The ‘Géricault’ horses

An exhibition presented in a museum must be exemplary, and even more so when it shows many works from private collections. A ‘gallery’ is not a ‘private collection’, and while it is perfectly legitimate to show objects that are on the market, this must be clearly stated. At least one work in the exhibition at the Musée de la Vie romantique (and probably more) is in this category, without this being mentioned.

But the most serious problem is undoubtedly that all these paintings and drawings from private collections, many of which have never been shown or published before, are being exhibited here without the first hint of an explanation as to their attribution. It is not just the absence of detailed notes, to which we are so accustomed, unfortunately, that poses a problem. But here, there is not even a brief note. There is no list of the works on display, no provenance for any of them, and no bibliography. Only the title, technique, dimensions and owner (often, moreover, identified only as ‘private collection’ with the name of a town or country) appear below the illustrations that reproduce them.

Géricault painted and drew many horses. If the exhibition simply showed very well-known and often published works, this absence of any information about them would be awkward, but less problematic.
As we said, this is not the case. Worse still, many of these ‘discoveries’ are far from convincing, to put it mildly. Géricault is a brilliant artist, everyone agrees. Many of these works are mediocre…