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A man and a women sit lamenting over the dead body of their son.

A somber drawing of a man and a women mourning over the body of their dead son. Their son, a full grown man, lies in the foreground across the whole width of the paper. His body is naked and muscular, his head, in the lower left corner, is tipped back towards us. His mother and father sit together facing to the left behind him. His father, who is also naked, is bowed and dejected. He supports his bent head with his left hand, the bent arm of which rests on his left knee. He holds a short stick in his right hand, the end of which points to the grown close by his son's shoulder and which may be burning. Behind him the mother gazes distraughtly upwards. Her hands are pressed together seemingly in prayer. On her head she wears a piece of cloth that flows loosely down her back. The sky behind them is dark and turbulent.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.367
People
Théodore Géricault, French (Rouen 1791 - 1824 Paris)
Title
Parents Mourning Over Their Dead Son
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Death of a Young Mason
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1819
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/298044

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Brown ink, brown wash, and blue-green watercolor over graphite on white wove paper
Dimensions
16.5 x 12.4 cm (6 1/2 x 4 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Pierre-Olivier Dubaut, Paris, sold [through Martin Birnbaum]; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, 1929, bequest; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.367
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • René-Richard-Louis Castel, Lettres de René-Richard-Louis Castel au comte Louis de Chevigné, son élève et son ami (Reims, 1833), pp. 366-67
  • Charles Martine, Théodore Géricault, Chez Helleu et Sergent (Paris, 1928), no. 55, repro.
  • Klaus Berger, Géricault: Drawings and Watercolors, H. Bittner and Company (New York, 1946), no. 28, repro.
  • John H. B. Knowlton, "Book reviews", The Art Bulletin (September 1947), pg. 217
  • Lee Johnson, "Some Unknown Sketches for the 'Wounded Cuirasser' and a Subject Identified", The Burlington Magazine (London, March 1955), pg. 80, fig. 22, 81 nn. 9-11
  • Denise Aimé-Azam, Mazeppa, Géricault et son temps, Plon (Paris, 1956), pp. 218, 343
  • F. H. Lem, "À propos de Géricault: Les sources. B: Les motifs d'inspiration", Le peintre (April 1, 1963), no. 262, pg.9, repro.
  • Antonio Del Guercio, Géricault, Il Club del Libro (Milan, Italy, 1963), pg. 147, fig. 61
  • Henri Zerner, "Théodore Géricault: Artist of Man and Beast", Apollo (June 1978), vol. CVII, no. 196, pp. 480-486, pg. 483
  • Lorenz Eitner, Géricault: His Life and Work, Orbis Publishing Ltd. (London, England, 1983), pp. 201, 347, n. 199
  • Germain Bazin, Théodore Géricault: Etude critique, documents, et catalogue raisonné, Wildenstein Institute (Paris, France, 1987 -1997), vol. 6, no. 2106, repr., also p. 72
  • Gary Tinterow, Géricault's Heroic Landscapes: The Times of Day, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 48, no. 3, Winter 1990-1991, pg. 30, repro.
  • Lorenz Eitner, Gericault, Sa vie, son oeuvre, Gallimard (Paris, France, 1991), pp. 277, 430 n. 199
  • Denise Aimé-Azam, Géricault: l'énigme du peintre de la Méduse, Perrin (Paris, 1991), pg. 249
  • Agnes Mongan, David to Corot: French Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1996), cat. no. 176, repr.
  • 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), cat. no. 40, repr. (color)
  • 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. 40, repr.
  • Ewa Lajer-Burcharth and Elizabeth M. Rudy, ed., Drawing: The Invention of a Modern Medium, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2017), p. 99, repr. p. 96 as fig. 1

Exhibition History

  • Exposition des Artistes Normands: Peintres normands de Nicolas Poussin à nos jours, Galerie Hodebert, 01/01/1935 - 01/01/1935
  • 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
  • Mutiny: Works by Géricault, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/01/2018 - 01/06/2019

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Verification Level

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