Boxer Facing Right and Two Men Wrestling
1818/1819
Medium
Graphite, on cream laid paper, perimeter mounted on cream wove paper
Dimensions
22.5 × 28.3 cm (8 7/8 × 11 3/16 in.)
Classification
graphite
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
113307
Art Historical Context
In the bustling world of early 19th-century Paris, Théodore Géricault, a leading figure of French Romanticism, captured raw human energy in his drawing *Boxer Facing Right and Two Men Wrestling* (1818/1819). This graphite study on cream laid paper (22.5 × 28.3 cm) depicts a muscular boxer in profile alongside two entangled wrestlers, showcasing Géricault's fascination with the male nude in dynamic motion. Created during the same period as his monumental *Raft of the Medusa* (1818–19), it reflects his meticulous preparation for grand history paintings, where anatomical precision and dramatic te...
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 ...