The English Blacksmith/Le Maréchal Anglais

Lithograph, 1822.

Géricault del. Lith de Villain. chez Gihaut, boulevard des Italiens No. 5. Paris. Delteil 91 I (of II).

Plate: 11 1/16 x 14 7/16 in; 281 x 366 mm Sheet: 16 7/16 x 22 13/16 in; 417 x 579mm Provenance: Collection Dr. Arnim Winkler, Berlin 1904-1989

From one of Géricault’s most important series Etudes de Chevaux (D. 80-92), executed in 1822 and consisting of 1 title and 12 plates representing horses. Six of these subjects are mirror images of the famous Série Anglaise (D. 29-41) which was published the previous year. The French public had taken to Géricault’s lithographs and the publishers, the brothers Gihaut, asked for a repetition of the great ‘English Series’, in particular of the subjects showing horses.

The present lithograph is the mirror image of D. 39, The English Farrier (1821), however, without the figure of the second blacksmith and with a slightly different background.