A Wagon Full of Wounded Soldiers (Primary Title)
Théodore Géricault, French, 1791 - 1824 (Artist)
Géricault’s early works, predominantly military subjects and horses, reflect his concern for freedom and justice, borne out of his youthful education in the liberal environment of the passionately pro-revolutionary Rouen, where he was born. Géricault’s later lithographs depicted the Napoleonic soldier’s cause as either heroic and exalted or poignantly heart-rending. In A Wagon Full of Wounded Soldiers, Géricault’s maimed and amputated figures wrapped in makeshift bandages lie heaped in a cart pulled by two enraged and frustrated horses returning from battle. Géricault’s conveys his empathetic view of the situation in the expressions of both the men and horses, which he observes with the same sympathy as in his other works, including his most famous painting, Raft of the Medusa (1818-19; Louvre, Paris).
Signed in stone lower left: Gericault
Printed beneath image lower right: Lithog.ie de C. Motte.
George Corbin Harwell and Kathleen Leigh Williams Harwell Fund
"The French Horse from Géricault to Picasso: Works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts", The National Sporting Library & Museum, May 6 - July 31, 2016
"The French Horse from Géricault to Picasso: Works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts", University of Richmond, March 3 - April 25, 2016
"The French Horse from Géricault to Picasso: Works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts", University of Richmond, March 3 - April 25, 2016
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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