Theodore Gericault: biography and paintings. The founder of romanticism in French painting, Théodore Géricault, Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault, paintings

What attracts people in Gericault is realism, the gift of poeticizing reality, the breadth of his courageous epic style, his passionate love of life, and the humanism that permeates his work.

Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault was born on September 26, 1791 in Rouen. His father, Georges Nicolas Gericault, was a lawyer, and his mother, Louise Caruel de Saint-Martin, came from an old and wealthy bourgeois family.

Theodore was nothing like his cautious, calculating and skeptical father. After the family settled in Paris in 1797 or 1798, the boy often ran with his peers to the Champ de Mars, to the Tuileries grille or to the outposts to admire the military parade or wait with bated breath for the regiments of the Napoleonic army to enter Paris.

He usually spent every summer in Rouen or in his father's homeland, in the vicinity of Mortain. Here he could walk through the fields, sit in the stable or in the forge. The feeling of deep respect that Gericault always had for working people was born precisely during these years.

In 1801, Theodore was placed in a boarding school at the private boarding house Dubois-Loiseau, and then his father transferred him to the boarding house of René Richard Castel. Around 1804, Gericault entered the Imperial Lyceum, where the same Castel taught. Theodore was then thirteen years old. The lessons did not interest him. He forgot about them and covered the pages of his notebooks with drawings, became interested in music and read a lot.

Since childhood, the boy became addicted to equestrian sports and was already a first-class rider at the age of sixteen. In Paris, he used every free day to go either to the Louvre, where Rubens attracted his attention, or to the circus of the equestrian Franconi. And in Mortain he rode unbroken horses without fear.

On July 1, 1808, Theodore left the Lyceum. He makes two decisions: buy his own horse and devote his life to painting. In the fall of 1808, Gericault became a student of Carl Vernet, a rather mediocre, but fashionable at that time Parisian battle painter and genre painter, a great master of drawing horses. Gericault, however, was skeptical of his teacher: “One of my horses will eat seven of his horses!”

Two years later, the young artist chooses to continue his studies in the workshop of a staunch follower of classicism, Pierre Guerin. Here Theodore began to persistently and carefully study nature, the laws of composition and methods of classical generalization. Gericault's attraction to heroic images becomes quite clear.

In the autumn of 1812, Géricault created his first large canvas, “Officer of the Imperial Horse Chasseurs during an Attack,” and he presented it at the Salon of the same year. The picture was a success; it drew the attention of artistic circles to a name unknown until then.

“Officer of the Imperial Jaegers” is one of those works that are unusually effective in design, striking at first sight, and etched in the memory for a long time. The picture is full of pathos, it breathes the romance of battle. Géricault was awarded gold medal. But, much to the artist’s disappointment, the government did not buy the painting.

In 1813, Gericault, who had previously lived with his father, moved to his own workshop. In 1813–1814, he created a number of paintings and sketches on military themes: “Three mounted trumpeters”, “Cuirassier”, “Sitting trumpeter”.

At the Salon of 1814, Géricault presented the painting “The Wounded Cuirassier.”

If in “Officer” the artist paints the image of a fearless young hero leading the regiments to victory, then in “The Wounded Cuirassier” we see the tragic image of a wounded warrior who experienced defeat and was forced to leave the battlefield.

The picture was not a success. Géricault's idea—to poetize military failures—remained unclear. The closest works created by Gericault still revolve around military themes. This is a magnificent sketch of “Departure of Artillery”, “Cart with Wounded”, “Attack of Cuirassiers”.

At the beginning of 1816, Gericault left for Italy. Here he studied and copied antiques, the works of Raphael and Michelangelo. From Italian artists he learned those tendencies towards generalization, monumentality, and nobility of language that would affect his work on monumental designs in the coming years.

A new stage in the master’s work, which began upon his return to Paris, was marked by the creation of the painting “The Raft of the Medusa” (1818–1819). In an effort to present on canvas the story of the rescue of shipwrecked people at sea, the artist did a lot of preparatory studies.

