Géricault, THÉODORE

Géricault, THÉODORE (1791-1824), military painter and lithographer, was, with Delacroix, one of the first Romanticists (see PAINTING, Vol. VII, p. 700). He was born at Rouen, studied under Vernet and Guérin, began to exhibit in the Salon in 1802 (with the 'Mounted Chasseur of the Imperial Guard'), worked for a year or two in Italy after 1816, and died at Paris. His favourite subjects were soldiers (especially cavalry) and horses, but his 'Raft of the Medusa' became the manifesto of the naturalist-romantic movement.