Artist Birthday: Théodore Géricault

Théodore Géricault was a leading proponent of Romanticism, based on his abiding appreciation of Baroque painting. He also rejected the strict canons of Neoclassicism.

Artist Birthday for 26 September: Théodore Géricault (1791-1824 France)

Théodore Géricault, Man with Delusions of Military Grandeur, from the Monomaniacs series, 1819-1820, oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm Reinhart Foundation Museum, Winterthur, Switzerland, © 2025 Dr Ron Wiedenhoeft / Saskia, Ltd. (NFF-0850)

Géricault's financial hardships of his last years caused him to slip into depression, all the while his health was failing. This perhaps accounts for his last group of major paintings, ten portraits of "Monomaniacs", people with various mental disabilities. He worked with a Dr Étienne-Jean Georget (1795-1828), a pioneer in forensic psychiatry who was the first to defend the neurodivergent against criminal charges. Five of the ten portraits remain.

Géricault's interest in producing these portraits may have been personal, since his grandfather and uncle both suffered from severe mental disabilities. The portraits are unique during the Romantic period, which is odd because of the prevalent Romantic interest in the strange, the lurid, and the grotesque.These portraits digress from Géricault's usually controlled academic style of clean brush work and sculptural monumentality. It may be that the artist produced these portraits in one sitting from direct observation. The fluid brushwork may also be a comment on the disordered manner in which these people were obliged to live. The dark background, vacant stare, and life-sized heads create a sense of unease for the viewer, and at the same time, Géricault gives the figures a sympathetic dignity.

background

Romanticism is an element that is present in the art of many cultures throughout the world from many time periods in art history. The romantic in art stresses the importance of the senses and emotion, as opposed to rationalism, balance, and idealism. Dramatic and spiritual themes are preferred in such art as subject matter. Subjects are often drawn from everyday life rather than from religious, mythological or historical themes.

Exotic themes were also interesting to artists of romantic content. “Exotic” could be interpreted as any depiction of lands foreign to the artist’s knowledge, for instance, the Japanese depiction of westerners after centuries of isolation, or the use of subject matter depicting Arabs during the early 1800s in France.

In France, the Romantic movement followed on the heels of Neoclassicism, which stressed the influence and subject matter of the staid, codified, balanced art of ancient Greece and Rome. Romanticism evolved primarily in France, spreading elsewhere in Europe afterwards.

Aside from the rejection of the tired worship of heroic art from the distant past, the movement was further influenced by the repeated uprisings of the French lower classes, and by foreign adventurism of colonial powers, especially in the Greek war of independence, 1821-1832, which exposed European artists to Turkish and Arab subject matter.

Théodore Géricault was born the son of lawyer father and tobacco grower heir mother in Rouen. When he was 4 the family moved to Paris where Géricault was educated in the finest schools where he developed a love and talent for drawing. At fifteen he began studying art seriously and in 1808 he entered the studio of the academic Neoclassicist Carle Vernet (1758-1836). Vernet's work was dominated by military subjects of Napoleon's first empire, although they focused heavily on horses. This fed Géricault's life-long passion with horses that appeared in both paintings and prints throughout his career.

Géricault found the prevalent Neoclassicism of French painting at the time tedious. He left Vernet's studio to study at the School of Fine Arts under Pierre-Narcisse Guerin (1774-1833). Guerin's Neoclassicism was tempered with exotic ancient subjects, suffused, mystical lighting, and a certain languorous, romantic feeling overall. After serving less that a year in the French army, Géricault went to Rome from 1815 to 1816.

In Rome, Géricault's fiery, often volatile temperament combined with a fervent appreciation for the art of Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Baroque artists (particularly Rubens, Titian and Rembrandt) to form his mature style. In addition to idolizing the great masters of the Baroque, he also became interested in subjects of everyday Italian life, including some that were considered exotic, macabre, or inappropriate.

After returning to France in 1817, he began painting works that were combinations of the drama, vibrant color and suggestive lighting of the Baroque with a contemporary sensibility that rejected the contrived, rigidly codified Neoclassical style. After the tremendous acclaim/controversy over his "news story" The Raft of the Medusa in 1819, Géricault went to London.

His year long stay in Britain was successful in that he mastered the relatively new medium of lithography. He explored every aspect of British culture in his art, particularly horse-breeding, city life in London, and particularly the plight of the poor. There was a vogue in France at the time for British subject matter in art. Despite having great success abroad, a failed investment left him almost penniless for the remainder of his life. Poor health exacerbated his situation which led to a darkening mood in his late works.