Gericault multiplies sketches from life, works in a hospital, and tirelessly paints the sick and dead.

“His workshop,” his biographer reports, “turned into a kind of morgue, where he preserved corpses until they were completely decomposed, working in an environment that visiting friends and sitters could endure only for a short time.”

Not content with this, Gericault searches everywhere for models that could serve him as truthful examples. Having accidentally met his friend Lebrun, who had jaundice, he was delighted. “I inspired fear,” says Lebrun, “children ran away from me, mistaking me for dead, but I was beautiful for a painter who looked everywhere for the color characteristic of a dying person.”

Giving a private event a deep and historical meaning, Géricault reveals in the picture a complex range of human feelings - from complete despair and apathy to passionate hope for salvation.

At the Salon of 1819, the painting was noticed and quickly became one of the central exhibits of the exhibition. The press started a fight around her. Political motives were also mixed into artistic assessments: Géricault’s work was perceived as a certain attack against the existing regime. Géricault never received the government's offer to purchase it.

Disappointed that his grandiose plan was not appreciated, Géricault left for England in 1820, where he spent two years. There he met John Constable, who, with his enthusiasm, awakened new strength in Géricault, persuading him to begin, despite the depression that overcame him, his second great work, “The Races at Epsom” (1821).

Four horses fly like a whirlwind over the racing field, their front and hind legs extended parallel to the ground. One gets the impression of extraordinary swiftness and flight. The horses and jockeys are depicted with great care, with a certain dryness that was unexpected for Gericault. On the contrary, the landscape - a plain covered with green grass with hills on the horizon, a cloudy sky with gaps - is painted broadly and generally. It seems that the horses are rushing forward, and the ground is rapidly running away under their feet.

The vivid image of galloping horses created by Gericault gained enormous popularity, became a kind of classical canon, and was repeated countless times, evoking the impression of speed and flight.

In the spring of 1822, Gericault returned to France with poor health. Despite this, in a few months he manages to create a number of interesting works.

This is, first of all, his “Lime Kiln”, which should be considered as important stage in the development of realistic landscape.

“Everything is harsh in this landscape - the absence of trees and any vegetation emphasizes the desolation and desolation of the place,” writes B.N. Ternovets. – The color of the picture further enhances this mood. The color scheme is reduced to brown, warm green, gray and yellow tones. In this work, Gericault is the founder of realistic landscape; he raises the importance of landscape as an independent genre.”

In addition, Gericault creates a wonderful series of portraits of the mentally ill, among them “Mad”, “Obsessed with a mania for theft”. These images are shrouded in a kind of sublime sadness, bearing the imprint of that high humanity that permeates the artist’s attitude towards broken, lost human beings.

Unfortunately, a serious illness did not allow the artist to realize all his talents. In February 1823 he took to his bed. Delacroix, who visited him in December 1823, writes in his diary: “Tonight I visited Gericault. What a sad evening! He is dying, his thinness is terrible; his thighs became as thick as my arms, his head the head of a dying old man... What a terrible change! I returned home full of enthusiasm for his painting. Especially the study of the carabinieri's head! Remember him. This is a signpost. Wonderful sketches! What a fortress! What excellence! And to die next to all these works, created with all the strength and passion of youth, when you can’t turn a finger in your bed without someone else’s help!”

Theodore Gericault. Raft of Medusa. 1818 - 1819 Canvas, oil. 491cm x 716 cm. Paris, Louvre

"Neither poetry nor painting can ever express
the horror and torment experienced by people on the raft"
Theodore Gericault

No matter how tired and sated with impressions a visitor to the Louvre may be, he will probably stop in the 77th room of the Denon gallery in front of the painting “The Raft of the Medusa” and, forgetting his fatigue, will begin to look at the huge canvas. The public, who first saw the painting at the exhibition of the Paris Salon in August 1819, was amazed by it no less than our contemporaries. Newspapers wrote that crowds of visitors stopped "before this frightening picture that attracts every eye." Parisians, unlike today's viewers, did not have to explain what the young painter Theodore Gericault (1791 -1824) depicted. Although the painting was called “Scene of a Shipwreck,” everyone unmistakably recognized the raft of the Medusa, the history of which was known to every Frenchman at that time.

