- 682
Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault
Description
- Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault
- Recto: two studies for cupid on a dolphin and a separate study of his head;Verso: sketches for the Rape of the Sabines, Venus and Cupid and other mythological subjects
Pen and brown ink (recto and verso) over black chalk (recto)
Provenance
With Christopher Powney, London (Early drawings, 1968, no. 34);
Claude Aubry;
Private Collection
Literature
L. Eitner, Géricault. His Lilfe and Work, London 1983, pp.104-5, fig 91 (verso);
G. Bazin, Théodore Géricault, Etude Critique, Documents et Catalogue raisonné, Tome II: Période de Formation, Paris 1987, pp. 317, 492-3, no. 492, reproduced (verso); Tome IV: Le Voyage en Italie, Paris 1990, pp. 27, 166, no. 1273, reproduced (recto)
Catalogue Note
Neither the elaborate study on the recto of this sheet nor the various more rapid sketches on the verso can be related to any finished work by the artist, but they are characteristic of Géricault's great interest in mythological subejcts, and in the case of the verso in scenes of abduction, themes that particularly preoccupied him circa 1816-17, during his period in Rome.