Géricault, Delacroix, Bonheur
The Romantic Horse
The horse as passion, terror and power.
French painting found its fever in the horse: Géricault’s grooms wrestling the riderless racers, Delacroix’s Mazeppa carried to exhaustion and his lion over its kill, Rosa Bonheur’s greys coming home from the Paris market. Painted and drawn between 1817 and 1873.
1817–1873 · France
The Race of the Riderless Horses
Grooms wrestle a crowd of rearing horses at the start, in Géricault’s oil sketch of 1817.
An Arabian Horse
A grey Arabian held by its groom on open ground, Géricault’s lithograph of 1821.
Mazeppa on the Dying Horse
Mazeppa lashed to the back of a collapsing horse on the open plain, in Delacroix’s small oil of 1824.
Lion Devouring a Horse
A lion over a fallen horse at the mouth of a cave, Delacroix’s lithograph of 1844.
Three Arab Horsemen at an Encampment
Three horsemen and a seated figure by a tent, in Delacroix’s watercolour of about 1832.
Return from the Horse Fair
The greys coming home from market in a long frieze, Bonheur’s watercolour of 1873.