Paintings by Theodore Gericault "The Wounded Cuirassier" (1814) and "The Raft of the Medusa" in the Louvre, Denon Gallery .

On June 17, 1816, a French naval expedition, consisting of the frigate Medusa and three other ships, headed to Senegal. There were about 400 people on board the frigate - the new governor of the colony, officials, their families, soldiers of the so-called African Battalion. The head of the expedition, captain of the Medusa de Chaumaret, was appointed to this position through patronage, and his incompetence manifested itself in the most fatal way. "Medusa" lost sight of the accompanying ships, and on the night of July 2 ran aground between the Cape Verde Islands and the coast of West Africa. A leak developed in the ship's hull, and it was decided to abandon it, but there were not enough lifeboats for everyone. As a result, the captain, governor with his retinue and senior officers were placed in boats, and 150 sailors and soldiers moved to a raft built under the leadership of engineer Alexander Correar. The boats were supposed to tow the raft to shore, but at the first sign of bad weather, the ropes connecting the boats to the raft burst (or were deliberately cut off), and the boats floated away.

Reconstruction of the raft "Medusa"

Already on the first night, people left on the overcrowded raft with almost no food or drink (since the shore was not far, they decided not to overload the raft with supplies), entered into a bloody battle, winning water and safer places near the mast from each other. Murder, madness, and cannibalism were their lot until 12 days after the shipwreck, the Argus, one of the ships accompanying the Medusa, removed the 15 survivors from the raft. Five of them died soon after.

The boat sails away from the raft. Sketch by Theodore Gericault for the painting “The Raft of the Medusa.”

The story of the Medusa shipwreck did not leave the newspaper pages; the surviving passengers of the raft, engineer Alexandre Correard and surgeon Henri Savigny, published the book “The Death of the frigate “Medusa”” in November 1817, in which they openly, without hiding the terrible details, spoke about their experiences. But the theme visual arts The story of "Medusa" did not begin until Theodore Gericault became interested in it, shortly after the book was published, returning from a long trip to Italy. This native of Rouen received a good artistic education and had already attracted attention with several works - portraits of Napoleonic officers on the battlefield, and the horses, which Gericault loved since childhood, occupied the artist no less than the soldiers.

Theodore Gericault. Self-portrait.

Géricault was financially independent and could afford to write his “Raft of the Medusa” for as long as he wanted. The artist immersed himself in events, modeled them, “staged” them like a theatrical play, walked through all the circles of this hell, for which he was later called “Dante in Painting” in one of the newspapers. He knew the book by Correard and Savigny by heart, got acquainted with all the documents, including the materials of the trial of the captain, talked for a long time with the survivors of the raft, painted their portraits.

Theodore Gericault. Mounted ranger officer during an attack. 1812

He rented a huge workshop in which, with the help of the participants in the fateful voyage, a model of the raft was built. The artist placed wax figures on it, clarifying the composition of the future painting. He visited the sea coast of Normandy to survive the storm and make sketches. He talked with doctors to imagine how extreme deprivation - hunger, thirst, fear - affects a person's body and mind. Gericault made sketches in hospitals and morgues, sketched the faces of madmen in hospitals. He brought the decomposing remains from the morgue and not only painted them, but sat surrounded by fragments of bodies to imagine what it was like to be there on the raft. Few could withstand the atmosphere of his workshop even for a few minutes; he worked in it from morning to night.

More than a hundred sketches - in pen, gouache, oil - were made by Gericault in search of the plot of the picture. Fights, disgusting scenes of cannibalism, despair and madness, the moment of salvation... to all subjects, the artist, in the end, preferred the moment when a barely visible sail appears on the horizon and it is not yet clear whether the raft will be noticed from the ship.

