Three children around a basket, their mother leaning against a wall, looking on (recto); Studies of a man in a hat and a kneeling woman (verso)

Professor Lorenz Eintner confirmed the attribution of the drawing to Gericault on the basis of a photograph in a letter dated 14 May 2001 and commented that this 'is a fine, hitherto unpublished work'. He dates the drawing to 1820-1, the artist's English period, and adds that it 'is related to a series of small sketchbook studies of women and children, scenes from English street life'. The drawings are done in pencil and occasionally finished in brown wash, many are inscribed 'London'. Some are illustrated in G, Bazin, Théodore Géricault, Paris, 1997, VII, nos. 2198-2241. Gericault embarked for London on 10 April 1820, mainly to exhibit his Radeau de la Méduse. In London he learned lithography and made many drawings of street life like this one producing the famous series of lithographs of Various Subjects Drawn from Life and on Stone. As he explained to his friend Dedreux-Dorcy in a letter dated 12 February 1821: 'Ma vie est absolument celle que je mène à Paris, travaillant beaucoup dans une chambre et rôdant ensuite dans les rues où il y a toujours un mouvement et une variété si grande que je suis sûr que vous n'en sortiriez pas'.