1791 -1824 · Paris, romanticism and modern drama

Horses launched, anonymous castaways and portraits of madness make Théodore Géricault the dazzling painter of the body confronted with history.

Théodore Géricault was born in Rouen in 1791 and died in Paris in 1824, at only thirty-two years old. Trained with Carle Vernet then Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, he copied at the Louvre and passionately studied human and animal anatomy. Officer of charging horse hunters, presented at the Salon of 1812, imposed an unbalanced figure, a prancing horse and an energy which broke with neoclassical stability. Two years later, the wounded Cuirassier leaving the fire substituted withdrawal and uncertainty for military triumph. Two years later, the wounded Cuirassier leaving the fire substituted withdrawal and uncertainty for military triumph. Two years later, the wounded Cuirassier leaving the fire substituted withdrawal and uncertainty for military triumph. Two years later, the wounded Cuirassier leaving the fire substituted withdrawal and uncertainty for military triumph. Two years later, the wounded Cuirassier leaving the fire substituted withdrawal and uncertainty for military triumph. Two years later, the wounded Cuirassier leaving the fire substituted withdrawal and uncertainty for military triumph. His stay in Italy deepened the study of Michelangelo, old masters and horse races. For The Raft of the Medusa, exhibited in 1819, Géricault chose one contemporary shipwreck turned political scandal. He investigates survivors, builds a model, observes corpses and transforms one hundred and fifty abandoned victims into actors in a monumental history painting. The pyramid of bodies leads from death to the fragile hope of the ship seen. After a stay in England, he produced social lithographs, horse studies and portraits of the insane of striking sobriety. No spectacular remains in these faces: only the dignity of a person observed without judgment. His brief career thus brings together speed, catastrophe, compassion and criticism of power. The "Théodore Géricault" selection notably highlights look at The Raft of the Medusa and Officer of horse hunters charging. His reading favors movement.

Géricault gives anonymous bodies the dimension of heroes: horse, soldier, shipwrecked or sick become physical witnesses to a story in crisis.