Premiere-Pensees-Jean-Luc-Baroni

Fig.1. François Gérard, Horses frightened by the Waves, private collection,
courtesy of Agnew’s, London
it is difficult to be precise about the date of their execution
it is known that in August 1826 Gérard stayed in Boulognesur-Mer
and this is where the painter Léonor Mérimée sent
him a letter announcing that on the advice of Mme. Gérard,
his son, Prosper, would be joining him 4 . Two further studies
from the period, also coming from the artist’s family, have
reappeared in recent years, the Landscape near Boulognesur-Mer
(Paris, art market, 2002) and even more relevant, the
rapidly painted Horses frightened by Waves (fig.1, private
collection) which shows a rider with two horses on a beach
at sunset.
The present sketch, which is of exceptional quality, shows the
extent to which the artist responded to the power of nature.
The elemental force, which is the subject of the panel, is
rendered through the freedom of touch and the vigour of
the impasto brushstrokes which correspond to the waves,
illuminated by the fiery setting sun, rolling forward to crash
against the rocks. The contrasts of colour and light, and the
back-lighting of the scene, accentuate the sense of dramatic
tension. The areas of shade in the foreground are violently
interrupted by the pure touches of colour on the crests of the
waves and by the vertical explosion of water as it is thrown
against rock. The background of the painting is formed by
the relation between the hot colours of the flaming sky and
the cool tones of the clouds which mass threateningly on
the horizon. Far removed from the neoclassicism to which
Gérard was so faithful in his portraits, this work of the artist’s
last years, shows that he was open to the passionate brilliance
of the young generation of Romantics; as Raymond Escholier
wrote, in the introduction to the catalogue of the 1927, ‘in
his last days, [Gérard] painted Marines à la Turner’ 5 . This
sketch, an expression of pure painting, indeed appears as if it
had been made in a moment of seething creativity in which
the painter has answered the energy of nature with his own
brushstrokes.
collection particulière), qui présente un cavalier et deux
montures sur une plage au coucher du soleil.
Notre esquisse, d’une exceptionnelle qualité, montre à quel
point l’artiste était sensible à la puissance de la nature. La
force des éléments est rendue par la liberté de la touche
et la vigueur des empâtements qui répondent aux vagues,
illuminées par les feux du couchant, dont les rouleaux
se fracassent sur les rochers. Les contrastes colorés et
lumineux, avec des effets de contre-jour, accentuent la
tension de l’œuvre. Les zones d’ombre au premier plan
sont rompues brutalement par des touches de couleur pure
à la crête des vagues et par le jaillissement vertical de l’eau
précipitée sur les rochers. Le fond du tableau est construit
sur le rapport entre les tons chauds du ciel enflammé et
les couleurs froides des nuages dont la masse menaçante
bouche l’horizon.
Très éloignée du néoclassicisme auquel Gérard était si
fidèle dans ses portraits, cette œuvre des dernières années
montre qu’il était sensible aux élans passionnés de la
jeune génération romantique et Raymond Escholier, dans
l’introduction du catalogue de l’exposition de 1927, écrit
que l’artiste « à la fin de ses jours, peignait des marines
à la Turner » 5 . Cette esquisse, qui semble créée dans
un bouillonnement où le geste du peintre répond aux
mouvements de la nature, est une pure expérience picturale.
41