Sketches of a Wooded Site, Dogs and Pheasants in Landscape
Medium
Graphite with brush and brown wash, on cream wove paper, perimeter mounted on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
17.3 × 23 cm (6 13/16 × 9 1/16 in.)
Classification
graphite
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
113357
Art Historical Context
Created around 1813–14, *Sketches of a Wooded Site Dogs and Pheasants in Landscape* captures the young Théodore Géricault's command of drawing at age 22–23. This French Romantic artist, best known for his dramatic history paintings like *The Raft of the Medusa (1819), often turned to nature and animals for inspiration. Here, loose yet precise sketches evoke a lush wooded scene alive with hunting dogs and pheasants, blending dynamic wildlife with atmospheric landscape—a nod to the Romantic fascination with untamed emotion and the natural world. Executed in graphite with brush and brown wash on...
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 ...