Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Gericault (1791–1824)

Horace Vernet's portrait of Théodore Géricault of 1822 presents his younger colleague within two years of Géricault's death at thirty-two from injuries sustained in riding accidents. The portrait captures Géricault's complex character — the intensity and restlessness of a painter who had compressed a revolutionary artistic career into a tragically short life. Vernet and Géricault were fellow students in Guérin's studio and members of the generation that transformed French painting from Davidian neoclassicism to Romantic naturalism. The portrait documents one of the most significant artists of the period at a moment close to the end of his brief life.

Vernet renders his friend's features with a warmth and directness unusual in his often documentary style. The dark palette and informal pose convey the close personal relationship between the two artists.