Théodore Géricault: The Study of a Sketch

19^th century French art is a fascinating period to consider. The century takes paintings from the Mannerist Classicism of Jacques-Louis David at the end of the 18^th century to the Psychological Symbolist art around the fin-de-siecle. In the midst of this we find the artist Théodore Géricault whose Raft of Medusa in the Louvre has become a work of iconic status. Compared even with the Eugene Delacroix’s which hang opposite this monumental piece in a gallery in the Louvre, Gericault seems particularly skilled in heightening the drama of this work to unfathomable desperation. The humanity of The Massacre at Chios (painted by Eugene Delacroix in 1824) is lost slightly, but at the expense of some deeper level of expression.

It is possible to suggest that this ‘mystery’ is apparent even in Gericault’s earliest works. Prancing Grey Horse, a sketch in the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, is one such example of this. It is a sketch for An Officer of the Chasseurs Commanding a Charge painted in 1812 (also in the Louvre), which shows a lavishly dressed officer on the horse. The sketch omits the figure making the painting more about an analogy between the fierce power of the horse and the idea of human war, but in a way which defies conventions of symbolic iconographical language in paintings. The intrigue of this sketch lies in the depth and complexity connecting the style of painting and the subject matter which – at first glance – suggested some other-worldly, mythological story or creature; this is a very dark painting in terms of its themes, and not at all easy to decipher, either in terms of its physical representation, or the artists motives and ambitions.

Géricault was just 21 when he painted and submitted An Officer of the Chasseurs Commanding a Charge to the Salon in Paris; it is an ambitious work on a grand scale. At the time of painting it Géricault was a student of the artist Pierre-Narcisse Guérin’s, and as such was involved in a compositional programme devised by him. It is interesting to note that all the artists involved in this programme (who included Delacroix) were preoccupied with the sketch and its value, as a piece of art in itself. This is apparent in the fact that Gericault prepared for this work solely with oil sketches (of which Prancing Grey Horse is one) rather than preparatory drawings: a brave decision for such a grand work so early in his career.

 

At the time of painting this work, there was a change in fashion and techniques in painting which resulted in a move away from the heavily ordered delineation of the Neo-Classical French style toward one which was altogether more spontaneous, and it was perhaps this – along with his training from Guérin – that encouraged Géricault in the freedom of the application of paint in this sketch. Géricault paints with wild and loose brushstrokes, which heighten the drama of the work and delineates the untamed movement of the horse. It is around the tail and mane of the horse that we can most easily differentiate the individual brushstrokes, and it is through these parts of the horse that the motion of the scene is most effectively conveyed.

The wildness of the horse is also shown through the contortion of its body. The chest of the horse is side-ways on to the viewer, but the back legs face us more. This composition does not in any way feel posed or forced, rather this twist of the body acts to further describe the horses feral movement; it seems to show a struggle of forces even within the horse itself.

In this painting, it is the horse which is overtly the focus of everything. It appears luminous against the darkness of the rest of the work, which perhaps is what gives the work its’ mythical and fantastical – even nightmarish – themes. The horse seems to be surrounded by a gleam of light, like a halo of some sort, and because Géricault has positioned the creature surprisingly high up in the composition, we get the sense that it is not grounded in the worldly sphere, but represents some higher concept or truth.

It is possible that in this work, Géricault is drawing an analogy between the brutal forces of nature – as anthropomorphised in this creature – and the effects of human warfare. The armour on the horses back evokes themes of war and conflict, but it is in the colour and style of the painting that Géricault most obviously draws this comparison. The painting of the mane and tail is like a fire blazing, an idea that is echoed by the orange gleam behind the horses rearing chest, suggesting a fire burning somewhere in the distance. The painting is grounded in the earthy and deep browns of the foreground, whilst the green hues behind the horse seem to remind us of the oppressive atmosphere of the air around it. Perhaps more tenuously, the underside of the horse’s mane is painted with blue-green hues with touches of white, and seems to allude to the overwhelming and devastating force of a tidal wave. In this way, it is possible to suggest that Géricault sought to reference each of the four basic natural elements (earth, fire, wind and water), and uses these to liken the horse – and the human war in which the horse will fight – to the brutal and oppressive worldly forces of nature.

This idea of the horse being an analogy for worldly forces and concepts is reflected in Géricault’s painting techniques. The work is mostly smooth and highly finished, but again it is the figure of the horse which is the exception to this. The application of paint is much thicker and more dynamic on the horse, and therefore this part of the canvas does not shine in the varnish like the rest of the work. This appears as a shock of real tangible matter in the middle of the canvas. Also it seems that the artist is keen to tie the creature to the earthy surroundings in the work as the blue, green and brown hues of the background are echoed on the horses’ neck and tail.

The painting has quite a limited palette, but Gericault uses colours which contrast in an interesting way. The background is described through deep, warm browns and greens, which balance each other on alternate sides of the horse. Because the horse is painted with similar colours to the background, only with a luminous quality, we are aware of this creature in some way emerging from the background, out of the gloaming, which heightens the drama of the piece further. It is also interesting to note that a very few, small touches of the golden hue used for the horses armour is repeated in the far background on the right side of the painting. Is this possibly the suggestion of some sort of far off civilisation in this barren landscape?

Despite the horse acting as an analogy for the devastating violence of warfare and of nature, the painting of this creature still displays the sensitivity that Géricault often affords to the animals he paints. The subtle blending of colour and the impasto technique used for the horses head and face presents a gentleness about this animal which is reminiscent of Géricault’s Head of a Lion. This gentleness is at odds with the general ferocity of the image as a whole, but successfully expresses that this animal is not bad or evil, but simply immensely powerful. Perhaps in this Géricault is commenting on the horrifically dramatic consequences of war, despite the individual soldiers being good and gentle people.

This  work employs very interesting tensions between the idea of a fantastical and mythical creature, and the very worldly ideas of the brute force of nature. Géricault uses colour to ground the creature in the landscape, whilst also employing a luminous lighting effect and thicker impasto paint application on the horse to set it apart from this background. The painting effectively speaks of the drama of war and of natural forces, tying these together in the wild creature, which is also a tool for the civilised war. This animal is hugely powerful and set in this barren landscape displays a brutal force, and yet there is still a gentleness in the way Géricault paints it which perhaps allows empathetic emotion for the theme of warfare in this work.

Sources:

Bell, Julian, Mirror of the World: A New History of Art (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2007).

Boime, Albert, The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century (London: Phaidon Publishers Inc., 1971).

Crow, Thomas, ‘Classicism in Crisis: Gros to Delacroix’ in Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History, ed. Stephen F. Eisenman (London: Thames and Hudson, 3^rd edition, 2007).