Stableboy Grooming a Horse
Medium
Graphite with brush and brown wash, on ivory laid paper, perimeter mounted on cream wove paper
Dimensions
27.5 × 21.1 cm (10 7/8 × 8 5/16 in.)
Classification
graphite
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
113327
Art Historical Context
In the Prints and Drawings department of the Art Institute of Chicago resides a captivating preparatory study, *Stableboy Grooming a Horse* (1814), by the French Romantic artist Théodore Géric. Created when Géricault was just , this graphite drawing with brush and brown wash on ivory laid paper (27.5 × 21.1 cm) exemplifies his early fascination with equine anatomy and the raw energy of human-animal interaction. Mounted on cream wove paper it reveals the meticulous craftsmanship of a master draftsman honing his skills amid the turbulent close of the Napoleonic era. Géricault, best known for hi...
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 ...