal of equine perfection like Géricault." And it must be said that the painter experienced, throughout his artistic career, a real passion for horses. His works explore equestrian anatomy, the expressiveness of horses, in youth and old age, in anger and tenderness, but also the role of horses in war, labor, hardship, and reproduction. To best understand Géricault's equestrian oeuvre, the exhibition chronologically follows the painter's life in a journey divided into 5 sections: the horse p.Politics, the sanctuary stable, Rome and the race of free horses, London with its dandies and its proletariat, until the end of life, the death of the horse.
Théodore Géricault, Cheval mort étendu sur la grève, 1821. Paris, private collection.
The Horses of Géricault
Museum of Romantic Life
16, Chaptal Street – 9th district
From May 15 to September 15, 2024
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