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This artwork, Torse d’homme de profil, le bras droit levé by Théodore Géricault, is currently for sale at Stair Sainty Gallery.
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TITLE:
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Torse d’homme de profil, le bras droit levé
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CATEGORY:
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Paintings
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MATERIALS:
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Oil on unlined canvas
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SIZE:
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h: 102 x w: 82 cm / h: 40.2 x w: 32.3 in
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STYLE:
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Old Masters
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PRICE*:
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Contact Gallery for Price
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DESCRIPTION:
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Géricault was a profoundly important figure in the history of French painting, perhaps best known for his powerful The Raft of the Medusa (Musée du Louvre, Paris); he deeply influenced artists such as the young Delacroix, who indeed posed for one of The Raft’s dying figures. Géricault first gained fame at the Salon of 1812, the year of the work here, aged only 21, with his Portrait équestre de M. D.*** (today in the Musée du Louvre and called Officier de chasseurs). The painting won a gold medal and Landon wrote that the portrait: “was seen on public view with all the more interest [because] it is the first [Salon exhibited] work of a young painter who, it is said, has been handling a brush for two years at most.”Although Géricault died tragically young, he became one of the pioneers of the Romantic movement.
The painting here was a submission for the 1812 concours de la Demi-Figure, a competition at the École des Beaux-Arts; fellow students’ paintings from the competition that year show the identical nude male model in the same contorted pose.
Germain Bazin acknowledged in his three-volume catalogue raisonné that the painting here was of extremely high quality and attributed the stunning academie to Géricault, despite Bazin’s lack of definitive evidence that Géricault had ever studied at the École or there participated in the concours.
Definitive proof of Géricault’s inscription at the École des Beaux Arts on 5 February 1811 was discovered subsequent to the literature of scholars Eitner, Grunchec and Bazin between 1978 and 1991. Géricault’s participation in similar competitions, like the prix de Rome, has also been confirmed by a sketchbook of the artist’s recently bought by the Getty, Los Angeles. This submission to the 1812 competition (won by the forgotten painter Forestier), can now be unquestionably credited to the artist and M. Bruno Chenique, who has kindly written an unpublished article dated 2011 on the painting, will include it as a fully autograph work in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the painter.
Scientific Examination: The painting was examined in June 2011 by Lumière Technology. Multispectral photographic exam of 240 millions pixels (p.sq, inch): Lumière rasante ; Ultraviolet ; Couleurs D65 ; Fausses couleurs ; Fausses couleurs inversées ; Infrarouge 900nm ; Infrarouge 1000nm ; Emissiographie ; LAM. The painting was cleaned and restored in 2011 by Mme Laurence Baron-Callegari (Restaurateur du Patrimoine, diplômée de L’IFROA).
Related works (for the Concours of 1813): Théodore Géricault, Torse d’homme, le bras gauche levé, oil on canvas: 90 x 1.08 cm (bears signature, different views as to whether authentic), Bibliography: Eitner, “Gericault et Winterthur,” Burlington Magazine, Aug 1954, p. 257 (as by Gericault); Géricault (exhibition, Winterthur), 1956, no. 4; F. H. Lem, “À Propos de Géricault,” in Le Peintre, 15 Feb 1963, p. 9; Grunchec, 1978, no. 61 (as by Géricault); Bazin, 1987, vol.II, pp. 272, fig. 224, 273, 274, and p. 366, and colour plate opposite.
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PROVENANCE:
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Bruno Chenique has persuasively demonstrated that this was painted by Gericault for the 1812 concours de torse, at the École des Beaux Arts in which he was inscribed on 5 February 1811; Inventory after death of Théodore Gericault, 1824, and sale of his estate November 1824, tableaux et esquisses de Gericault, nos. 14 or 15; Private collection, France, June 1942 (according to a letter noted by Germain Bazin, op.cit. below); Paris, collection Georges Renand (1879-1968), (from 1963, according to Lem, op. cit. below); Vente Georges Renand, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 15 mars 1988, n° 24 as (transl.) Géricault, Homme nu à mi-corps, oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm (painted in 1812 for the concours de torse), sold for 1 269 700 Francs; Zurich, Galerie Bruno Meissner, 1991; Edmondo di Robilant (Dover Street Gallery), 1991; Private collection, New York 2011
Private collection, France, June 1942 (according to a letter noted by Germain Bazin, op.cit. below)
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LITERATURE:
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F.-H. Lem, “7. Esthétique de Géricault. C : le peintre de figures,” Le Peintre, n° 259, 15 février 1963, p. 9, reproduced on the cover page as “Géricault, Torse d’étude, 1817-1818, 99 x 81 cm, collection Georges Renand;” Philippe Grunchec, Tout l’œuvre peint de Géricault, introduction by Jacques Thuillier, Paris, Flammarion, 1978, p. 95, n° 61 F, reproduced erroneously under 61 E : “[Auteur inconnu],” Homme nu à mi corps, oil on canvas 98 x 79, Paris, collection particulière.” Grunchec incorrectly noting : “exemplaire inédit,” Germain Bazin, Théodore Géricault. Étude critique, documents et catalogue raisonné, vol. II, L’œuvre, période de formation, Paris, Bibliothèque des arts, 1987, pp. 273-274, 368, detail reproduced fig. 223 (p. 273), and under catalogue n° 133, reproduced “Géricault, Torse d’homme de profil, le bras droit levé,” oil on canvas and incorrect measurements (sight size): 97.6 x 79 cm, private collection; Lorenz Eitner, “Book Reviews. Théodore Géricault. Étude critique, documents, et catalogue raisonné, By Germain Bazin. Vols I, II, III,” The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXIII, n° 1057, April 1991, p. 256, 257 note 13; Philippe Grunchec, Tout l'œuvre peint de Géricault, introduction par Jacques Thuillier, Paris, Flammarion, 1991 [1978 edition, reviewed and augmented], p. 96, n° 61 F, reproduced erroneously under 61 E: “ [Auteur inconnu] Homme nu à mi corps, Zurich, Galerie Bruno Meissner/ h/t 100 x 80/ Hist. Georges Renand (Sale, Paris, Drouot-Richelieu, 15 mars 1988, n° 24, Tableau à rapprocher de celui de Forestier (1787-1872) primé en 1812 lors du concours de la Demi-Figure peinte à l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts” (noting that Germain Bazin had given the work to Gericault although, despite the very high quality, he believed there was no definitive evidence that Gericault had participated in the 12 August 1812 figural competition, since at that time Gericault’s entry in the École in 1811 was as yet undiscovered); Bruno Chenique (text 15 September 2011), asserting the status of this painting as an autograph work of Théodore Gericault; This painting will be included in the Catalogue raisonné des tableaux de Théodore Géricault, actually in preparation, by M. Bruno Chenique.
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