Fighting Horses

Cleveland Museum of Art

Fighting Horses

Théodore GéricaultLinkedCulture matchlcp-aae2511b9770

Date
c. 1820
Medium
watercolor over graphite
Culture
France, 19th century
Department
Drawings
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID
110565

Théodore Géricault turned away from traditional subjects such as mythology and the Bible in favor of modernity, emotion, and drama. He was fascinated by the power and physical beauty of horses and depicted them often. Géricault himself was an avid rider and his paintings and drawings on this theme are characterized by vigor and movement. In this watercolor, he focused on a conflict, in which a groom struggles to separate a pair of fighting horses—a scene that appeared only a few times throughout his many interpretations of similar subjects. A sketchbook, now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, shows that the artist carefully studied the animals, including the kicking white stallion at center, in graphite before beginning this finished work. Théodore Géricault began this work with sketches from life, which became a graphite underdrawing beneath the watercolors.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund
Provenance
?-1863: Possibly Anatole Demidoff [1812-1870], Paris | 1863: (Hotel Drouot, Paris, Tableaux des premiers maitres..., January 13-16, 1863, no. 58, probably sold to Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford) | probably 1863-1870: Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford [1800-1870], by descent to his son Sir Richard Wallace | 1870-1890: Sir Richard Wallace [1818-1890], Paris, by descent to his wife Julie-Amélie-Charlotte Castelnau, Lady Wallace | 1890-1897: Julie-Amélie-Charlotte Castelnau, Lady Wallace [1819-1897], London, by descent to her advisor Sir John Murray Scott | 1897-1912: Sir John Murray Scott [1847-1912], London | 1914: (Phillips, Son & Neale, Contents of the Residence...of Sir John E.A. Murray Scott, February 9, 1914, no. 446) | after 1914-?: (Ernest Leggatt [1853-1922; Lugt 1664e], London, sold to Guy Bellingham Smith) | after 1914-1927: Guy Bellingham Smith, London | 1927: (Frederik Muller & Cie, Amsterdam, Dessins anciens...Collection Bellingham-Smith, July 5-6, 1927, no. 38, probably sold to Gustav Nebehay) | 1927: (Gustav Nebehay [1881-1935], Vienna, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 1929-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

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