21-01 Romanticism – Parisian Life During the Revolution
21-02 Romanticism – Théodore Géricault
My Notes on Théodore Géricault
An Audio Talk on Théodore Géricault by Google NotebookLM
21-02 Théodore Géricault: Takeaways
Introduction: The Man Behind the Masterpiece
Most people know Théodore Géricault for one thing: his monumental, terrifying masterpiece, The Raft of the Medusa. The painting is an icon of French Romanticism, a sprawling canvas of desperation, hope, and horror that has captivated audiences for two centuries. But the man who created it is often lost in its shadow, a figure whose self-portraits reveal a stormy mind wrestling with ambition, romance, and doubt.
Géricault’s career was tragically short, lasting just fifteen years before his death at age 33. Yet in that brief time, he blazed a trail filled with personal scandal, fierce political rebellion, and a radical empathy that feels surprisingly modern. He was more than a painter of historical events; he was a cultural critic who used his art to confront the darkest corners of society and the human psyche. This article uncovers five surprising truths about the life and work of an artist who lived and painted with a reckless, unforgettable humanity.
Takeaway 1: A Secret Affair with His Aunt Caused Lifelong Turmoil
Behind Géricault’s brooding artistic intensity lay a deep and disastrous personal secret. He engaged in a passionate affair with Alexandrine-Modeste Caruel de Saint-Martin, the young wife of his own uncle. She was 28 years younger than her husband and eight years older than Géricault, a dynamic that made the transgression all the more scandalous. In a cruel twist of fate, this was the same uncle who had championed Géricault’s artistic ambitions against his father’s wishes, providing crucial early support.
The affair culminated in August 1818 with the birth of an illegitimate son, Georges-Hippolyte, a scandal the family desperately concealed. The consequences for Géricault were catastrophic. His uncle, upon discovering the truth, withdrew all financial and emotional support. The artist reportedly never saw Alexandrine or his son again. This profound emotional turmoil is believed to have contributed to a period of deep sadness and potential mental health struggles. The brooding intensity so palpable in his self-portraits is not just an artistic pose; it is the authentic expression of a man haunted by personal drama and loss.
Takeaway 2: His Most Famous Painting Was a Scathing Political Takedown
The Raft of the Medusa is not merely a dramatic depiction of a shipwreck; it was a bombshell of political protest aimed squarely at the newly restored French monarchy. The painting is based on a recent and scandalous event: the 1816 wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse. The ship’s captain was a political appointee who had been given the position due to his connections with the Bourbon regime, despite not having sailed for two decades.
His incompetence led directly to the ship running aground. When the lifeboats proved insufficient, the captain and his senior officers abandoned 147 crew members on a hastily constructed raft. For thirteen days, the survivors endured starvation, dehydration, and eventually, cannibalism. Only 15 lived to be rescued. In a stroke of narrative genius, Géricault chose to depict the bleakest moment of the ordeal: when the survivors first spotted the ship that would eventually rescue them, only to watch it sail away into the distance. By focusing on this moment of false hope and the suffering of ordinary people—not classical heroes—Géricault created a powerful indictment of a corrupt and incompetent regime.
Takeaway 3: He Documented London’s Underbelly Like a Gritty Social Journalist
During his visits to London in the early 1820s, Géricault turned his artistic gaze away from grand historical themes and toward the raw realities of modern urban life. In a series of lithographs known as the “English Series,” he acted as a social journalist, focusing his lens on the working class and people living in destitution rather than on London’s famous landmarks or upper-class society.
His works from this period are not sentimental or romanticized; they are stark, matter-of-fact reports on the poverty and inequality he witnessed. Géricault was fascinated by the city’s darker side, and a surviving watercolor proves he was actively documenting it. The drawing, titled Le Supplice (The Torment), captures the last minutes of the Cato Street conspirators, who were publicly hanged in 1820 for plotting to assassinate the entire British cabinet. This period reveals a different facet of the artist: one deeply concerned with social realism and committed to documenting the unvarnished truths of his time.
