Eleven Compositional Sketches

1810–1815

Copying the old masters at the Louvre

Géricault soon left the classroom and from 1810 to 1815 copied paintings by Rubens, Titian, Velázquez and Rembrandt at the Louvre. There he discovered a vitality he found lacking in the prevailing school of Neoclassicism.

5 February 1811 · Education

Beaux-Arts de Paris

1812

Salon debut: “Officer of the Imperial Guard Chasseurs”

In 1812 Géricault sent “Portrait of Dieudonné” (now “Officer of the Imperial Guard Chasseurs Charging”, Louvre) to the Paris Salon. An artist unknown until then, said to have “hardly studied”, he at once drew the critics' attention: Boutard advised him to take up battle painting, Durdent called him “perhaps the best of all our painters”, and David himself noticed the picture.

1814

Salon of 1814: “Wounded Cuirassier” and cold reviews

At the Salon of 1814, held after Napoleon's fall, the “Officer” was shown paired with “Wounded Cuirassier Leaving the Field of Battle”, the only reminder of a passing tragic and glorious era among the neutral subjects chosen by other artists. Critics either said nothing of Géricault's pictures or received them unfavorably.

December 1814

He buys a commission as a musketeer

Having recently evaded military service, in December 1814 Géricault, with the help of his father and uncle, bought a commission in the musketeer company commanded by Lauriston, a privileged military unit. His biographers find it hard to explain what motivated him.

1815

The Hundred Days: Louis XVIII's escort and flight to Normandy

During the Hundred Days Géricault was in the escort of the fleeing Louis XVIII and then, disguised as a peasant, made his way to Normandy, where he probably stayed until the middle of the summer of 1815.