Battle on the raft. Sketch by Theodore Gericault for the painting “The Raft of the Medusa.” .

In November 1818, Gericault retired to his studio, shaved his head so that there would be no temptation to go out, and for eight months he was left alone with a canvas of 35 square meters. meters. Only close friends entered the workshop, including the young Eugene Delacroix, who posed for one of the figures. Delacroix was among the first spectators: when he saw the picture, he was so shocked that “in delight he rushed to run like crazy and could not stop until he got home.”

..
Fragments of bodies from the anatomical theater. Sketches by Theodore Gericault for the painting “The Raft of the Medusa.”

The picture is truly stunning, but not at all naturalistic, as one might expect: the artistic image turned out to be stronger than the documentary. Where are the emaciated, dried-out bodies, the insane faces, the half-decomposed corpses? Before us are athletes, beautiful even in death, and only the bloody ax in the lower right corner of the canvas reminds us of scenes of violence. Gericault accumulated his experience in reconstructing the events on the raft into a perfect, deeply thought-out composition of the picture, in which every gesture and every detail was verified. The artist chose a point of view from above, pushing the raft that rose on the wave as far as possible to the front edge of the canvas - it seems to float out of the plane of the picture, involving the viewer in the action. Four dead bodies in the foreground form an arc, pulling the raft into the depths of the sea, to death. Arms, legs, heads are turned down, in this part of the raft reigns the immobility of the dead and the numbness of the living - a father frozen over the body of his dead son, and a madman sitting next to him with an empty gaze.

Sketches by Theodore Gericault for the painting “The Raft of the Medusa”

A heavy sail, which echoes the wave approaching the raft with its bend, the mast, the ropes securing it and a group of doubters who do not yet believe in the salvation of people, form a compositional “great pyramid”, the top of which slopes towards the wave, in the direction opposite to the ship. On the right, the “pyramid of hope” rushes upward with a foundation of exhausted bodies and a peak on which people are grouped, trying to attract the attention of the ship. We again see the movements of the hands echoing each other, reaching forward to a barely noticeable point on the horizon. A low cloud duplicates the outline of a wave absorbing the “great pyramid”, but a ray breaks through the clouds, against which the “pyramid of hope” appears.

Compositional "pyramids"

In Géricault's painting one can sense a deep and respectful knowledge of the classics.
The contrasting lighting with faces and figures snatched from the darkness makes us talk about the influence of Caravaggio; something Rubensian is seen in the dramatic interweaving of living and dead bodies. But most of all, the artist was influenced by his beloved Michelangelo, about his meeting with whose works Gericault wrote: “I trembled, I doubted myself and for a long time could not recover from this experience.” Strong relief modeling, giving the figures a sculptural quality, high pathos of images, sharp angles - all this refers us to the images of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo Buonarroti. Fragment of the fresco "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. 1537-1541 .

What struck contemporaries about Géricault’s work was not its classical perfection, but its unheard-of audacity: the story of a recent shipwreck was suitable for newspaper pages, but not for a large-scale multi-figure painting. The huge life-size canvas depicted not heroes of ancient history or mythology, as was customary according to the canons of neoclassicism, but contemporaries, and common people at that. There was nothing moralizing or sublime in the plot of the picture; all the norms and concepts of academic art were violated. Few people saw that Gericault elevated the specific story of a shipwreck to a symbol, managed to give it universality, presented it as an eternal confrontation between man and the elements, and brought a fresh breath of romanticism into the ordered, strict, static world of neoclassicism - impulse, movement, living feeling.

