A Horse-Drawn Wagon, Title Page for Various Subjects Drawn from Life and on Stone (The English Suite)
Medium
Bi-fold portfolio cover with pen-lithographed title page in black on buff wove paper
Dimensions
37.6 × 47.6 cm (14 13/16 × 18 3/4 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
121990
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Step into the dynamic world of early 19th-century lithography with Théodore Géricault's *A Horse-Drawn Wagon, Title Page for Various Subjects Drawn from Life and on Stone (The English Suite)*, created in 1821 This bi-fold portfolio cover, featuring a pen-lithographed page in stark black on buff wove paper (37.6 × 47.6 cm), captures a rugged horse-drawn wagon in motion—a nod to everyday English life. Géricault, the French Romantic master behind the dramatic *Raft of the Medusa* (1819), produced this as the gateway to his innovative *English Suite*, a series of 10 lithographs sketched directly from observation during his 1820–21 stay in London. Lithography, a groundbreaking technique invented just decades earlier, allowed Géricault to draw fluidly on stone with pen and greasy ink, translating his energetic lines into multiple prints with remarkable fidelity. As a pioneer, he elevated the medium from mere reproduction to expressive art, blending Romantic vitality—think powerful horses and raw realism—with precise draftsmanship. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings Department, this work showcases his fascination with motion and the working world, bridging fine art and popular imagery. Fun fact: Géricault's English sojourn fueled his passion for horses and urban scenes, influencing later Realists. Gaze at this title page, and you'll feel the rumble of wagon wheels echoing Romanticism's embrace of life's unpolished energy.
About the Artist
Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault · 1791–1824
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) was born into a prosperous bourgeois family in Rouen, France, the son of a lawyer who managed the family tobacco business. After moving to Paris around 1797, his artistic talent emerged early, nurtured in a circle that included his maternal uncle Jean-Baptiste Caruel and art dealer Jean-Louis Laneuville. Géricault began formal training in 1808 under ...