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Essay on The Works of Theodore Gericault
Jean-Louis Andre Theodore Gericault was born in a middle class family in Rouen in 1791. His father worked in Paris and Gericault, an average student, attended the imperial lyceum. In 1808, he left the lyceum and, using the fortune he received from his mother, he dedicated himself to painting. In 1808 he entered the studio of Charles Vernet, from which, in 1810, he passed to that of Guérin, whom he drove to despair by his passion for Rubens, and by the unorthodox manner in which he persisted in interpreting nature.
As he studied with the French painters Carle Vernet and Pierre Guérin, he also traveled to Italy to study from 1816 to 1817. He was greatly influenced by the work of Michelangelo and other Italian Renaissance painters, as well as that of the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens. Early in his career, Géricault's paintings began to exhibit qualities that set him apart from such neoclassical French painters as Jacques-Louis David. Géricault soon became the acknowledged leader of the French romantics. His Charging Chasseur (1812, Musée du Louvre, Paris) and Wounded Cuirassier (1814, Musée du Louvre) display violent action, bold design, and dramatic color, and evoke powerful emotion. These characteristics appeared in heightened form in his immense and overpowering canvas Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819, Musée du Louvre), showing the dying survivors of a contemporary shipwreck. The painting's disturbing combination of idealized figures and realistically depicted agony, as well as its gigantic size and graphic detail, aroused a storm of controversy between neoclassical and romantic artists. Its depiction of a politically volatile scandal (the wreck was due to government mismanagement) also caused controversy.
Being interested in horses, he entered into the studio of a well-known horse painter, Carle Vernet, and then into the studio of Pierre Guerin. In 1816 he escaped to Italy, fleeing the embarrassment of an affair. While there, he visited Florence and Rome. In 1817, he returned to Paris.....
