A postal conductor attending to two saddled horses in front of a postal relay station

The attribution to Gericault was confirmed by Dr. Lorenz Eitner on the basis of a photograph in a letter dated 13 September 2003. Dr. Eitner added that the drawing 'is a splendid, entirely characteristic work by Gericault. It is thematically and stylistically related to a lithographic series Etudes de chevaux of 1822 (Delteil 80-92), but it is not directly connected with any of the published prints, though it was very probably intended for this publication. The graphic execution, the "handwriting" of the drawing, in my opinion, leaves no doubts as to Gericault's authorship. Gericault returned to the subject of the postal relay in yet another, more highly finished and actually signed wash-and-sepia drawing, Le Relais, formerly in the Maurice Gobin collection, which has been much exhibited and published (G. Bazin, Théodore Gericault, Paris, 1997, VII, no. 2604). In several details - crib, saddle, conductor's uniform - that well-known drawing is quite close to [the present one]'.