Théodore GÉRICAULT (1791 - 1824) attributed to - Lot 63

Théodore GÉRICAULT (1791 - 1824) attributed to Chloé's bath Paper mounted on canvas 20 x 16 cm Wax stamp of the Pierre Dubaut collection on the reverse of the stretcher Inscriptions on reverse Géricault / "Narcisse se mirant" (jeu[nesse] sketch) This wonderful, unpublished little painting probably dates from Géricault's formative years Géricault's training with Pierre Guérin, his second master, between 1810 and 1812. Several of Géricault's drawings from 1810-1817 attest to the young artist's interest in these fable-like bodies, such as Venus and Adonis (coll. part.) or Study of a Woman Dressed in the Antique Style, Sitting on a Rock and Leaning against a Tree (Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts). Géricault continued to cherish this motif of the nude woman in a landscape, camped under a tree, in an extraordinary series of drawings produced during his stay in Italy (1816-1817), including Femme nue de profil, au lavis de brun et d'indigo (Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts), Femme nue au bain (coll. part.), Léda et le cygne (Louvre), Satyre et Nymphe (Princeton, The Art Museum). If the softness and somewhat hermaphroditic canons of this Narcissus reflecting in the water evoke the subjects treated by Guérin at the same period, the treatment of the subject matter belongs to Géricault, while recalling the productions of Guérin, Girodet and Prud'hon; the barely sketched treatment of the face and hands belongs to Géricault alone. The subject may seem classical, but its treatment is eminently romantic, as is its tight framing, in the manner of the small paintings by Granet, whom Géricault admired. But is the model really Narcissus? Or is it a very young woman? There's room for doubt, and the ambiguity is probably deliberate. Couldn't this white body and blond hair be Chloé's? Géricault is known to have had in his library a copy of Les Amours pastorales de Daphnis et Chloé, the famous novel by Longus... Scientific examination by Lumière Technology in June 2009. Multispectral photographic examination with 240 million pixels: D65 colors, grazing light; Ultraviolet reflectography; False-color reflectography; Inverted false-color reflectography; Infrared reflectography 900 nm & 1000 nm, Infrared emission, X-ray radiography - cleaned by Mrs. Anne-Élizabeth Rouault in 2009. Provenance : - Pierre-Olivier DUBAUT (1886-1968). - Maxime DUBAUT (1920-1991). - Sale Artcurial Deauville August 22, 2009.