Eugene Delacroix. "Dante's Boat". 1822
The film shows the influence of the work of Theodore Gericault

But the matter was not limited to aesthetic rejection of the picture. “The Raft of the Medusa,” unexpectedly for the author, floated into a sea of ​​political passions. In the picture, contemporaries saw an allegory of France during the Restoration era, mired in corruption and bribery (which became the reason for the tragic outcome of the voyage under the command of an inept but appointed captain under the patronage). Government circles and the official press considered the painter a dangerous rebel; King Louis XVIII himself sarcastically asked: “This, Monsieur Gericault, is not a shipwreck in which the artist who created him will drown?” On the contrary, opponents of the regime saw the film as an incriminating document. As one critic wrote, Géricault “showed at thirty square meters The painting is a disgrace to the French navy.” Historian and publicist Jules Michelet summed up the scandal surrounding the painting with an apt phrase: “This is France itself, this is our society loaded onto the raft of the Medusa.”

..
Portrait of a madwoman. 1824

Gericault was dumbfounded by this reception: “An artist, like a jester, must be able to treat with complete indifference to everything that comes from newspapers and magazines.” The odious painting was not bought by the state, and the disappointed author went on a tour of England with his painting, where he showed “The Raft” at paid exhibitions and found a much more favorable reception than in his homeland.

Theodore Gericault. Horse racing at Epsom. 1821

It seemed that “The Raft of the Medusa” was the first major work of a promising young artist, and that, judging by his next works - a series of portraits of the mentally ill and the painting "Epsom Races" painted in England - a brilliant future awaited Géricault. The intended historical painting, The French Retreat from Russia in 1812, might have eclipsed The Raft of the Medusa, but Theodore Géricault's early masterpiece turned out to be his last major work. In January 1824, the artist died after a painful illness, having never recovered from an unfortunate fall from a horse. (Ironically, Captain de Chaumeret, who destroyed the Medusa, lived a long but shameful life).

Theodore Gericault. White horse head

After the death of Theodore Gericault, “The Raft of the Medusa” was put up at auction and purchased by his close friend, the artist Pierre-Joseph Dedreux-Dorcy, for 6,000 francs, while the Louvre was not ready to pay more than 5,000 francs for the canvas. Dedreux-Dorcy rejected the offer to sell the work for a large sum in the United States and eventually gave it to the Louvre for the same 6,000 francs, with the condition that it would be placed in the main exhibition of the museum.

Nicholas Maillot. "The Raft of the Medusa" in the Louvre. 1831

Illustrations from Wikimedia

The age of an artist varies. Some people create for 40-50 years, leaving hundreds of paintings for people, others barely have time to reveal their talent... Gericault was given only a decade to create. His tragic death came as a surprise to everyone and a huge loss for art. But each work of this master became a model for several generations of artists, and in the history of art it is difficult to find a painter close in talent and depth.

Theodore Gericault was born into a wealthy bourgeois family. His father owned several tobacco plantations in the south of France, and his mother came from a highly respected merchant family. The boy's childhood passed during the Great Revolution, which miraculously did not affect his family.

From his youth, Theodore was distinguished by two passions - horses and drawing. Good manners required that the scion of a famous family receive a good education and serve the fatherland. After graduating from a prestigious college, Gericault entered the military service, into the Musketeers. By this time, revolutionary ideas had become somewhat frayed and lost their rebellious meaning. France turned from a republic into an empire, and an empire, as you know, requires an imperial style in art. The heavy, clumsy and rich Empire style could not be to everyone’s taste young man, who received the basics of painting from such famous artists as Vernet and Guerin, faithful to the old testaments of the great Flemings and Dutch.

The young musketeer writes his first works, as expected, on battle scenes. This period of creativity left us with many drawings and sketches depicting the master’s favorite horses.

For 5 years (1810-1815), the artist diligently copied the works of... All this time he is trying to comprehend the secrets of the masters of the past and find his own style. A trip to Italy played an important role in Gericault’s life. Unlike France, in this country painting traditions developed continuously over 6 centuries, and the rest of Europe often adopted everything that was born in Italy.

