Le Maréchal-ferrant

1813/1814

Théodore Géricault1791 Rouen – 1824 Paris
We have 15 artworks by Théodore Géricault online.
We have 1654 paintings online.
The picture was painted for a blacksmith whose workshop was located at the intersection of the Route de Rocquencourt and the Route de Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Versailles. Judging by its good state of preservation and the absence of any traces of hinges, the store sign, made of a raw timber panel, was not hanging outdoors but was probably embedded in a door or wall. The drawing album in the Art Institute in Chicago contains over twenty preparatory studies for this composition (see Lorenz Eitner: Géricault's Compositional Method: Sketches for the 'Farrier's Signboard' in the Art Institute (The Art Institute of Chicago Centennial Lectures, Museum Studies 10, 1983)). The picture was taken shortly before Géricault's 1814 salon contribution, the 'Wounded Cuirassier' (Paris, Louvre), of which it can be considered an anticipation. Reference should be made at this point to Géricault's sketchbook in the Graphic Arts Collection.
Also known as
Der Hufschmied The Blacksmith
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
image: 122 x 102 cm
Inventory number
1965/0040
Credit line
Kunsthaus Zürich, 1965