Takeaway 4: He Painted Portraits of the Mentally Ill with Unprecedented Empathy
Perhaps the most radical work of Géricault’s career was a series of ten portraits he painted between 1821 and 1823 for a physician acquaintance, Dr. Étienne-Jean Georget. The commission was to document patients in a Parisian asylum, each diagnosed with a specific form of “monomania”—a popular 19th-century term for an obsessive fixation. Here, Géricault abandons the Romanticism of his earlier work for a stark, almost clinical realism that serves a profoundly humanistic purpose.
Géricault’s connection to the subject was personal; he had suffered his own nervous breakdown after completing The Raft of the Medusa and had a family history of mental illness. This insight fueled a revolutionary approach.
…his approach was radical: instead of portraying his subjects as deranged or monstrous, as had been typical in art, he depicted them with intense realism, focusing on their humanity and the pathos of their inner torment.
These paintings were not intended for public exhibition but as teaching tools to humanize patients for medical students. They were a groundbreaking project at the intersection of art and science. To this day, the series remains shrouded in mystery, as only five of the original ten portraits are known to have survived: A Woman Addicted to Gambling, A Man Suffering from Delusions of Military Command, A Woman Suffering from Obsessive Envy, A Child Snatcher, and Portrait of a Kleptomaniac.
Takeaway 5: He Bet on Himself and His Art Until the Very End
Géricault was fiercely independent, an artist who refused to compromise his vision. He famously clashed with his tutor, the celebrated painter Carle Vernet, over how to depict horses, retorting, “One of my horses would have devoured six of yours!” This stubborn confidence defined his career; he preferred to “shock the juries of the Paris Salon than to earn their approval.” He often worked on a massive scale without a commission, as he did for The Raft of the Medusa, investing his own time and money in the subjects that moved him.
Even in his final days, dying at 33 from a tubercular infection of the spine, his ambition was undiminished, and he was still planning several vast new paintings. His estate was officially left to his father, but a final act of care came from the family he had once torn apart. His father ensured the property was passed on to the person who needed it most: Géricault’s illegitimate son, Georges-Hippolyte, who was then just five years old.
Conclusion: A Legacy of Reckless Humanity
Théodore Géricault was far more than the tragic, tormented Romantic figure of legend. He was a pioneer who wielded his brush like a weapon, using his art to expose injustice, document social reality, and foster a radical sense of empathy for the forgotten and the suffering. His legacy is one of reckless passion, both in his life and on his canvases, capturing a stormy mind determined to show the world its unvarnished face.
It makes you wonder: in an age of endless images, what is the true role of an artist today?
21-03 Romanticism – Eugène Delacroix
An Audio Talk on Eugene Delacroix by Google NotebookLM
21-03 Eugene Delacroix: Takeaways
Introduction
When you picture the art of Eugène Delacroix, one image likely comes to mind: the heroic, bare-breasted figure of Liberty storming a barricade, tricolor flag held high in Liberty Leading the People. It is an enduring symbol of revolution and the passionate spirit of French Romanticism. But who was the man behind this iconic canvas?
While his art burned with emotion, violence, and exoticism, Delacroix’s life was a study in fascinating contradictions. His career was filled with more conflict, controversy, and quiet complexity than his famous art lets on. Here are five surprising facts that reveal the true story of the leader of the French Romantic school.
He Painted the Revolution, But He Didn’t Fight In It
Delacroix created his most famous work, Liberty Leading the People, as a direct and passionate response to witnessing the July Revolution of 1830 in Paris. Yet, despite immortalizing the heroic uprising, he positioned himself not as a combatant on the barricades, but as an observer in the studio. He saw his role as capturing the spirit of the fight, not participating in it directly. In a letter to his brother, he made his position clear:
“My bad mood is vanishing thanks to hard work. I’ve embarked on a modern subject—a barricade. And if I haven’t fought for my country at least I’ll paint for her.”
