Cheval brun à l’écurie

A brown horse stands at rest inside a stable, shown full-length in profile with its bridle on, the warm browns of its coat and the deep shadow of the stall set off by the plain wall behind. Théodore Géricault, the great Romantic painter of horses and of the Raft of the Medusa, made the anatomy and temper of the horse one of the recurring subjects of his short career; this study of 1818 belongs to the years when he was painting the cavalry horses and racehorses that established his reputation, each animal drawn with the knowledge of a lifelong horseman. The painting is held in the Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.