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Lot Essay
Deux chevaux dans une écurie was painted from life and praised by Lorenz Eitner for its 'spontaneous and sketch-like', non-finito quality (letter of 29 October 1997). Stylistically this elegant oil is very close to the celebrated Cheval bai-clair et un autre gris dans une écurie (Grunchec A-10, Bazin 614), formerly in the Blher Collection (lot 20, The Hans E. Blher Collection Sale, Christie's, London, 15 November 1985), where the cheval gris wears a checkered cover, very like the cover of the horse at the right of the present picture.
Judging by its style and manner of execution, Lorenz Eitner suggests a date of circa 1812-1813, a period during which Géricault, having made his first public appearance at the Salon of 1812 with the famous Portrait équestre de M.D. (known as The Charging Chasseur), 'instead of pressing forward to capitalize on his success, ... resumed his self-training with increased determination... Renouncing, for the time-being, the dramatic élan and monumentality of the Chasseur, he devoted himself to the meticulous recording of observed reality' (Géricault. His Life and Work, London, 1983, p. 38).
The result of Géricault's productive récuillement artistique is his most fascinating studies of horses painted in the Imperial Stables at Versailles, which he seems to have portrayed 'purely for their own sake, without thought of their further use. Their subjects are animals of elegant conformation whose features are individualized to a degree normally reserved for human portraiture. It is apparent that he knew and valued the particular horses he chose to paint and made an effort to seize the singular characteristics of each animal, rather than its general type or breed. At the same time he resisted the temptation to humanize or sentimentalize his models and avoided the stylistic artifices that set the stamp of perishable fashion on most horse pictures of the period. Unlike the horses of Carle Vernet or those of Gros, Géricault's horses do not look obviously dated. Something of the portrait truth of his animals extends to the interiors in which he presents them. The backgrounds of many of the studies suggest a particular place and atmosphere, yet no trace of genre interest, no hint of action, no shadow of a human presence disturbs the quiet of these interiors. The arrangements are of the most artless simplicity. The horses, usually in side view, are strongly illuminated against the warm dark of the stables. They seem to be holding still, in alert tension. Their silken bodies crowd the picture space; their nervous vitality, barely controlled, strains against the confinement in which Géricault has placed them. It is evident that these studies amount to something more than a simple visual record. They express with quiet intensity Géricault's passion for the horse, the beloved creature he superbly mastered as a sportsman, but to which his artist's imagination remained in lifelong, troubled bondage' (ibidem, p. 38).
Géricault's training in the studio of Carle Vernet (1808-1810) was pivotal in the development of the young artist's passion for horses. It was indeed Vernet - among the early popularisers in France of English aesthetic taste - who initiated Géricault to horse portraiture. Géricault's studies of horses of 1812-13, 'close to the objectivity of the Dutch and English animal painters' (ibidem, p. 38), were much admired by his contemporaries, and often lent to the artist's colleagues and friends for copying. This explains the existence of a copy of Deux chevaux dans une écurie, presently in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (Bazin 616).
Professor Eitner has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this lot.
Judging by its style and manner of execution, Lorenz Eitner suggests a date of circa 1812-1813, a period during which Géricault, having made his first public appearance at the Salon of 1812 with the famous Portrait équestre de M.D. (known as The Charging Chasseur), 'instead of pressing forward to capitalize on his success, ... resumed his self-training with increased determination... Renouncing, for the time-being, the dramatic élan and monumentality of the Chasseur, he devoted himself to the meticulous recording of observed reality' (Géricault. His Life and Work, London, 1983, p. 38).
The result of Géricault's productive récuillement artistique is his most fascinating studies of horses painted in the Imperial Stables at Versailles, which he seems to have portrayed 'purely for their own sake, without thought of their further use. Their subjects are animals of elegant conformation whose features are individualized to a degree normally reserved for human portraiture. It is apparent that he knew and valued the particular horses he chose to paint and made an effort to seize the singular characteristics of each animal, rather than its general type or breed. At the same time he resisted the temptation to humanize or sentimentalize his models and avoided the stylistic artifices that set the stamp of perishable fashion on most horse pictures of the period. Unlike the horses of Carle Vernet or those of Gros, Géricault's horses do not look obviously dated. Something of the portrait truth of his animals extends to the interiors in which he presents them. The backgrounds of many of the studies suggest a particular place and atmosphere, yet no trace of genre interest, no hint of action, no shadow of a human presence disturbs the quiet of these interiors. The arrangements are of the most artless simplicity. The horses, usually in side view, are strongly illuminated against the warm dark of the stables. They seem to be holding still, in alert tension. Their silken bodies crowd the picture space; their nervous vitality, barely controlled, strains against the confinement in which Géricault has placed them. It is evident that these studies amount to something more than a simple visual record. They express with quiet intensity Géricault's passion for the horse, the beloved creature he superbly mastered as a sportsman, but to which his artist's imagination remained in lifelong, troubled bondage' (ibidem, p. 38).
Géricault's training in the studio of Carle Vernet (1808-1810) was pivotal in the development of the young artist's passion for horses. It was indeed Vernet - among the early popularisers in France of English aesthetic taste - who initiated Géricault to horse portraiture. Géricault's studies of horses of 1812-13, 'close to the objectivity of the Dutch and English animal painters' (ibidem, p. 38), were much admired by his contemporaries, and often lent to the artist's colleagues and friends for copying. This explains the existence of a copy of Deux chevaux dans une écurie, presently in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (Bazin 616).
Professor Eitner has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this lot.