This choice reveals an artist who believed a single, enduring image could be a more potent and lasting weapon for a nation’s soul than a rifle fired in a fleeting battle. His most powerful contribution to his country would be made not with a weapon in hand, but with a brush.
His Father May Have Been One of France’s Most Powerful Statesmen
Officially, Eugène Delacroix was the son of diplomat Charles-François Delacroix. However, persistent and compelling evidence suggests his biological father was actually one of the most powerful and cunning figures in French politics: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. The adult Eugène bore a strong physical and character resemblance to Talleyrand, and his legal father was believed to have been unable to procreate at the time of Eugène’s conception.
Throughout his career, Delacroix benefited from the quiet protection of Talleyrand, who served in the highest levels of government and assisted the young artist with numerous anonymous commissions. While a hidden connection to the powerful Talleyrand may have smoothed his path, Delacroix’s public career was a minefield of controversy of his own making.
His Most Famous Works Were Considered Scandals
Today, Delacroix’s paintings are revered as masterpieces, but in his own time, they were frequently met with shock and outrage from critics and the public. His raw emotion, chaotic compositions, and expressive brushwork were a radical departure from the restrained, orderly Neoclassical style that dominated the era, and the establishment was not always impressed.
Two of his most significant works were public scandals:
- His 1824 painting, The Massacre at Chios, a harrowing depiction of the suffering of Greek civilians, was condemned by the influential artist Antoine-Jean Gros as “a massacre of art.”
- His 1827 epic, The Death of Sardanapalus, was so controversial for its violent chaos and what one critic called a “fanaticism of ugliness” that it was removed from public display for many years after its debut.
These works were divisive because they refused to idealize their subjects. Instead, they confronted viewers with the brutal, emotional, and often ugly realities of war and passion, a revolutionary act in itself.
He Was the Godfather of the Impressionists
Delacroix’s revolutionary use of color and his dynamic, expressive brushwork did more than just define Romanticism; they laid the groundwork for the next generation of artistic rebels. His techniques profoundly shaped the work of later masters who saw him as a visionary pioneer. The same expressive brushwork and raw emotion that caused critics to call his work “a massacre of art” were the exact qualities that later masters would see as the language of modern painting.
The admiration was deep and universal among these future icons. Pierre-Auguste Renoir once remarked, “In a few generations you can breed a racehorse. The recipe for making a man like Delacroix is less well known.” Paul Cézanne famously declared:
“We all paint in Delacroix’s language.”
Van Gogh also expressed immense admiration for him, going so far as to paint his own version of Delacroix’s “Pietà” in a tribute to the master. Delacroix served as a crucial bridge, connecting the traditions of the Old Masters with the radical experiments that would give birth to Impressionism and, eventually, all of modern art.
His Self-Portrait Defies the “Tormented Artist” Stereotype
The wild energy of paintings like The Death of Sardanapalus might suggest an artist consumed by chaotic passion. Yet, the image Delacroix presented of himself tells a very different story. His 1837 Self-portrait with Green Vest projects not the image of a tormented Romantic, but one of “quiet confidence, self-restraint, and intellect.”
With an alert gaze and a composed expression, Delacroix offers a self-portrait that is both a declaration and a self-examination. He depicts himself not just as a craftsman but as a “thinker and creator,” an intellectual equal to the poets and statesmen of his era. This carefully constructed image challenges the cliché of the wild, emotional Romantic, revealing the deep intellect and self-awareness behind the passionate canvases.
Conclusion: A Rebel’s Enduring Legacy
The man behind the myth of Delacroix was a figure of fascinating contradictions: a revolutionary who fought from his studio, a scandalous master who secretly benefited from establishment ties, and a quiet pioneer who paved the way for modern art. He was an intellectual who painted with pure emotion, forever changing the way we see the world.
It makes you wonder: which of today’s controversial artists will be considered the timeless masters of tomorrow?