Théodore GERICAULT (Rouen 1791 - Paris 1824) - Lot 3

Théodore GERICAULT (Rouen 1791 - Paris 1824) * Two lions pulling a chariot. Canvas. 45.5 x 56 cm On the back, on the stretcher, the red wax stamp of the Pierre Dubaut collection. Provenance : - Funck-Brentano sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, April 29, 1921 (Maître Baudoin), no. 179 ; - Collection Pierre-Olivier Dubaut (1886 - 1968), probably as early as 1937; - Collection Maxime Dubaut, Paris ; - Jacqueline Dubaut-Bellonte Collection, Paris; - Pierre Dubaut sale, Deauville Artcurial, August 22, 2009, no. 17, reproduced; - Aristophil sale, Neuilly-sur-Seine (Maître Aguttes), April 4, 2023, no. 16. Exhibition: Künstlerkopien, Basel, Kunsthalle, September 18 - October 17, 1937, n°78, reproduced. Bibliography: - Ph. Grunchec, "L'inventaire posthume de Théodore Géricault (1791-1824)", Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'art français, 1976-1978, p.415, note 44: "Géricault, Deux lions, d'après Rubens, ancienne collection de Pierre Dubaut"; - Ph. Grunchec, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Géricault, Paris, 1978, p.88, n°18, reproduced: "Géricault, Deux lions, d'après Rubens, 1808-1812, oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm, Paris, private collection". - G. Bazin, Théodore Géricault. Etude critique, documents et catalog raisonné, t.II, Paris. L'oeuvre, période de formation, Paris, 1987, p.434, no. 320, rep: "Deux lions, d'après Rubens, oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm, Paris, private collection. Germain Bazin, who admits not having seen the painting, prefers to keep his opinion to himself. This work will be included in the Catalogue raisonné of Théodore Géricault's paintings, currently being prepared by Mr. Bruno Chenique. A certificate issued by Bruno Chenique in 2022 will be given to the buyer. The painting we are presenting is an early work by Théodore Géricault. When he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in February 1811, he devoted himself to copying the paintings collected by Napoleon I, whether Italian, French or Flemish. Here, he reproduces a detail from l'Entrevue du roi et de Marie de Médicis à Lyon le 9 novembre 1600 (Paris, Musée du Louvre), a monumental work by Flemish painter Pierre-PaulRubens. Throughout his life, Théodore Géricault was a tireless copyist. He was also fascinated by Rubens' paintings, and succeeded in obtaining a copyist's card for the "Galerie des tableaux du Sénat conservateur", where Rubens' great paintings of the life of Marie de Médicis were kept between 1621 and 1625. This 1811-1812 copy was used to produce a larger version after 1820 (Ph. Grunchec, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Géricault, Paris, 1978, p.88, no. 19, reproduced), in which Géricault made a few changes. Bazin asserted that "we are no longer in the presence of a copy, but of a painting". Géricault, faithful to Rubens' own method of using old motifs to create new compositions, eliminated the chariot, replacing it with a rocky promontory and a tree emerging from the fog, once again profoundly modifying Rubens' primitive iconography, retaining only the motifs of the lions unhindered. For Chesneau, in copying the old masters, a most audacious act, Géricault had rediscovered "the great tradition of execution, the broad, bold, individual touch", which was to find its pinnacle in 1819's Raft of the Medusa.