Les Chevaux De Théodore Géricault

Exhibition at the Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris, 15 May - 15 September 2024

From the time he trained with the horse painter Carle Vernet and then in Pierre Guérin's studio, Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) never ceased to assert his passion for the equestrian world. Over the course of his brief career, he produced dozens of paintings and hundreds of drawings of horses, exploring the anatomy, movement, expressiveness and emotion of the animal. From the battlefield or the racetrack to the stable, the equestrian world is the expression of a passion that the artist has developed since childhood.

Géricault's obsession with the equestrian world went beyond the motif to encompass a broad geographical, economic, political, military and social context. Following, observing and scrutinising his horses are a formidable way of understanding the profound changes in Napoleonic society as it moved towards the industrial revolution.
This exhibition catalogue, which brings together around a hundred works from public and private collections and texts by specialists, allows us to follow, observe and scrutinise Géricault's horses, while offering an ambitious and fresh reading of one of France's greatest painters.