Gericault's Equine Passions and Anxiety

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MJ Andersen, Gericault's Equine Passions and Anxiety. Wall Street Journal, Sept 10, 2018
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mut ... nxieties-1536404400

Quote:

(a) "Cambridge, Mass.  No one will ever satisfactorily explain the human fascination with horses. Yet when it takes hold of a gifted artist—Théodore Géricault, in this case—it becomes something more than a simple component of human nature. In Gericault's work, horses filter the passions and anxieties of an age.

(b) "Géricault was born in Rouen in 1791. He came of age during the Napoleonic wars, primed to glorify soldiers. 'Portrait of Olivier Bro' (c 1818) captures the young son of a cavalry officer who was knighted by Napoleon. Painted in somber tones, the boy sits astride a snarling dog and appears ready for action.

"Géricault had the heart of a dramatist, and was as schooled in the costs of war as in its splendors. The early lithograph 'Return From Russia' (1818), one of the more powerful images in the exhibit, captures two officers retreating through the snow after Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign. One, badly injured, rides an exhausted horse that competes for our pity.

(c) About " 'The Raft of the Medusa.' Géricault based his painting on the scandalous case of a French ship that foundered off the coast of Africa in 1816. Only a few of the Medusa’s passengers survived after being cut adrift on a makeshift raft. Depicted on the verge of rescue, Géricault’s heroic survivors were seen as a rebuke to the ship’s captain and the restored government of the Bourbons.

(d) "Ms Andersen is a former member of the Providence Journal's editorial board and the author of 'Portable Prairie: Confessions of an Unsettled Midwesterner' (Thomas Dunne/St Martin's)." (2005)

Note:
(a)
(i) This is an exhibition review on Mutiny; Work by Géricault. Harvard Art Museums, Sept 1, 2018 - Jan 6, 2019.
https://www.harvardartmuseums.or ... -works-by-gericault
(ii) The review is available to the public.

(b) Regarding quotation 2.
(i)
(A) Théodore Géricault
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Théodore_Géricault
(died in "1824 (aged 32 [American English: age 32])" of tuberculosis in Paris)
(B) Géricault
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gericault
(pronunciation)
(ii) Géricault's birthplace:
(A) Rouen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouen
(French pronunciation; a city on the River Seine; capital of the region of Normandy; Population (2012): 111,557)
(B) Rouen
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Rouen
(English pronunciation)
(iii) Olivier Bro
(A) Stijn Alsteens, Carmen C Bambach, George Goldner, Colta Ives, Perrin Stein and Nathalie Strasser (eds), Raphael to Renoir; Drawings from the collection of Jean Bonna. Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2009, at page 219
https://books.google.com/books?i ... ricault&f=false
("Figure 125. Theodore Gericault, Portrait of Olivier Bro as an Infant. Oil on canvas. Collection MAK Solomon, Cambridge")
(B) Olivier Bro was son of Louis Bro.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Bro (1781-1844 (age 63) )
(C) Oliver (given name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_(given_name)
(French variant: Olivier)

(c) About quotation 3.
(i) French frigate Méduse (1810)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Méduse_(1810)
(table: Namesake  Medusa)
(ii) French-English dictionary:
* Méduse (proper name; from Latin Medusa, from Ancient Greek Médousa): "Medusa"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Méduse

In French, méduse (m in lowercase) is a noun feminine for "jellyfish."
(iii) the painting:
The Raft of the Medusa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa