Gericault was first known for his prodigal artistic skill as a comparatively young age; he was accepted to the Paris Salon in 1812, receiving a gold medal for his The Charging Chasseur (fig. 1), at the age of 21. As a typical student of the Louvre, he sketched and painted copies of old masters' works. There he developed an appreciation of Rubens and, after a trip to Italy, Michaelangelo.
After the Napoleonic Wars ended, his work drifted to grotesque depictions of death, namely with The Raft of the Medusa (1818, fig. 2) which shocked the Paris Salon of 1819 and overshadows his lithographic work. This large painting signals his shift from a Neoclassical artist to a member of the Romantics. Also, towards the end of his life he worked on a series of portraits of those in an asylum suffering from various mental illnesses (fig. 3)
His early death at age 33- caused by prolonged effects from a horseback riding injury- did not alter his influence on the future of Romanticism. Artist Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) often worked with Gericault, once used as a model for a dead man on Gericault's Medusa.
After the Napoleonic Wars ended, his work drifted to grotesque depictions of death, namely with The Raft of the Medusa (1818, fig. 2) which shocked the Paris Salon of 1819 and overshadows his lithographic work. This large painting signals his shift from a Neoclassical artist to a member of the Romantics. Also, towards the end of his life he worked on a series of portraits of those in an asylum suffering from various mental illnesses (fig. 3)
His early death at age 33- caused by prolonged effects from a horseback riding injury- did not alter his influence on the future of Romanticism. Artist Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) often worked with Gericault, once used as a model for a dead man on Gericault's Medusa.