Essay On Theodore Gericault's Biography

“An Artist’s Biography”

Theodore Gericault was a significant figure in the art of French style paintings, which lead him to be a big proponent of Romanticism. Gericault was born in Rouen, France in 1791 into a wealthy bourgeois family and shortly thereafter he moved to Paris, France. Because of his great wealth, he was able to indulge his appetite for the arts as well as equestrianism because he loved horses as well. Furthermore, among the artist of his time he had less formal training, but this would not deter him.

Gericault was known for his painting Raft of the Medusa, but he initially started out painting sculptural paintings which were similar to the works of Michelangelo. While he was at school in Paris he became classmates with the likes of Delacroix, who was greatly influenced by Gericault’s works, but he himself went on to become of the greatest Romantic painters. After a brief extent in Italy (the result of an love affair), he came back to Paris in 1812 to paint a baroque painting or tense like painting and they were not uncommon in his day. Besides that, his first painting was brought to life by his passion and the love of horses, this painting is known as the “Officer of the Imperial Guard”.

This type of painting had a striking showing, which

shows an officer plunging on a horse into a smoky type atmosphere that was filled with a hot fire flame. Another aspect of this painting had to do with the synthesis of Venetian color, its Reuben like movements, as well as the lightning recalling Caravaggio. This way of painting was an expression of the artist’s own passionate temperament, which it eventually found its way into a salon that put this artwork on display.

Shortly after that, Gericault enlisted into the Bourbon Musketeers, who were cavalry officers that were responsible for the restoration of the French royal house.

It would not be until 1819 that he would paint three of his most beautiful masterpieces, one being the Raft of the Medusa (1819, Louvre). This type of painting showed his more realistic approach, spending weeks in morgues and hospitals studying both the dead and the dying. This piece of art showed political overtones showed Gericault’s romantic and humanitarian side, as well as the anger he had toward his government and as a result the French government disapproved of his paintings and shortly afterwards he left for

England.
It was in England that his true potential for being a legitimate artist’s was recognized and while him was there Gericault underwent a radical change. In 1817, while still in England, he was one of the first artist to come up with the process called lithography, which is basically painting on a smooth stone with a greasy or oily substance. The plates that were made as a result of this process, produced over thirteen of them, which showed how the poor lived during these times.
These type of engravings helped to inspire genre paintings by the different English artist’s, but did display any genuine sentiments like others’. While he was in England for about three years, he painted the most important work of his life, it was called The Epsom Derby (1821, Louvre). It was shortly after painted this picture that he returned to his first love, the horses. It was the gracious movements that the horses made, such as the galloping flat, which gave the feeling of speed.

The English sporting painters may have given the idea to Gericault and none of this idea could be found in the French art at that time. Besides his love for and of horses, he was also known for his paintings of those with psychotic conditions such as kleptomania and delusions of grandeur. For example, there was the painting for Dr. Georget, who at the time was considered a pioneer in the field of psychiatry, this is how Gericault was able to paint the portraits of these people.
Supposedly Gericault did this as a favor for him because of his bouts with depression, but was not determined. Gericault did a series of about ten of these canvas painting’s, but only five of them currently exist and one of those is The Mad Assassin (1822). What made these paintings so unique was that he portrayed the abnormal mental state of these people, instead of making it a subject of laughter. Of all of the 19th century paintings by any artist, this one remains as the most noticeable of them all.
In 1822 he eventually returned to France and during his return he rarely painted, mostly due because of his love of horses. The only real painting of any significance that he did was called The Lime Kiln, which he did in 1823. Due to several equestrian types of accidents, coupled with the fact that he was unwilling to take care of himself and because of this, it would lead him to his death. But right before his passing he stated this, "If only I had painted five pictures: but I have done nothing, absolutely nothing." (Gericault, 2014). All in all, it now has been suggested by his critics that he was the pioneer of modern art, especially one that embraced the new Realism. If Delacroix and Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) did not realize that, then they would in all likelihood have struggled to gain fame or notoriety.