Théodore GÉRICAULT (Rouen, 1791 - Paris, 1824)... Lot 9

Théodore GÉRICAULT (Rouen, 1791 - Paris, 1824) Oriental Woman Holding a Child 1818-1819 Graphite, pen and brown ink, brown wash on laid paper with the watermark " M ". 11.2 x 8.6 cm The scene is delimited by a framing net made by the artist himself. Annotations, in graphite, on the mounting board: "July 30 [1]931/ To Monsieur le Duc de Trévise/ father [sic] and son of/ Géricault. Marie-Louise in eglomerate glass Gilded and carved wood frame from the 19th century. Provenance: - Collection of Edward, Duke of Treviso (1883-1946). - By descent, private collection. This work will be included in the Catalogue raisonné des dessins inédits et retrouvés de Théodore Géricault, currently being prepared by Bruno Chenique. There was a pencil drawing exhibited in 1924 at the Géricault exhibition, then belonging to the Pierre Dubaut collection: Oriental Woman Holding a Child in her Arms (29 x 19 cm), which seems very close in subject to the watercolor shown here. Such a subject may also relate to Géricault's March of an Arab Family through the Desert, a drawing that was sold in 1853 and has yet to be located.2 Throughout his career, Géricault was very interested in this type of oriental subject (note the presence of the palm tree), the source of which has yet to be identified. Does the scene (which seems somewhat tragic) come from a novel (Millevoye or Byron, for example)? Or is it from Auguste de Forbin and his famous Voyage dans le Levant en 1817 et 1818 (Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1819), which, as we know, interested Géricault very much from 1818. At the end of 1819, seeing the painter François Gérard from time to time, Géricault expressed to him "the strong desire he had to make some distant journey, and to seek to lead an adventurous life in countries foreign to our civilization. He spoke of visiting the Orient, of going to Jerusalem. "3 1) For technique, this drawing can be compared to those reproduced by Germain Bazin (Théodore Géricault. Étude critique, documents et catalog raisonné, t. V, Le retour à Paris, Paris, Wildenstein Institute & Bibliothèque des arts, 1992, pp. 294-295, no. 1872, repr and no. 1873, repr; p. 299, no. 1885, repr). 2) Catalogue du Cabinet de feu M. J. Feuchère, statuaire, précédé d'une notice par J. Janin, Paris, 42 rue des Jeûneurs, Ridel, commissaire-priseur, 8-10 mars 1853, part of n° 187. 3) Louis Batissier, " Géricault ", tiré à part de la Revue du dix-neuvième siècle, Rouen, sans date [1841], pp. 14-15 Expert : Mr Alexis Bordes