Eleven Compositional Sketches
Medium
Graphite, on tan wove paper, perimeter mounted on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
22.9 × 16.9 cm (9 1/16 × 6 11/16 in.)
Classification
graphite
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
113366
Art Historical Context
In the Prints and Drawings department of the Institute of Chicago, visitors can discover *Eleven Compositional Sk* by Théodore Géricault, a young French artist poised on the brink of Romanticism Created around 1813–14, these intimate graphite drawings on tan wove paper measure just 22.9 × 16.9 cm, their perimeter mounted on ivory laid paper for preservation. At a time when Géricault was in his early twenties, absorbing influences from masters like Rubens and Michelangelo, these sketches capture his exploratory process for larger history paintings. Géricault's fluid graphite lines reveal a bur...
About the Artist
Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault · 1791–1824
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) was born into a prosperous bourgeois family in Rouen, France, the son of a lawyer who managed the family tobacco business. After moving to Paris around 1797, his artistic talent emerged early, nurtured in a circle that included his maternal uncle Jean-Baptiste Caruel and art dealer Jean-Louis Laneuville. Géricault began formal training in 1808 under ...