Gericault, Theodore

The Raft of the Medusa: Gericault, Art, and Race (Art & Design)

In this dramatic reexamination of one of the most influential paintings of the Romantic era, Albert Alhadeff shows how Géricault’s seminal canvas was a reflection of early abolitionist sentiment, as well as one of the first uses, in European art, of a black figure to symbolize the hopes of all humanity.

Based on a controversial and politically charged event, The Raft of the Medusa is Théodore Géricault’s most ambitious work. The painting depicts the wreck of a French government ship off the West African coast, and its passengers’ desperate struggle to survive. Since its unveiling in 1819, this masterpiece has been decried and admired for its unrelenting realism and for its ground-breaking portrayal of the ship’s survivors. Here Alhadeff revises the standard reading of The Raft as a realistic depiction of a tragic event, highlighting instead the ambiguities Gericault has woven into the scene. These ambivalences, he argues, reveal as much about Gericault's artistic brilliance as they do about the advent of abolitionism in the turbulent society in which he lived. Elegantly written and illustrated with details from the painting as well as rarely seen comparative illustrations, this is a provocative new look at a work which remains central to the history of modernity in art.

Imagined Battles: Reflections of War in European Art

For thousands of years, art has interpreted the experience of war—its methods, human costs, and moral ambiguities—and has offered historians a wealth of testimony that is only beginning to be systematically explored. In this wide-ranging study, Peter Paret discusses forty-seven paintings and prints as complex documents of war in Europe since the Renaissance and as examples of the artist's use of war as a metaphor for the human condition.

The images include works by such major artists as Uccello, Géricault, and Dix as well as academic history paintings and popular prints. By setting each in its historical environment and analyzing it from the perspective of the wars of its time, illuminates the place of war in Western consciousness and expands our understanding of works that are too often approached with little concern for the reality they depict or symbolically transform. Perhaps the most significant of the themes he traces over five centuries is the gradual change from the prince or general to the common soldier and civilian victim as central figures in the interpretation of war in art.

Gericault

This new monograph explores the life and works of Theodore Gericault (1791-1824), whose compelling career and legacy continue to captivate audiences, artists, and critics alike. In her comprehensive survey, Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer pays tribute to established Gericault scholarship while reassessing the career of an artist too easily miscast as the archetypal 'tortured soul' of art-historical Romantic mythology. She examines Gericault's career in the context of France under the Restauration, during which Louis XVIII s controversial rule resulted in vigorous popular debate over civic structures, the political process, and even aesthetic categories. Gericault immersed himself in these polemics, taking an intense interest in the fait divers, or 'daily happenings', of his time. The author explores his interest in medical and psychiatric science (as exemplified by a series of portraits of mental patients), his empathy for the poor and dispossessed (the subject of numerous lithographs), and the entrepreneurial spirit that led him to exhibit his epic canvas, the Raft of the Medusa, in London as a commercial venture. Gericault is presented as an artist committed to capturing contemporary life with creative integrity and dramatic verve.



Born into a provincial middle-class family, Géricault used an inheritance from his mother's death to pursue his artistic vocation, training first under Vernet and Guerin before spending four years on his own course of independent study. His choice of Renaissance and Baroque masters such as Titian, Caravaggio, and Rubens as models shaped his aesthetic agenda and encouraged him to break away from the Neoclassicism favored by his early tutors. Further influenced by a vogue for modern, military subjects, Gericault presented himself at the 1812 Salon with the dashing Charging Chasseur, a critical success that the artist was unable to repeat when he presented again at the Salon three years later. A period of stylistic experimentation followed: Gericault traveled to Rome to absorb classical examples and strove to develop his 'grand' style. The effort spent in Rome served Gericault well when he returned to France and began work on the Raft of the Medusa, a politically charged project that absorbed the painter in obsessive study for more than a year. In her analysis of this enduring image, Athanassoglou-Kallmyer addresses the perception of Gericault as a tragic figure, drawn by temperament to the depiction of morbid and macabre themes, discussing this painting among others in the context of Romantic taste for the 'Gothic' and its political and artistic implications.



Gericault suffered a nervous breakdown in 1819, following the Medusa s disappointing reception at the Salon, and retreated to England, where he abandoned grand projects in favor of lighter, more fashionable work. It was not until 1823, on his deathbed, that Gericault's interest in large-scale work was revived and he produced a wealth of sketches for future compositions. These plans, full of energy and drama, serve to suggest why this immensely talented artist has continued to influence artists from the time of his death to the present.

Gericault (Louvre conferences et colloques)

French Art, Classic and Contemporary Painting and Sculpture

I. Classic Painting

II. Romantic Painting

III. Realistic Painting

IV. Classic Sculpture

V. Academic Sculpture

VI. The New Movement in Sculpture

Gericault in Italy

Whitney provides the most detailed account to date of the biographical circumstances of G_ricault`s stay in Italy, paying particular attention to the artistic milieu in which the artist found himself in Rome. This beautiful book studies the work produced by Gricault during this year and assesses the importance of the trip for the rest of his career.

Gericault's Graphic Work: Catalogue Raisonne

Nineteenth - and Twentieth-Century European Drawings and Sculpture From the Schlossberg Collection - High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA - June 11 - September 11, 1994 (Steinlen, Modigliani, Gericault, Theodule Ribot, and others)

Gericault: L'invention du reel (Peinture)

Master Drawings by Gericault