Théodore Géricault was born into a wealthy Rouen family in 1791. He studied with the painters Carle Vernet (1758-1836) and Pierre Guérin (1774-1833) in Paris, and in 1816-1818 traveled to Italy. The Old Masters, especially Michelangelo and Rubens, influenced him more than any contemporary artist. Already in his early works Géricault strays away from the Neoclassical canons, which dominated in the French art of the time.
1812. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris, France.
1814. Oil on canvas. 349 x 266 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1814. Oil on wood. Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland.
1817. Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
1817. Paper on canvas. 45 x 60 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1817. Oil on paper mounted on canvas. 45.1 x 60 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France.
c.1818. Watercolor over pencil on Bristol Board, and lithograph.
1818. Oil on canvas. 50 x 61 cm. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
1818-1819. Oil on canvas. 490 x 720 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1821. Oil on canvas. 92 x 123 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
c.1822. Oil on canvas. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Ghent, Belgium.
c.1822-23. Oil on canvas. 72 x 58 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyons, France.
c.1822-23. Oil on canvas. 77 x 65 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
Oil on canvas. 50 x 61. Louvre, Paris, France.
Oil on canvas. Private collection.
Oil on canvas. 64 x 53 cm. The Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia.
French Drawings from the 15th Century Through Géricault by Jean Vallery-Radot. Little Brown & Co (Pap), 1976.
Géricault: His Life and Work by L. Eitner. Hacker Art Books, 1982.
The Raft of the Medusa: Gericault, Art, and Race by Albert Alhadeff. Prestel Publishing, 2002.
Gericault in Italy by Wheelock Whitney. Yale University Press, 1997.
Géricault by Jean Sagne. Fayard, 1991.