6o The Giaour
Watercolor and graphite (recto); H: 21. i cm (8^5 /ióin.); W:
- 8 cm (9^3 /sin.)
86.GC.6y8 (SEE PLATE 9)
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) inscribed gericault
in brown ink, le giaour in graphite.
PROVENANCE: A. M. de la Cressonnière, Lausanne;
Hans E. Bühler, Winterthur (sale, Christie's, London,
November 15, 1985, lot 58); art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Theodore Gericault, Kunstmuseum, Win-
terthur, August-November 1953, no. 209 (catalogue by
P. Dubaut and G. Jedlicka); Gericault: Romantic Paintings
and Drawings, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Jan-
uary-March 1989, no. 64 (catalogue by L. Eitner and S.
Nash); Gericault, Grand Palais, Paris, October i99i-Jan-
uary 1992, no. 286 (catalogue entry by S. Laveissière).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Clément, Gericault: Etude biogra-
phique et critique (Paris, 1879), pp. 432-33, no. 171 bis\ P.
Dubaut and P. Nathan, Sammlung Hans E. Bühler: Geri-
cault 1791-1824, Gemdlde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen (Win-
terthur, 1956), no. 62; L. Eitner, "Géricault's La tempête,"
Museum Studies 2 (1967), pp. 10-12; idem, Gericault Sup-
plement (Paris, 1973), p. 472; F. Bergot, Gericault: Tout
l'oeuvre gravé et pièces en rapport, exh. cat. (Musée des
Beaux-Arts, Rouen, 1981), p. 86, under no. 69; P. Grun-
chec, Gericault: Dessins et aquarelles de chevaux (Lausanne,
1982), pp. 138-39; L. Eitner, Gericault: His Life and Work
(London, 1983), pp. 258, 260-62; 359, n. ni; P. Grun-
chec, Master Drawings by Gericault, exh. cat. (Pierpont
Morgan Library, New York, San Diego Museum of Art,
and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1985), p. 161, under
no. 86; H. Lu thy, "Review of Master Drawings by Geri-
cault," Master Drawings 23-24, no. 4 (Winter 1986), p.
566.
THIS FAMOUS WATERCOLOR WAS INSPIRED BY BYRON's
poem of the same name, published in 1813. It directly
evokes the passage of the poem with specificity of mood
and gesture:His brow was bent, his eye was glazed;
He raised his arm, and fiercely raised,
And sternly shook his hand on high,
As doubting to return or fly...It is generally agreed that the watercolor was made in
preparation for a lithograph. In 1820 Gericault first of-
fered it for an annual album published by a Mme Del-
pech, but it was rejected and only published in 1823 by
the Gilhaut brothers. There are a number of minor dif-
ferences between watercolor and lithograph, but they are
not of great consequence, though the powerful, affecting
quality of the sky and night light is largely lost in the
print. A rapid pencil sketch for the Giaour, made early in
its evolution, is in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris (Ar-
mand-Valton Bequest, 1908, inv. 989). There is a faint
sketch of the giaour on the verso of the Getty sheet.150 FRENCH SCHOOL • GERICAULT