''Portrait of Théodore Géricault'' is an 1823

portrait painting Portrait painting is a Hierarchy of genres, genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commissio ...

by the French

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (; 30 June 178917 January 1863) more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects. Biography Early career Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famo ...

depicting his friend and fellow painter

Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is '' The Raft of the Medusa''. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romanti ...

. Best known for his 1819 painting ''

The Raft of the Medusa ''The Raft of the Medusa'' ( ) – originally titled ''Scène de Naufrage'' (''Shipwreck Scene'') – is an oil painting of 1818–1819 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791–1824). Completed when the ar ...

'', Géricault was a prominent figure in the rising movement of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

before his death from

consumption Consumption may refer to: * Eating *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically known as consumption * Consumer (food chain), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of n ...

in 1824. While most depictions of Géricault were posthumous such as

Ary Scheffer Ary Scheffer (10 February 179515 June 1858) was a Dutch-French Romantic painter. He was known mostly for his works based on literature, with paintings based on the works of Dante, Goethe, Lord Byron and Walter Scott, Macmillan, Duncan (2023), ' ...

's ''The Death of Géricault'', it is likely Vernet painted this in February 1823. Today the painting is in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, having been acquired in 1988. Around the same time Vernet also produced a full-length

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

of Géricault.Baum, Bayer & Wagstaff p.327

References

Bibliography

* Baum, Kelly, Bayer, Andrea & Wagstaff, Sheena. ''Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible''. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. * Harkett, Daniel & Hornstein, Katie (ed.) ''Horace Vernet and the Thresholds of Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture''. Dartmouth College Press, 2017. * Noon, Patrick & Bann, Stephen. ''Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics''. Tate, 2003. 1823 paintings Paintings by Horace Vernet Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Oil on canvas paintings 19th-century portraits {{1820s-painting-stub