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Description: | This small oil is one of a number of paintings of thoroughbred horses bearing resplendent soldiers that Géricault produced in the period 1812-1815. Both horse and rider have been brought to such a high degree of finish that we assume that they are portraits studied from the life. But they are not. Géricault has invented the composition combining his knowledge of the equestrian paintings by Rubens and Van Dyck that he would have seen in the Louvre with impressions gathered at the stables of Versailles. He revels in detailing the rich colour of the trumpeter's elegant uniform - the white jacket trimmed with braid, the wide gold stripe on the trousers, the distinctive plume, the notes of light highlighting the trumpet slung from his back and the curve of the sabre, echoed in the horse's neck and hind quarters, and in the trumpeter's back. This painting is often referred to as The Polish Trumpeter but this is now known to be inaccurate. Although it represents a trumpeter, his uniform shows he is not from the First (Polish) Regiment of Lancers (Premier Régiment de Chevaux-Légers-Polonais de la Garde), but from the Second Regiment, which was composed of Dutchmen. | Subjects: | animal (horse); figure; military and war | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Géricault, Théodore (French painter and draftsman, 1791-1824) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8295... | Go to resource |
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