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Théodore Géricault on His Deathbed
Charles Emile Champmartin (French, 1797–1883)
1824
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 45.6 × 55.6 cm (17 15/16 × 21 7/8 in.); Framed: 68 × 78.2 × 11.5 cm (26 3/4 × 31 × 4 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- A. A. Munger Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This haunting image of a dead man swathed in white sheets was thought to have been painted by Théodore Géricault until a cleaning revealed the signature of his friend and follower Charles Emile Champmartin. More recent research has shown that the painting depicts Géricault himself on his deathbed, having succumbed to chronic tubercular infection at the young age of 32. Géricault’s early death and bold artistry, which sought to challenge classical notions of beauty, made him emblematic of the trope of the tragic Romantic artist. Images depicting his passing circulated throughout the 19th century, and talismanic copies of his death mask populated young artists’ studios.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
