The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Sheet of Sketches (recto and verso)

1819

Théodore Géricault

(French, 1791–1824)
France, 19th century
pen and brown ink on ivory laid paper
Sheet: 22.8 x 35 cm (9 x 13 3/4 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1964.28
Catalogue raisonné: Bazin 2109 and 2110
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Géricault died at a young age and had a professional career lasting only just over a decade.

Description

The inscription at the upper left of the sheet states that Géricault executed these studies at the spring of the Magdelaine, near the forest of Fontainebleau, which he visited in 1819. The male figures closely resemble the earlier studies he made while in Italy of peasants during horse races at annual Roman carnivals. Here, men struggle to keep control of their unseen animals during the moments before the race. The verso female figures, visible though the paper, derive directly from Pompeiian paintings of bacchanals, or revelers participating in festivals honoring Bacchus, the god of wine.
  • ?-?
    Possibly Pierre-Olivier Dubaut [1886–1968], Paris
    by 1948-before 1963
    Private collection, Paris
    by 1963
    (Galerie Marcel Guiot, Paris)
    1963-1964
    (Walter Goetz, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    1964-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cocteau, Jean. Danse et divertissements. Exh. cat. Paris: Galerie Charpentier, 1948. Mentioned: no. 109
    Géricault, cet inconnu [. . .] (1791–1824): Aquarelles, gouaches, dessins. Exh. cat. Paris: Galerie Bignou, 1950. Mentioned: no. 6
    Théodore Géricault. Exh. cat. Winterthur, Switz.: Kunstmuseum, 1953. Mentioned: p. 46, no. 167
    Gros, Géricault, Delacroix. Exh. cat. Paris: Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 1954. Mentioned: no. 42
    Aquarelles et dessins de Delacroix à Vlaminck. Exh. cat. Paris: Galerie Marcel Guiot, 1963. Mentioned: no. 23
    "Year in Review for 1964." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51, no. 10 (1964): 236-66. Mentioned: p. 265, no. 119; Reproduced: p. 246
    Bazin, Germain. Théodore Géricault: Étude critique, documents et catalogue raisonné.. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1994. Mentioned: vol. 6, p. 72, 178, nos. 2109 and 2110; Reproduced: vol. 6, p. 178
    Ives, Colta and Elizabeth E. Barker. Romanticism & the School of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection. Exh. cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 43n3
    Salsbury, Britany. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 84-87, no. 6
  • Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
    French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).
    Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992).
    The Vocabulary of Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 29-December 31, 1975).
    Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965).
    Aquarelles et dessins de Delacroix à Vlaminck. Galerie Marcel Guiot, Paris (April 1963).
    Gros, Géricault, Delacroix. Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (January 9–March 13, 1954).
    Théodore Géricault. Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (August 30–November 8, 1953).
    Géricault, cet inconnu [. . .] (1791–1824): Aquarelles, gouaches, dessins. Galerie Bignou, Paris (May 19–June 10, 1950).
    Danse et divertissements. Galerie Charpentier, Paris (1948–49).
  • {{cite web|title=Sheet of Sketches (recto and verso)|url=false|author=Théodore Géricault|year=1819|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.28