- Gallery Text
-
Discouraged by what he believed to be the conservative tastes of the French art establishment, Géricault traveled to England and exhibited his work in London in 1820–21. Received with critical acclaim, he engaged with the local manner, which included an embrace of naturalistic compositions and a more muted palette. Here he depicts a weary uniformed postman receiving a drink from a waiter outside a roadside inn. He focuses attention on the horses, contrasting their detailed muscular frames with the summarily rendered figures and landscape. The inn’s sign, which translates as “White Horse” even though a black one is illustrated, locates the scene in France, possibly outside Paris, explicitly alluding to Géricault’s mingling of British painting conventions and a French context.
- Identification and Creation
-
- Object Number
- 1943.244
- People
-
Théodore Géricault, French (Rouen 1791 - 1824 Paris)
- Title
- The White Horse Tavern
- Other Titles
- Alternate Title: Postillion at the Door of an Inn / Dispatch Rider
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- painting
- Date
- 1821-1822
- Culture
- French
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/229865
- Location
-
Level 2, Room 2200, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Emergence of Romanticism in Early Nineteenth-Century France
View this object's location on our interactive map - Physical Descriptions
-
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- sight: 54 x 44.5 cm (21 1/4 x 17 1/2 in.)
framed: 71 x 61.5 cm (27 15/16 x 24 3/16 in.) - Inscriptions and Marks
-
- inscription: verso, upper left of canvas: [illegible mark or text encircled]
- inscription: verso, upper left of stretcher, graphite: 10
- inscription: verso, upper left of stretcher, white chalk: 7 [encircled]
- inscription: verso, upper left of frame, impressed: M. GRIEVE CO. / HAND CARVED / NEW YORK & LONDON
- inscription: verso, upper center of stretcher, white chalk: 10-B-805
- inscription: verso, upper center of frame, white cahlk: A16
- inscription: verso, lower center stretcher, graphite: MOH [?]
- label: verso, upper center stretcher, black crayon: [illegible] 256
- Provenance
- Duchesne, sold [through his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1846]. Achille Boucher, Paris, sold [through his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 19-20, 1850, no. 23]; to Bouchet, Paris. Mme. X, sold [through anonymous sale, Galerie Georges Petit, 1926, no. 103]; to [Paul Rosenberg, Paris, 1926]. Baron Joseph Vitta, sold [through Martin Birnbaum]; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, NY, 1930, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.
- Acquisition and Rights
-
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
- Accession Year
- 1943
- Object Number
- 1943.244
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Publication History
-
Hans Tietze, ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America (London, England, 1939), p. 327, repr. p. 264
Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 7
"Paintings from the Winthrop Collection", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, March 1945), vol. X, no. 3, pp. 98-103, repr. p. 100
[Unidentified article], The Chronicle: A Sporting Journal, Middleburgh VA (May 4, 1956), repr. on cover in b/w and noted p. 35
Maurice Gobin, Géricault, 1791-1824, dans la collection d'un amateur, Editions des Quatre chemins-Editart (Paris, France, 1959), no. 37
Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 87, p. 120; repr. p. 121 in b/w
Philippe Grunchec, All the Paintings of Théodore Géricault, Rizzoli (New York, NY, 1976)
Henri Zerner, "Théodore Géricault: Artist of Man and Beast", Apollo (June 1978), vol. CVII, no. 196, pp. 480-486, p. 483, repr. as color plate XVII
Philippe Grunchec and Jacques Thuillier, L'Opera Completa di Gericault, Rizzoli Editore (Milan, Italy, 1978), no. 216, p. 121, repr.
Lorenz Eitner, Géricault: His Life and Work, Orbis Publishing Ltd. (London, England, 1983), pp. 252-253, 278; repr. p. 319 as pl. 42; no. 72, p. 356
Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 204, p. 179, repr. in color
Germain Bazin, Théodore Géricault: Etude critique, documents, et catalogue raisonné, Wildenstein Institute (Paris, France, 1987 -1997), vol. 2, pp. 233, 237, fig. 191; vol. 7, no. 2552, repr.; pp. 47, 224-225
Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 69, color plate; pp. 108, 225, repr. b/w cat. no. 273
Lorenz Eitner, Gericault, Sa vie, son oeuvre, Gallimard (Paris, France, 1991), repr. in b/w fig. 159, p. 353
Régis Michel, Gericault l'invention du reel, Decouvertes Gallimard/Reunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1992), repr. in b/w p. 144
Alfredo de Paz, Géricault, la febbre dell'arte e della vita, Liguori Editore (Naples, Italy, 1997), pp. 194, 397, repr. as fig. 175
Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 44, pp. 138-140, repr. in color
Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 35, cat. 22, ill.
Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 44, pp. 144-146, repr. in color
Susan Siegfried, Alternative Narratives, Art History (February 2013), volume 36, issue 1, pp. 100-127, pp. 112-113, repr. fig. 8
"Géricault's Staying Power", Index Magazine ([e-journal], August 13, 2018), https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/gericault-s-staying-power, accessed August 15, 2018
- Exhibition History
-
Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art : selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
Between the Empires: Géricault, Delacroix, Chasseriau--Painters of the Romantic Movement, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/30/1946 - 06/01/1946
Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/23/1969 - 03/31/1969
Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
Apollo's Laurels, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/31/1978 - 10/04/1978
Masterpieces of European Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/22/1985 - 09/15/1985
A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 07/12/2018; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/19/2019 - 01/01/2050
Mutiny: Works by Géricault, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/01/2018 - 01/06/2019
- Subjects and Contexts
-
Google Art Project
- Related Works
-
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu