Théodore GERICAULT (1791-1824) Lot n° 26

TULLIA HAS HER FATHER CRUSHED UNDER THE WHEELS OF HIS CHARIOT Canvas 65 x 80,5 cm. Inscriptions in black at the bottom center: "XX XX Rome X 1809". Old inscriptions, in brown ink, partly illegible on the central crosspiece of the original frame: "Tulia daughter of Servius Tullius ... her first husband ... she ..." EARLY WORK, GÉRICAULT STUDENT OF CARLE VERNET Of the training of the author of the Raft of the Medusa, we know only few certain elements. However, his time in Vernet's studio is one of them. Very few works have come down to us from this period of discovery and apprenticeship for the artist who was then at the height of his career. Indeed, in 1808, Carle Vernet was a painter for the War Department, and he received important imperial commissions and exhibited many paintings at the Salon. A painting by Géricault, preserved in the Museum of Rouen, the "Ancient Chariot", also known as "The Return of the Race", illustrates perfectly the filiation with Vernet. Copied from an engraving by Carle Vernet, this painting demonstrates the artist's fascination for antique and equestrian themes, while his style, with thick fragmented strokes, already evokes those that will characterize his time with Pierre Guérin... Our subject also combines all the elements: the ancient drama, the painting of history, the horses, the visual force of the scene... In the 6th century B.C., Tullia, daughter of King Servius Tullius, the ambitious and ready for anything, first had her husband and sister killed by her sister's husband who would become her own husband, Lucius Tarquin. Together, they then had her father murdered, publicly, before leaving his corpse in the street. In her madness, Tullia, on her chariot, crossing the mutilated remains of her father on her road, drove the horses over the body. Following the assassination, Lucius Tarquin became the last King of Rome before the Republic, under the name of Tarquin the Superb and Tullia, the last Queen. In our work, we feel the madness, the hardness, the ambition of the girl, the horror of the scene from which even the horses seem to turn away. turn away. In a very neoclassical setting already points to the Romanticism of the first half of the nineteenth century. The execution of the pupil, still young, is compensated by a vision and certainties acquired from Vernet and places this painting apart in the artist's production. We will mention a drawing that seems to be preparatory to the two horses, kept in the Louvre under the reference RF1750. Very probably: - Sale Maitre E. Escribe, Hôtel Drouot, 12 April 1870, n°19 - Paris, art market - Paris, private collection This work will be included in the catalog raisonné of Théodore Géricault's paintings, currently being prepared by Mr. Bruno Chenique