Master Paintings

Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault

A rooster, three chickens, and a guinea pig

Auction Closed

May 25, 03:13 PM GMT

Estimate

60,000 - 80,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault

1791 - 1824

A rooster, three chickens, and a guinea pig

oil on paper, laid on canvas

canvas: 25¼ by 21 in..; 64.1 by 53.3 cm.

framed: 33¾ by 29½ in.; 85.7 by 75 cm.

Lord Henry Seymour (1805 - 1859);
His deceased sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 13 - 14 February 1860, lot 93;
Ennemond Blanc;
By whom sold, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 7 April 1862, lot 26;
With Thiébault-Sisson;
By whom sold, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 22 November 1907, lot 55;
Dr. L. Voillemot, by 1924;
Col. Offenstadt;
Hans E. Bühler, by 1956;
His collection sale, London, Christie's, 15 November 1985, lot 28;
With Salander O'Reilly, New York;
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 25 October 2005, lot 54;
Thereafter acquired by the present owner.

C. Clément, Géricault: Étude Biographique et Critique, 3rd ed., Paris 1879, p. 295, cat. no. 79;
D. Aimé-Azam, Mazeppa: Géricault et son temps, Paris 1956, pp. 113, 341;
P. Dubault and P. Nathan, Géricault 1791 - 1824: Sammlung Hans E. Bühler, Winterthur 1956, cat. no. 25;
L. Eitner, Géricault: An Album of Sketches in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago 1969, p. 35;
L. Eitner, Géricault: Étude Biographique et Critique, rev. ed., Paris 1973, p. 452, cat. no. 79;
P. Crunchec, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Géricault, Paris 1978, p. 99, cat. no. 82;
G. Bazin, Théodore Géricault: Étude critique, documents, et catalogue raisonné, Paris 1989, vol. III, pp. 154-55, cat. no. 744.

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Exposition d'oeuvre de Géricault, 24 April - 16 May 1924, no. 228;
Winterthur, Switzerland, Kunstmuseum, Théodore Géricault, 1791 - 1824, 30 August - 8 November 1953, no. 52;
Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, De Géricault à Matisse: chefs-d'oeuvre français de collections suisses, March - May 1959, no. 63;
New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., Théodore Géricault, 1987, no. 15;
Kamakura, Museum of Modern Art; Kyoto, Museum of Modern Art; Fukuoka, Museum of Fine Arts, Géricault, 1987 - 1988, no. P-8;
New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., XIX Century Selections, 1988, no. 5;
New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., 19th-Century European Paintings, 2003, no. 23.

This intimate sketch of barnyard animals was created in the quiet period of Géricault's career bookended by his stunning Charging Chasseur at the Salon of 1812¹ and his masterpiece, The Raft of the Medusa from 1819.² After 1814, portraits of Napoleon and his cavalrymen fell out of favor, and Géricault made a trip to Italy in 1816, followed by time spent on his uncle's farm near Versailles. He had a love of animal subjects that was nurtured by his study of Michelangelo's horses in Italy, and here he turned his attention to smaller animals and their personalities.

1. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010059198

2. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010059199