58 Horses and Riders '
Horses
v
Graphite; H: 21 cm (S'/iin.); W: 28 cm (n in.)
88.GD.4Ó
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at top right corner,
inscribed 30 in brown ink; (verso) inscribed 31 in brown
ink.
PROVENANCE: Baron Vitta, Paris; Hans E. Bühler, Win-
terthur (sale, Christie's, London, November 15, 1985 , lot
41); art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Théodore Gericault, Winterthur Kunst-
museum, August-November 1953, no. 136 (catalogue
by P. Dubaut and G. Jedlicka); Gericault, Grand Palais,
Paris, October I99i-January 1992, no. 38 (catalogue en-
try by S. Laveissière).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. Dubaut and P. Nathan, Sammlung
Hans E. Bühler: Gericault 1791-1824, Gemalde, Aquarelle,
Zeichnungen (Winterthur, 1956), nos. 36, 37; L. Eitner,
Gericault: An Album of Drawings in the Art Institute of Chi-
cago (Chicago, 1960), pp. 9; 47, n. 17 ; J. Wiercinska,
"Théodore Gericault et le Lander polonais du Musée Na-
tional de Varsovie, " Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie
8 (1967), pp. 83, 90-91; J. Thuillier and P. Grunchec,
L'opéra completa di Gericault (Milan, 1978), under no. 67;
P. Grunchec, Gericault: Dessins et aquarelles de chevaux
(Lausanne, 1982), p. 39; English éd. (New York, 1984),
p. 39; L. Eitner, Gericault: His Life and Work (London,
1983), pp. 43 -44; 327, n. 6;328,n. 13; G. Bazin, Théodore
Gericault: Etude critique, documents et catalogue raisonné, vol.
3 : La gloire de l'empire et la première restauration (Paris,
1989), p. 234, nos. 945, 946; C. Sells, "A Revised Dating
for Part of Gericault 's Chicago Album, " Master Drawings
27, no. 4 (Winter 1989), pp. 341-42, 350-51; 356, n. 3;
L. Eitner, "Review of Théodore Gericault. Etude critique,
documents, et catalogue raisonné by Germain Bazin," Bur-
lington Magazine 133, no. 1057 (April 1991), p. 257, n. 7.
THIS SHEET OF STUDIES IS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH
several in the album of drawings by Gericault in the Art
Institute of Chicago (inv. 1947.35, fols. 35 verso, 39
recto, 47 recto, verso) as well as to a study of a mounted
Polish officer on the recto of a sheet in a private collec-
tion, London (Eitner 1983, p. 47), and a related one in a
private collection, Paris (Grunchec 1982, pp. 38-39).
The sketch of the horseman at the top right of the recto
is also related to paintings of Polish horsemen, one in a
French private collection and another in the Muzeum
Narodowe, Warsaw (Thuillier and Grunchec 1978, nos.
67 , Ó7A). It is especially close to the latter—notably in the
pose of the horse—and has sometimes been regarded as
a preparatory study for it, probably with good reason
(Wiercinska 1967, p. 90). The bolder renderings of
horses on the verso find close parallels on other sheets of
studies by Gericault, as for example on folio 47 recto of
the Chicago album.
The Museum's drawing and the Chicago album and
related paintings have been dated to 1813-14 by Eitner
(1960, 1983), but this view has recently been challenged
by Sells (1989), who prefers a date after the artist's Italian
stay, that is, 1817-18. Although the evidence is not con-
clusive on either side, it does appear to favor slightly
Sells's revised dating.GERICAULT • FRENCH SCHOOL 145