Seven works by the French painter Théodore Géricault, recognized for his work The Raft of the Medusa (1818-19) housed on the Musée du Louvre in Paris, will go below the hammer at Sotheby’s Paris subsequent month (23 March). The public sale presents “the biggest assortment of unseen works by Géricault that has ever come to the market because the Nineteenth century”, a Sotheby’s assertion says.
The works all come from the Elmore assortment, a Nineteenth-century London-based couple who commissioned the seven works from the artist which have remained within the household assortment for greater than 200 years.
Géricault stayed with Adam Elmore (1784-1849), a horse supplier, and his spouse Zoé, daughter of the French businessman Armand Séguin, at their house in London in 1821, putting up a detailed friendship with the couple. Throughout his time within the UK, Géricault developed his equine portrayal methods, finding out the thoroughbreds owned by Elmores. “The Géricault Elmore assortment has been lovingly preserved by the descendants of the Elmore household for 200 years,” in keeping with a Sotheby’s assertion.
Théodore Géricault’s Adam Elmore on the Shore Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Works consigned embrace Adam Elmore on the Shore (estimate €400,000-€600,000), a full-length portrait, which Sotheby’s says, “displays the affect of English portray on [Géricault’s] artwork”. Portrait of Zoé Elmore, painted in 1821, carries the best estimate (€800,000-€1.2m); one other work, Zoé on Horseback, exhibits the side-saddled rider galloping towards a darkening sky (est €400,000-€600,000).
Géricault in the meantime reworked a portray by the 18th-century French artist Pierre Subleyras often known as Martyr of Saint Hippolytus, modernising and altering the horse within the composition, “considerably altering the route and influence [of the work]”, Sotheby’s says (estimate €300,000-€500,000).
The public sale document for Géricault stands at $11.5m for Portrait of Alfred and Elisabeth Dedreux (round 1818) which was bought at Christie’s Paris in 2009.
