Théodore GÉRICAULT (Rouen, 1791 - 1824, Paris)

Lot 16
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Théodore GÉRICAULT (Rouen, 1791 - 1824, Paris)
Two lions pulling a chariot after Peter-Paul Rubens Oil on canvas 45,8 x 55,2 cm PROVENANCE Bearing on the back the red wax stamp of the Pierre Dubaut collection; perhaps, according to Philippe Grunchec and Germain Bazin: Catalogue des tableaux anciens & modernes par ou attribués à Bastien-Lepage, [...], Géricault, [...], aquarelles et gouaches, dessins [...] ayant composant la collection de Monsieur F. Funck-Brentano, Henri Baudoin, auctioneer, Marignane, expert, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, room n° 1, April 29, 1921, n° 179 : " Géricault. Copy after Rubens of the lions of the Life of Henry IV, in the Louvre / Painting / Canvas. Height, 50 cent; width, 61 cent"; Collection Pierre-Olivier Dubaut (1886 - 1968), probably from 1937; then by descent collection Maxime Dubaut (1920 - 1991). BIBLIOGRAPHY Philippe GRUNCHEC, "L'inventaire posthume de Théodore Géricault (1791 - 1824)", Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'art français, 1976, 1978, p.415 note 44 : Géricault, Two lions, after Rubens, former collection of Pierre Dubaut Philippe GRUNCHEC, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Géricault, Paris, Flammarion, 1978, p.88, n° 18, repr : " Géricault, Deux lions, d'après Rubens, 1808 - 1812, oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm, Paris, private collection " Germain BAZIN, Théodore Géricault. Étude critique, documents et catalog raisonné, t. II, in L'oeuvre, période de formation, Paris, Bibliothèque des arts, 1987, p.434, No. 320, repr: "Author unknown, Two lions, after Rubens, oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm, Paris, private collection." Philippe GRUNCHEC, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Géricault, Paris, Flammarion, 1991 [1978 edition, revised and expanded], p.88, no. 18, repr: "Géricault, Deux lions, d'après Rubens, 1808 - 1812, oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm, Paris, private collection. Germain Bazin, who admits not having seen the painting, prefers to reserve his opinion. EXHIBITIONS Künstlerkopien, Basel, Kunsthalle, September 18 - October 17, 1937, no. 78: "Géricault, Kopie nach Rubens. Aus der Geschichte der Maria von Medici/. Detail aus der Vermählung Heinrichs IV mit Maria von Medici (Louvre). SCIENTIFIC EXAMINATIONS Painting examined by Lumière Technology in June 2009. Multispectral photographic examination with 240 million pixels: D65 colors, Grazing light; Ultraviolet reflectography; False color reflectography; Inverted false color reflectography; Infrared reflectography 900nm & 1000nm, Infrared Emissio, X-ray radiography. This work will be included in the Catalogue raisonné of Théodore Géricault's paintings, currently in preparation by Bruno Chenique. Théodore Géricault was a tireless copyist throughout his life. Shortly before his untimely death at the age of 32, in full possession of his powers, he was still copying Charlet's lithographs, replying "to those who were astonished by it, that one should make the most of the good wherever one met it. "1 Géricault entered Carle Vernet's studio in 1808, before he was 17, and obtained a reader's card for the Imperial Library's Cabinet des Estampes (Print Room) on 20 February 1810. For these registration formalities, he seems to have presented his "Museum Card" which, according to Bazin, must have corresponded to "a copyist's card at the Musée Napoléon "2. The possession of such a copyist's card is attested to by a delightful letter from Vivant Denon to Guérin dated May 23, 18123. At that time, Géricault had become a pupil of Pierre Guérin (1774 - 1833), the Grand Prix de Rome and official painter, who was training many pupils. In May 1812, Géricault was already a brilliant young artist, and five months later, on November 1, 1812, he presented his first masterpiece at the Salon, the famous Equestrian Portrait of M. D.*** [Dieudonné], better known as Officer of the Imperial Guard Chasseurs Charging ( Louvre museum), for which he was awarded a gold medal worth 500 francs by Vivant Denon for his "equestrian portrait of an officer of the Imperial Guard", with an execution "full of enthusiasm" that "gives the greatest expectations "4. Fascinated by the painting and texture of the works of Rubens (1577-1640), Géricault was the first of Guérin's students to obtain a copyist's card for "the gallery of paintings in the Senate Conservateur "5 where Rubens's large paintings of the life of Marie de Médicis, painted between 1621 and 1625, were kept. Géricault, as the copy in the Dubaut collection attests, was therefore interested in transcribing a fragment of the monumental painting of the Interview of the King and Mary in Lyon, November 9, 1600 (3.94 x 2.95 m), in which Rubens painted, in the foreground, two lions surmounted by putti, pulling a chariot on 1. Charles Clément, Géricault. A Biographical Study and
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