I Dream of Her in the Crashing Waves
Medium
Lithograph; first state of two
Dimensions
sheet: 16 x 11 7/8 in. (40.7 x 30.2 cm) plate: 13 7/16 x 10 15/16 in. (34.2 x 27.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
Accession Number
29.107.126
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the turbulent world of early 19th-century Romantic, Théodore Géricault's *I Dream of Her in Crashing Waves* (8) captures the era's passion for emotion and drama. This lithograph, printed by Godefroy Engel in its rare first state of two, depicts a contemplative male figure amid themes of swords and introspection, evoking a dreamlike longing set against crashing waves. Géricault, a French master of the Romantic movement—best known for his monumental *Raft of the Medusa the following year—pioneered lithography's expressive potential, using its greasy crayon technique to achieve bold contrasts ...
About the Artist
Théodore Gericault|Godefroy Engelmann · 1791–1824
Théodore Géricault, born Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault on September 26, 1791, in Rouen, France, into a prosperous family—his father a lawyer turned tobacco merchant and his mother from a line of growers—moved to Paris around 1797. Displaying early artistic promise, recognized by painter Jean-Louis Laneuville, he began formal training in 1808 under Carle Vernet, mastering English sporting art...