General of the First Empire Giving his Cavalry Orders to Charge
Medium
Watercolor, with red chalk and graphite, on cream wove paper, laid down on cream board
Dimensions
53.5 × 45 cm (21 1/8 × 17 3/4 in.)
Classification
watercolor
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
111114
Art Historical Context
In the dynamic watercolor *General of the First Empire Giving Cavalry Orders to Charge*,odore Géricault captures the raw intensity of Napoleonic warfare. Created during the artist's short but brilliant career (1791–1824), this undated work evokes the First French Empire (1804–1815), a era of sweeping military campaigns under Napoleon Bonaparte. Géricault, a leading figure in French Romanticism, was drawn to themes of heroism, motion, and human drama, as seen in his iconic *Raft of the Med* (1818–19). Here, the commanding general mid-order embodies the Romantic ideal of the passionate leader ra...
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 ...