Watering Trough, Title Page of "Studies of Horses" (Etudes de Chevaux)
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
sheet: 23 5/16 x 16 11/16 in. (59.2 x 42.4 cm) plate: 13 7/16 x 11 1/4 in. (34.1 x 28.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1920
Accession Number
20.17.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
Théodore Géricault *Watering Trough*, in 1822 as the page for his series *Studies of Horses* (*Études de Chevaux*), captures the raw energy and nobility of equine subjects that obsessed the French Romantic artist. Amidst rustic buildings, sturdy trees, and attentive men, horses gather at a trough, their muscular forms rendered with dynamic vitality. Géricault, for dramatic works like *The Raft the Medusa* (9), channeled Romanticism's passion for nature's power and movement into these intimate studies, reflecting his lifelong fascination with horses as symbols of strength and freedom. This lit...
About the Artist
Théodore Gericault · 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...