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Lot Essay
After failing to win the Prix de Rome competition, Géricault traveled to Italy at his own expense in October 1816. While in Rome, he conceived the project for a grandiose painting representing the race of the riderless Barbieri horses, an important feature of the Roman Carnival tradition. The race was in fact a series of races in the late afternoon, one on each of the eight days of Carnival. The races took place along Via del Corso, from the Piazza del Popolo to the Piazza Venezia.
Géricault never completed his large canvas but altogether some 85 paintings and drawings related to the project are known today. It is generally agreed that the present work is the earliest surviving compositional study in the series. It shows the start of the race on the Piazza del Popolo. ‘Géricault chose an elevated vantage point just in front of the starting rope, from which he looks down and slightly back at the horses as they line up behind the rope, struggling furiously with their grooms. Of the thirteen horses in this race, ten are already in position for the start; the remaining three are being led between them and the grandstand towards their eventual places at the rope […]. The heavy, tightly pulled starting rope, which contains the frenzied commotion of horses, grooms and spectators in the upper right half of the picture, cuts diagonally through the composition at a steep, 45-degree angle to the picture plane, while the extensive area of cobbled street in front of it, occupying most of the left half of the image, lies eloquently empty, a vacuum soon, and dramatically, to be filled. This sense of anticipation is heightened by the presence of the mounted bugler across the way who is poised to signal the start.’ (Whitney, op. cit., p. 97). The present drawing was probably preceded by a few studies of detail executed from life. There is, for example, a double-sided leaf from a sketchbook now in a private collection which is a study for the horse and its groom holding it in the right foreground (Whitney, op. cit., fig. 125). This was followed by another drawing in black chalk where Gericault has more precisely drawn the second groom and quickly sketched two figures holding the tail (Whitney, op. cit., fig. 127).
Soon after executing the present drawing Géricault produced a study in oil (44.5 x 59.5 cm.) now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (Fig. 1; Bazin, op. cit., no. 1343). The most important difference between the two works results from Géricault’s decision, while retaining most of the elements depicted in the drawing (although he reduces the number of horses from thirteen to ten), to move his vantage point to a position at street level, closer to the starting line. In the oil sketch Géricault has suppressed almost a third of the composition of the watercolor by cropping it to the point at which the starting rope completes its long course across the street and is attached to the wooden structure, thereby drastically reducing the amount of empty street visible in the drawing and focusing attention directly on the struggle between man and horse, which would become, his principal theme.
The present watercolor has featured in some of the most important collections of works by Géricault. It is first documented in the possession of Louis-Joseph-Auguste Coutan (1779-1830), a businessman and a politician who was mayor of the city of Eaubonne. He formed a remarkable collection of paintings and drawings by contemporary artists, especially David, Prud’hon, Gros, Ingres, Géricault and Bonington. In 1889 his descendants sold the collection at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, but prior to that the Louvre was able to choose a few works which it deemed indispensable for its collections. The Race for the Barbieri horses was acquired at the Coutan-Hauguet sale by Paul-Arthur Chéramy (1840-1912) a collector of paintings and drawings of the first half of 19th Century who also donated many works to the Louvre. After having belonged to two other collectors of Géricault’s work, Henri Haro (1855-1911) and Baron Joseph-Raphaël Vitta (1860-1942), the watercolor entered the collection of Hans E. Bühler (1893-1967). The latter, a distinguished horseman who had won a silver medal as a member of the Swiss team in the team jumping competition at the 1924 Olympics, was arguably the most important collector of Géricault in the 20th Century.
Géricault never completed his large canvas but altogether some 85 paintings and drawings related to the project are known today. It is generally agreed that the present work is the earliest surviving compositional study in the series. It shows the start of the race on the Piazza del Popolo. ‘Géricault chose an elevated vantage point just in front of the starting rope, from which he looks down and slightly back at the horses as they line up behind the rope, struggling furiously with their grooms. Of the thirteen horses in this race, ten are already in position for the start; the remaining three are being led between them and the grandstand towards their eventual places at the rope […]. The heavy, tightly pulled starting rope, which contains the frenzied commotion of horses, grooms and spectators in the upper right half of the picture, cuts diagonally through the composition at a steep, 45-degree angle to the picture plane, while the extensive area of cobbled street in front of it, occupying most of the left half of the image, lies eloquently empty, a vacuum soon, and dramatically, to be filled. This sense of anticipation is heightened by the presence of the mounted bugler across the way who is poised to signal the start.’ (Whitney, op. cit., p. 97). The present drawing was probably preceded by a few studies of detail executed from life. There is, for example, a double-sided leaf from a sketchbook now in a private collection which is a study for the horse and its groom holding it in the right foreground (Whitney, op. cit., fig. 125). This was followed by another drawing in black chalk where Gericault has more precisely drawn the second groom and quickly sketched two figures holding the tail (Whitney, op. cit., fig. 127).
Soon after executing the present drawing Géricault produced a study in oil (44.5 x 59.5 cm.) now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (Fig. 1; Bazin, op. cit., no. 1343). The most important difference between the two works results from Géricault’s decision, while retaining most of the elements depicted in the drawing (although he reduces the number of horses from thirteen to ten), to move his vantage point to a position at street level, closer to the starting line. In the oil sketch Géricault has suppressed almost a third of the composition of the watercolor by cropping it to the point at which the starting rope completes its long course across the street and is attached to the wooden structure, thereby drastically reducing the amount of empty street visible in the drawing and focusing attention directly on the struggle between man and horse, which would become, his principal theme.
The present watercolor has featured in some of the most important collections of works by Géricault. It is first documented in the possession of Louis-Joseph-Auguste Coutan (1779-1830), a businessman and a politician who was mayor of the city of Eaubonne. He formed a remarkable collection of paintings and drawings by contemporary artists, especially David, Prud’hon, Gros, Ingres, Géricault and Bonington. In 1889 his descendants sold the collection at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, but prior to that the Louvre was able to choose a few works which it deemed indispensable for its collections. The Race for the Barbieri horses was acquired at the Coutan-Hauguet sale by Paul-Arthur Chéramy (1840-1912) a collector of paintings and drawings of the first half of 19th Century who also donated many works to the Louvre. After having belonged to two other collectors of Géricault’s work, Henri Haro (1855-1911) and Baron Joseph-Raphaël Vitta (1860-1942), the watercolor entered the collection of Hans E. Bühler (1893-1967). The latter, a distinguished horseman who had won a silver medal as a member of the Swiss team in the team jumping competition at the 1924 Olympics, was arguably the most important collector of Géricault in the 20th Century.