Portrait of a Kleptomaniac

Géricault's Portrait of a Kleptomaniac of 1820, another from his psychiatric portrait series, depicts the specific compulsion with the precise clinical observation that characterized all his Georget portraits. The subject's gaze — simultaneously furtive and fixed, internally absorbed and externally alert — captures the characteristic psychology of the compulsive thief with the empathy of a painter who regarded mental illness as a condition demanding portraiture's full seriousness. The series as a whole represents one of the most remarkable acts of humanitarian observation in Romantic painting.

The direct, unflinching gaze and loosely rendered clothing create a portrait of startling psychological immediacy. Géricault's restrained palette of browns and greys and his empathetic but unsentimental approach define a new mode of portraiture.