The painting in France in the Romantic Age - Theodore Gericault

Gericault was born in a wealthy family in Rouen. His father is a magistrate and rich landowner, who later runs a cigarette factory. His mother comes from a wealthy Norman family. Theodore has never been deprived of the solid financial support of his parents (only at the end of his life he has some cash difficulties because he does not think about it). He has never been frustrated to sell his paintings as a way of subsistence. This fact explains the freedom that radiates from his paintings. In 1796 the Gericault family settled in Paris where the son continued his studies at the Emperor College (today Louis the Great). Theodore Gericault studied painting in the atelier of the already established Parisian artist, Carl Verne, a master of hunting scenes. There he met his teacher's son, Oras Verne. Later Theodore continued his studies with Pierre-Narsis Gheren, and on 5 February 1811 he enrolled at the Paris Higher School of Fine Arts. In 1814 he feld in love with his unkle’s young wife, Alexandrine Carwell. This relationship is a dramatic torture for the artist.

The Wounded Cuirassier is a painting

Theodore participates in the Rome Grand Prix competition, but fails. In 1816 he decided to go to Italy at his own expense. He is permanently attached to the art of Italian Renaissance artists, especially to Michelangelo's works. Then he is attracted to the paintings of Pierre Paul Rubens, because of the dynamics set in them. His contemporaries enjoy a special tribute to Baron Grove. At the beginning of his career, the painter Gericault proved qualities that he categorically distinguished himself from David's neoclassical French artists. Theodore gives as his artist his preference for the scenes of the weekly life, which he portrays as heroic feats. He became famous as a singer of the despair and suffering of the people and so soon became famous as the leader of the romantic school in French painting. His first works were influenced by the Napoleonic wars - "Officer of the Guards Congolese Regiment in Attack" (1812), "Wounded Cypressus Leaving the Battlefield" (1814). One of the main works of Gericault is "The Raft of the Medusa" (1818-1819), and in 1820-1821 he was in England, where he produced the works "Great and Small English Suits" (1820-1821), " Derby in Epsom "(1821).

A Charge of Cuirassiers

In 1819 the New Salon of the Parisian artists was opened and Gericault conceived a huge spectacular painting. He seeks inspiration from the current chronicle followed by the newspapers. He discovers the "Medusa" affair - a shipwreck that the restored monarchy in France is trying to conceal. On July 2, 1816, the French frigate Medusa suffered a shipwreck off the coast of Senegal. A royal ship flew a 400-man crew, led by the disgusting sea captain Yug Duroa de Sosmarei, who was recovered by pressure from the Monarchy restored by the Bourbon. Warned by the crew of the approaching ship, the captain did not react, and followed the poisonous drama: sinking the entire ship with the crew and the merchandise. The officers and top cadres serving the frigate abandoned it and loaded, in violation of the fleet regulations, on the six lifeboats. The remaining 150 crew sailors are clustered on a rescue raft (20 in 10 meters), hurriedly fastened by brittle wooden beams. The salo had to be dragged out of lifeboats, but the rope "somewhat odd" is broken. The fearsome sea storm is rushing and the shipwreck is followed by a fierce odyssey that lists murders, suicides, craziness, and disgusting cannibalism. Gericault chooses to recreate the culmination moment on his dashboard when, after 13 days of wandering by the winds, the survivors of the raft see in the distance the rescue boat - the Brig "Argos". The painter draws on this extremely strenuous dramatic moment, "between salvation and perdition," in which still living shipwrecks rise from the raft with last resort to preach their occasional rescuers. The artist discovers in this dramatic plot the source of his inspiration - to excite the audience to shock.

The Raft of the Medusa

He is keen to bind his paintings to reality. He met the stories of the two survivors thanks to the rescue boat after the shipwreck of the Medusa frigate: Alexander Korear, ship engineer and geographer, and Henry Savini, the board doctor. He builds a one-on-one shipboard model in his atelier and invites the seven survivors of the shipwreck to come and pose. He goes so far as to expose some remains of the dead. With the help of a friend from the Bozhon hospital, he managed to get amputated legs and arms to study them in detail. He sketched a head cut in Bisserta several times, where at that time there was a shelter for patients and a ward for psychically disturbed patients. According to the artist's biographer, Charles Kleman, Teodor's atelier has permanently placed unbearable stink / Fobert-du-Roul. Gericaulthas been zealously developing his project for a full year. Works on a canvas of 7 in 5 meters.The painting of Gericault "The Raft of the Medusa" will be shown in the Louvre in 1819. The artist expects to receive an apotheosis because he has a lot of grief to finish his canvas. But when they hang the picture, it is wrongly arranged too high on the wall alongside other huge canvases that crush it.

The drama is played in front of Gericault's eyes. Everybody laughs at the picture that scours, though directed directly against the incompetent Captain of Medusa, rather King Louis XVIII and all royalists. Surprised by criticism, Gericault leaves Paris and goes to England. From April 1820 to November 1821, he traveled through England and discovered the great romantic landscapeists in this country, Constable and Turner, as well as horseracing. Theodore then conceived a new series of paintings inspired by "the greatest conquest of man," in which he stands out as the masterpiece "Derby d'Epsom" (The Louvre). The theme for the horse becomes the main occupation for the artist at the end of his life. Indeed, this animal becomes the center of his personal mythology, the bearer of the artist's meditation on passion, suffering and death. The story of the passionate attachment of Gericault to the horses is detailed by director Bartabas in his film "Mazeppa" (1993). Gericault dies at age 32, and lives and works in such a frenzied rhythm, as if he has always felt he was given a little while. Hoping to be able to do more, he puts his talent to a test by turning to all techniques known at that time, tries his brush in many styles, draws paintings on a variety of themes. Gericault remains a mysterious person, although his life story is well researched by the researchers. The paintings, drawings, watercolors, lithographs, and also the few sculptures that reveal is just a hell gift divine will and human nature of Gericault-in that much more accurately than other events of his biography, -but he donated and immortality. He is a vivid embodiment of the type of romantic artist who lives briefly, experiencing an extremely stormy life that nourishes many myths about his earthly fate. Gericault's talent opens up new horizons to the next generation of artists, prompting them to innovative quests. His works are an inexhaustible source of creative inspiration for many 19th-century painters.

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