From his Italian trip, Gericault brings back his most famous work, “The Raft of the Medusa.” The drama, emotionality, unprecedented accuracy and meaningfulness of the image surprised the French and left many indifferent. France had not yet adopted the fashion for romanticism, reveling in its own Empire style and the remnants of classicism. The French were unprepared to appreciate the work of their great master.

Very little time passed and critics, adherents of academicism in painting, suddenly saw in Gericault a talented and courageous master. The French “quacked” and went to see the picture a second time. Glory has arrived...

Enjoying fame and many orders, Gericault began the work that he had planned back in 1812. A romantic, citizen and creative person, the artist was planning to write a monumental work on the theme of the retreat of French troops from Russia. The plot was known, the composition was developed, prototypes were looked for among the soldiers. A tragic accident interrupted the master's life. In 1824, during Géricault's usual riding training, he fell from his horse. The blow landed on the temple.

The master's legacy became several psychological portraits, battle paintings, several genre works, several unfinished sculptures and a huge number of drawings and sketches, in each of which you can see the master’s brilliant ideas that remained unfinished.

» Gericault Theodore

Creativity and biography - Gericault Theodore

Gericault Theodore (1791-1824) - French painter, graphic artist and sculptor, founder of revolutionary romanticism in French painting.

Born in Rouen into a wealthy family. He studied in Paris at the Imperial Lyceum (1806-1808). His teachers were K.J. Berne and P.N. Guerin. But they did not influence the formation of his artistic style - in the painting of Gericault, the tendencies of the art of A. J. Gros and J. L. David can be traced. The artist visited the Louvre, where he made copies of the works of old masters; he was especially admired by the paintings of Rubens.

Influenced by the painting of A. J. Gros, who dedicated many of his works to the victories of Napoleonic army, Géricault turns to the dramatic events of his era (“Officer of mounted rangers during an attack,” 1812, Louvre, Paris). This picture, painted at the beginning of the French army’s campaign in Russia, was distinguished by its sharp life observations, stormy dynamics, and emotional richness of color. The painting “The Wounded Cuirassier” (1814, Louvre, Paris), conceived as a pair to the previous one, where instead of a hero striving for victory, an officer is depicted barely standing on his feet leaving the battlefield, reflected the tragedy of the situation that developed in France after the defeat of Napoleon’s army in Russia, people's disappointment in Napoleonic policies. The gloomy foreboding is enhanced by the landscape with low-hanging dark clouds.

In 1816 the artist left for Italy. In Florence and Rome he studies the work of the old masters. Impressed by monumental art, Géricault created the painting “Running of Free Horses in Rome” (1817, Louvre, Paris), depicting equestrian competitions during the carnival in Rome. The main motive of this work is the opposition of human power and nature, embodied in the image of a mighty horse.

Like other romantics, Gericault is interested in the theme of man's struggle with the natural elements, and he turns to the motif of the sea. In 1819, the artist exhibited one of his best works at the Salon - the grandiose composition “The Raft of the Medusa” (1818-1819, Louvre, Paris). The picture was based on real events: in the summer of 1816, due to the unprofessionalism of the captain, the frigate Medusa sank on the reefs off the coast of Africa. Of the 149 people who moved from the broken ship onto the raft, only 15 were saved; all the rest died from hunger and thirst. Help for those in distress came only on the twelfth day.

When creating a picture, Gericault strives to be extremely accurate; he finds eyewitnesses of events and paints their portraits, works in a hospital and morgue, making sketches of sick people and corpses. The artist studies the sea very carefully, writes many sketches depicting the sea at the time of excitement and storm. The surviving sketches make it clear that the painter wanted to show the struggle of people on a raft with each other, but later abandoned this plan. The final version of the picture represents the moment when people, who have already lost hope of salvation, see the Argus ship on the horizon and are drawn to it.

Making numerous sketches, the artist worked for a long time to find a composition, choosing to depict the raft from an upper point of view, which made it possible to take in everything that was happening at one glance. Dissatisfied with the solution found, Géricault attributes another figure to the bottom right of the painting already on display - this highlights the foreground and enhances the tragic sound. The front edge of the image is, as it were, cut off by the frame, which allows the viewer to feel like a participant in the terrible events presented in the picture on an epic scale.

