The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-19
Gericault's Wreck of the Me-
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biography Of Gericault recently published in
Paris, we find the following interesting de-
scription of that artists method Of study
and work while executing his most famous
picture, '"The Wreck of the Medusa"-
Gericaults studio in Paris was close to that
of Horace Vernet, being separated from it
only by garden, and the two young masters
were on very intimate terms. Some time
after his return from Rome, Gericault began
the famous picture Of the "Wreck of Me-
dnsa, but in the interval occupied himself
with studies, chiefly of animals, including
lions and tigers AS lithography was nov
city then, il interested Gericault, who made
several fine Autographs; he practised this art
q good deal in subsequent years. Ihe untor-
tunato effects of fashion in the arts have
never been more strikingly evident than in
the cast of lithography 1t is admirably
adapted for the direct expression OF artistic
conceptions. A lithograph is just as much
an original as q chalk drawing on paper; and
if all artists of eminence were accustomed,
as Gercault was, to use ithography as a
means of popularizing their ideas, people of
very moderate means might get together col
lections of the highest artistic, though of
small pecuniary value. The same result
would follow if painters were generally mas
ters of the etching needle, and we're encou-
ragged to use it, but lithography is an easier
art than etching, and the kind of talent neces-
sary for success in it is not SO rare.
Two of the survivors Rof the wreck of the
Medusa, NM. Correard and Savgny, pub
lished the recital of their adventures and
those of their companions. Everybody talked
of them, and public opinion "etait arrivee
un veritable paroxysme d'horreur ct dindigna-
ton" We may remind the reader that, of
the four hundred persons on board the ship,
q hundred and forty-nine were put upon
raft. This raft was to have been towed by
the boats which contained the rest of the
people, but the boats left the raft to drift,
and after twelve days of indescribable suffer
| ing, the remaining survivors, fifteen in num-
Der, were taken on board the Argus. Geri-
cault selected the moment preceding the
deliverance, when man who has strength
enough left to look out upon the sea raises
himself as high as he can to make signals of
distress to the ship he sees in the distance.
The raft is covered with corpses
and dying men, over whom the sea washes,
but the most horrible days are passed,
the wild fury of hunger has ceased in
death, the raging madness of cannibalism is
| over, and nothing is left now but white
| corpses and q few survivors in the extremity
of weakness. 1t may be observed therefore
| that the accusation of horror, commonly made
| against the picture, is at least unjust to the
| painter 30 lar dS tnlS uHdt luSteau OI SolocJlnR
| the most horrible time of the disaster illus
trated, he purposely chose time when the
| greatest horrors were all past and CLEAN of
| hope cheered the miserable survivors. He
| made experimental sketches, however, of
various other episodes, including the mutiny
| and the deliverance.
The project once decided upon, Gericault
! painted two sketches in oil of the whole sub
| ject, and began a third study, six feet long,
| which n nlCfTr1 aban-
doned this from an apprehension that his
| rerCe might be exhausted before he came to
| the great canvas. This did not prevent him
| from making many preliminary sketches and
| studies He got acquainted with NM Core
| ard and Savigny, the chief survivors, and
| made several studies from them; he also
| found out the carpenter of the INedttS0, and
| induced him to construct a model of the raft
| in which 'every detail was reproduced with
| the most scrupulous exactness, and on this
| he grouped models of the figures. AS Geri-
| cault's studio was too small, he hired an i'm
mense one close to the hospital Beau
| ion, and in this hospital he
set himself to study the ravages of disease
| and the agonies of death. He made arrange
ments to have corpses and limbs supplied to
him in his own studio, and it appears that for
| some months this studio was the most horrible
| place imaginable, full of dead bodies and
| parts of dead bodies in more or less advanced
| states of decomposition. The stencil was such
that Gericaults friends could not, when they
| came to see him, endure it for more than O
minute, and even professional models gave
in. After having made collection of studies,
| he shut himself up in his GteJ6er, belonging to
| which was bedroom where he slept; he did
not 90 out even for his meals, and his friends
were excluded, except q few of the
most intimate. Once he made rapid
excursion to Havre in order to pro-
cure study for his sky. He painted
in the most absolute silence, and with the
steadiest possible application, saying that the
noise of mouse was enough to prevent him
from working. He had nature before him
for everything, and laid his color at once,
with perfect certainty, and no other prepara-
ton than simple outline. An eyewitness
and pupil, NJ lamar, who was always in his
studio (and who, by-the-by, had to be as
noiseless as a marble statue), tells us that
Gericault looked at Che model with a remark
able intensity of attention before he touched
the canvas and that he painted very quietly,
seeming to proceed slowly, and yet in reality
working with remarkable rapidity.
Unfortunately at the exhibition the
"Radeau de la Meduse" was hung, as Geri-
cault thought, too low, and as he had been
admitted before the opening he begged that
itsmight be rehung, which was unfortunately
granted him, for now the picture was hung
too high, and the maj ajesty of it was lost. This
may partly account for the slight success of
the picture when first exhibited; but there
were other causes esDecially the aninnsitv of