Race of the Riderless Horses at Rome, Study

1817

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Gericault hoped to paint the Race of the Riderless Horses, a highlight of the Roman Carnival, on a scale that would rival the great battle pictures of the Napoleonic era. He produced numerous studies, but the project itself was abandoned, and it is difficult to know which of the preparatory works came closest to his ultimate vision. In this exceptional example he portrays the tumultuous start of the race (la mossa) in a modern vein; other related studies have ancient settings. Gericault died lamenting that he had brought few works to completion. Yet his contemporaries were strongly attracted to the more than two hundred paintings that became available at his posthumous atelier sale—many of them studies of an exploratory or preparatory nature. The growing appreciation for such works, independent of the existence of any finished related painting, was an important development in the history of taste in nineteenth-century France.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Race of the Riderless Horses at Rome, Study
Artist: Théodore Gericault (French, Rouen 1791–1824 Paris)
Date: 1817
Geography: Country of Origin Italy
Medium: Oil on paper laid down on canvas
Dimensions: 17 11/16 × 24 in. (45 × 61 cm)
Framed: 26 3/4 × 32 9/16 in. (68 × 82.7 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bequest of Mme Maracci, 1901
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art