To show the film in England, Gericault traveled to London. The painting was a huge success in opposition circles in France and did not arouse enthusiasm among representatives of official art; the state did not acquire it.

During the time spent in England (1820-22), where the artist was influenced by J. Constable, he created a number of watercolors and lithographs with scenes folk life: “The Coal Cart”, “Plowing England”, “The Forge”, etc. In a stern, restrained manner, Gericault depicted the episodes that revealed to him the life of the English poor, beggars, and tramps.

In England, the artist created a series of lithographs that reflected his English impressions (“A Beggar Dying at the Door of a Bakery,” 1821; “At the Gates of the Adelphic Dockyard in London”), and also worked on paintings (“Horse Races at Epsom,” 1821, Louvre, Paris; "Lime Kiln", 1821-1822, Louvre, Paris).

Géricault’s skill was manifested in portraiture; he painted his famous contemporaries (“Portrait of the young Delacroix”, 1819, Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics, Rouen), and, by order of his psychiatrist friend, created a number of portraits of his patients. These works are distinguished by great expressive power; they reveal the deep tragedy of the suffering human soul (“Crazy Old Woman”, 1822-1823, Museum, Lyon; “Madman Who Imagines Himself as a Commander”, 1822-1823, Reinhart Collection, Winterthur).

Classicism, with its strict ideas and cold calculations, began to provoke resistance from those artists who wanted to express in art, first of all, their feelings, experiences and moods, to give free rein to their imagination. In contrast to classicism, which dreamed of antiquity, these artists turned their gaze to the Middle Ages, to distant exotic countries, and especially to the East. Thanks to this romantic, i.e. The movement of romanticism developed in the painting of the second quarter of the 19th century due to the dreamy, poetic way of feeling.

Half-forgotten landscape painting flourished again, historical painting experienced a rapid rise, many artists were inspired by literary subjects, in particular from romantic works.

The painting of the romantics was distinguished by an excited, hot coloring, a strong contrast of color spots, and a deliberate rejection of precision and classical refinement of the drawing. The composition is often chaotic, devoid of majesty and unshakable calm.

The struggle between the classicists and the romantics lasted for almost half a century: the Romantics reproached the classicists for cold rationality and lack of movement, and the classicists reproached the romantics for writing “like a mad broom.” It was a struggle between two different artistic worldviews.

The first Romantic artist in France was Theodore Géricault. This is a master of heroic monumental paintings, who combined in his work the features of both classicism and romanticism, and, finally, a powerful realistic principle, which had a huge influence on the art of realism of the mid-19th century. But during his lifetime he was appreciated only by a few close friends.

For the first time in 1812, Gericault announced himself with a large canvas “An officer of the mounted rangers of the imperial guard, going into the attack.” The picture was a success, and Gericault received a gold medal for it. But the next big picture, “The Wounded Cuirassier,” was a complete failure, because it was considered a hint at the defeat of Napoleon in Russia.

All his life, Gericault had a passion for horses, which was reflected in his paintings, where horses were depicted in various subjects, in different situations.

In 1817, the artist left for Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance, which everyone admired and which, according to the artist himself, even overwhelms with its greatness. Géricault carefully studies classicism, but persistently searches for heroic images in modern times. Thus, the events that happened with the French ship "Medusa" in the summer of 1816 gave the artist a plot full of drama. The picture was received with restraint, the passions around it were purely political: some saw in it the artist’s manifestation of civic courage, others saw it as slander against reality.

Gericault goes to England and shows this picture there, where it was a great success. Upon returning to France, the artist painted tragic images of crazy people, people with a heightened psyche.

For the last eleven months of his life, Gericault was already mortally ill: as a result of a fall from a horse, he was bedridden. He died in January 1824.