A new Géricault for the Metropolitan Museum

23/8/23 - Acquisitions - New York, The Metropolitan Museum ot Art - Thanks to a gift from Christopher Forbes, this major American museum has just acquired a new painting by Théodore Géricault (ill. 1). The small-scale work is not an easy subject, since it depicts General Henry Letellier, a friend of the painter, on his deathbed.

1. Théodore Géricault (1791-1824)
General Letellier on His Deathbed, c. 1818-1820
Oil on canvas - 24.1 × 32.1 cm
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Photo: MMOA (Public domain)

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The story is tragic: the soldier’s wife, aged 19, had died twenty days earlier in a horse-drawn carriage accident, and he couldn’t get over it: he wrapped his head in his wife’s scarf, took her handkerchief in his hand, and shot himself through the heart with a pistol, which can be seen in the lower right-hand corner of the canvas. It was with Louis Bro de Comères, a mutual friend who had just received a very disturbing message from Letellier, that the artist rushed to his home, but too late, as they were only able to confirm his death. Bro de Comères was a close friend of Géricault’s: he painted his wife in a famous painting, now in a private collection, and his young son in a painting now in Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museum. He is also with Ary Scheffer in the painting La Mort de Géricault.

2. Théodore Géricault (1791-1824)
General Letellier on his Deathbed, 1818
Pen and brown ink
Current location unknown
Photo: Public domain

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Henry Letellier served under Napoleon and took part in the Russian campaign, becoming a general in 1813, when he was just 29, as written on his tombstone in the Seine-Port cemetery. "His grief reunited him with his poor friend 20 days after losing her. Henry, Adèle, according to their last wish, rest in the same coffin" it also reads.
So, in addition to his friendship for her, we can understand why Géricault made a drawing of the…