Two Rediscovered Landscapes by Géricault and the Chronology of His Early Work

* My thanks are due to Mr. Paul Brame and Mr. C. de Hauke who permitted me to view the two rediscovered paintings in Paris and very kindly made available to me a set of excellent photographs.

Abstract

DESPITE his troubled life, his long illness, and early death, Géricault left a prodigious number of works. In the presence of the more than twelve hundred paintings and drawings—not to mention the lithographs and the essays in sculpture—Delacroix's judgment that Géricault “squandered his youth” seems severe.¹ The scope of Géricault's work in fact is only beginning to become recognized.² Since the last attempt at a complete catalogue was published, in 1879,³ the number of his known works has more than doubled. Scarcely a year passes without some significant discovery. And yet, all this amounts only to a fragment of his total production. Géricault's biographer, Charles Clément, still knew of important paintings that have inexplicably vanished, despite the attention which collectors and scholars have continuously given to Géricault.