Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Gericault (1791–1824)
probably 1822 or 1823
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
18 5/8 x 15 1/8 in. (47.3 x 38.4 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Gift of Joanne Toor Cummings, by exchange, 1998
Accession Number
1998.84
Tags
Art Historical Context
This intimate oil-on-canvas portrait by Horace Vernet captures Jean-Louis-André-Thodore Géricault (1–1824), a towering figure of French Romanticism, likely painted in 1822 or 1823. Géricault, best known for his dramatic masterpiece *The Raft of the Medusa* (9), revolutionized art with his raw depictions of human suffering, heroism, and the sublime, challenging the polished Neoclassicism of era. Vernet, a fellow Romantic painter celebrated for dynamic military scenes and portraits, here renders his contemporary in a modest 18⅝ × 15⅛-inch format, suggesting a personal or studio setting rather th...