Shipwrecked on a Beach (The Tempest) Artist: Théodore Géricault (French, 1791–1824)

ca. 1822–23

European Art

On view, 2nd floor, European Art

In failing health from his return to Paris from London in 1821, Géricault abandoned large-scale history painting for small, impassioned oil sketches and drawings. This painting, sometimes called "The Tempest," shows two shipwrecked sailors climbing ashore on a rocky beach after a storm. It is characteristic of the romantic subject matter and violent loose brushwork of his last efforts, painted shortly before his death, at age 33, in January 1824.

Medium

Oil on paper mounted on canvas

Dimensions

unframed: 34 × 52.7 cm (13 3/8 × 20 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903, Fund

Accession Number

1966.89

Culture

French

Period

19th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Duc de Trévise Collection, Paris; Richard Goetz Collection, Paris; Dr. Fritz Nathan and Dr. Peter Nathan, Kunsthandlung, Zurich, Switzerland.
Bibliography
  • Germain Bazin and Annie Champié, Théodore Géricault: étude critique, documents et catalogue raisonné (Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1997), no. 2096, ill.
  • Gary Tinterow, "Gericault's heroic landscapes: the times of day," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Winter 1990).
  • Lorenz E.A. Eitner and Hans Lüthy, Theodore Gericault, 1791-1824: an exhibition paintings, drawings, watercolors, prints and sculpture, exh. cat. (New York: Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, 1987), no. 25, fig. plate 21.
  • Yale University Art Gallery, French drawings: acquisitions, 1970–1984: Yale University Art Gallery, 4 April–10 June, 1984, exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1984), 51–58.
  • Lorenz E.A. Eitner, Gèricault: His Life and Work (London: Orbis Publishing, 1983), 258.
  • Lorenz E.A. Eitner, ""The Literature of Art: Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gericault"," The Burlington Magazine 122, no. 924 (March 1980): 206–210.
  • William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center, Joseph Sloane, and John Minor Wisdom, French Nineteenth Century Oil Sketches, David to Degas: an exhibition in honor of the retirement of Joseph Curtis Sloane, exh. cat. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1978), 78.
  • Philippe Grunchec and Jacques Thuillier, L'opera Completa di Gericault (Milan: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1978), 142, no. A138, fig. A138.
  • Lee Johnson, "Géricault in Los Angeles," The Burlington Magazine 113 (December 1971): 769–774, fig. 90.
  • Lorenz E.A. Eitner, Géricault [Catalog of the exhibition] Oct. 12 - Dec. 12, 1971, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1971), 163, 185, no. 118.
  • Lorenz E.A. Eitner, "Géricault's "La Tempête"," Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 2 (1967): 7–16.
  • "Recent Gifts and Purchases," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 31, no. 3 (Winter 1967–68): 54.
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

marine (visual work), seascapes

Subject

waves

Technical metadata and APIs

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Open in Mirador

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