Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000295About the Artwork
Théodore Géricault turned away from traditional subjects such as mythology and the Bible in favor of modernity, emotion, and drama. He was fascinated by the power and physical beauty of horses and depicted them often. Géricault himself was an avid rider and his paintings and drawings on this theme are characterized by vigor and movement. In this watercolor, he focused on a conflict, in which a groom struggles to separate a pair of fighting horses—a scene that appeared only a few times throughout his many interpretations of similar subjects. A sketchbook, now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, shows that the artist carefully studied the animals, including the kicking white stallion at center, in graphite before beginning this finished work.
Inscriptions
on old label (now removed), in brown ink: This drawing by Géricault was / the property of The Marquis of / Hertford & left to Sir Richard / Wallace, who in time bequethed / it to Sir John Murray Scott / Bart: / Purchased by Leggatt Bros at / the sale of Sir John Murray / Scott's Drawings etc, at 5 / Connaught Place Marble Arch. / Feb: 9th 1914.; on old label (now removed): across top, in graphite: 41 [circled] Dr. Bellingham Smith; down center, in brown ink: J. L. A. T. Géricault / Horses Fighting / Colles Marquess of Hertford / Sir Richard Wallace and / Sir John Murray Scott / Exhib. Burlington Fine Arts Club / 1922 . No 52. / Pictures drawings & Sculptures of French School / of the last 100 years.
Provenance
?-1863: Possibly Anatole Demidoff [1812-1870], Paris 1863: (Hotel Drouot, Paris, Tableaux des premiers maitres..., January 13-16, 1863, no. 58, probably sold to Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford) probably 1863-1870: Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford [1800-1870], by descent to his son Sir Richard Wallace 1870-1890: Sir Richard Wallace [1818-1890], Paris, by descent to his wife Julie-Amélie-Charlotte Castelnau, Lady Wallace 1890-1897: Julie-Amélie-Charlotte Castelnau, Lady Wallace [1819-1897], London, by descent to her advisor Sir John Murray Scott 1897-1912: Sir John Murray Scott [1847-1912], London 1914: (Phillips, Son & Neale, Contents of the Residence...of Sir John E.A. Murray Scott, February 9, 1914, no. 446) after 1914-?: (Ernest Leggatt [1853-1922; Lugt 1664e], London, sold to Guy Bellingham Smith) after 1914-1927: Guy Bellingham Smith, London 1927: (Frederik Muller & Cie, Amsterdam, Dessins anciens...Collection Bellingham-Smith, July 5-6, 1927, no. 38, probably sold to Gustav Nebehay) 1927: (Gustav Nebehay [1881-1935], Vienna, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1929-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929). Drawings in the Classic and Romantic Tradition before 1830. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 7, 1932-January 8, 1933). Exhibition of Drawings from the Museum Collection Supplemented by Loans from Local Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 12-September 15, 1935). The Work of Théodore Géricault and Honoré Daumier. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1937). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 28-December 9, 1937). Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 4-March 26, 1939). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-October 3, 1940). French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942). 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943). 19th-Century French Drawings. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (March 8-April 6, 1947). Watercolors by the Masters: Dürer to Cézanne. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (May 1-June 15, 1952). Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 8-April 15, 1956). Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959). Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960). The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (March 26-April 23, 1962). Nineteenth Century: 125 Master Drawings. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (March 26-April 23, 1962); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (May 10-June 30, 1962). The Nineteenth Century: One Hundred Twenty-Five Master Drawings. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (May 15-July 1, 1962). Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). European Watercolors Through the 18th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 14-March 22, 1964). Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965). French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1965-February 16, 1966). The Artist and the Animal: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Animal Medical Center. M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, NY (organizer) (May 7-24, 1968). Géricault. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (October 12-December 12, 1971); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (January 23-March 7, 1972); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (March 30-May 14, 1972). Brush Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 3-May 10, 1981). Goya, Gericault and Delacroix. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-April 24, 1983). Master Drawings by Géricault. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (June 7-July 31, 1985); San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA (August 31-October 20, 1985); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (November 9, 1985-January 5, 1986). Treasures on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 10-July 24, 1988). Gericault: Romantic Paintings and Drawings. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (January 28-March 26, 1989). Géricault. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (September 26, 1991-January 6, 1992). French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Théodore Géricault (French, 1791–1824)
- Date
- c. 1820
- Medium
- watercolor over graphite
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 21.7 x 29.4 cm (8 9/16 x 11 9/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund
- Accession no.
- 1929.13
More by Théodore Géricault in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00000295
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