GERICAULT, zhtt'rtt'kOf, JEAN-Louis Axont Titt000m (1791-1824). A French painter, the leader of the Romantic School in its revolt against the tyranny of Classicism of David. his tem perament was too vivid and sympathetic to tolerate the formal and conventional. The reali ties of his time appealed to him too intensely to permit his mind to rest upon the unrealities of the Classical School. As a realist, however, the scope of G6ricault is limited.
GOricault was born at Rouen September 26, 1791. The family moved to Paris soon after wards, and the boy entered the Lyceum Louis le:Grand. He left this school in 1808. He first entered the atelier of Carle Vernet (q.v.), and in 1810 he went over to the atelier of Guerin, but there was never any artistic sympathy be tween master and pupil. Much of his time was spent in Versailles, where he found the stables of the palace open to him, and where he gained his knowledge of the anatomy and action of horses.
At the Salon of 1812 Gericault exhibited one of the best known of his pictures, "A Cavalry Offi cer on Horseback." His "Wounded Cuirassier" was exhibited in the Salon of 1814, but was not especially successful. G6ricault in a fit of disappointment entered the army and served for a time in the garrison of Versailles. In 1816 he went to Italy, and, after a month in Florence, settled in Rome for two years. The work of the Italian masters affected him powerfully, that of Michelangelo appealing especially to his tem perament. The productions of this period are
perhaps the most vigorous of his entire career. They are mainly in the form of drawings, of which many have been preserved. The' finest of these are a series of studies for a picture which he intended to paint of the horse-race in the Corso during Carnival. The painting called the "Raft of Medusa," now in the Louvre, has come to be deemed one of the most powerful productions of the French School. At the ex hibition of 1819, however, it was placed too high, and was received very coldly. Gkricault carried the picture to England, 'where he exhibited it at a shilling admission, realizing 17,000 francs. During his stay in England GOricault associated much with Charlet, the lithographer and carica turist. There are many of his powerful plates in collections throughout Europe. G6ricault mod eled frequently. Some bronzes and wax sketches by him are in existence, the finest of them being an anatomical study of a horse.
Soon after his return to Paris in 1822 Geri cault was injured by a fall from a horse, and spent the rest of his life in extreme distress. He died in Paris January 26, 1824. Consult: Cle ment, Gericault: Etude biographique et critique (Paris, 1868) ; Brownell, French Art Classic and Contemporary (New York, 1901).