Description

Théodore Géricault painted this macabre image directly from life. The artist is known to have acquired corpses from his local morgue to study anatomy and the effects of decomposition. Surrounding himself with the stench of decay, he produced several paintings of decapitated heads and severed limbs. By depicting this graying and lifeless head upon on a blood-stained cloth laid over a wooden table, Géricault also referenced—perhaps ironically—the long history of still-life painting in Western art. The head probably belonged to a convicted criminal. At that time in France, executions were carried out by the guillotine, a bladed device that sliced through the necks of its victims.

Provenance

The artist’s estate sale, Hôtel de Buillion, November 2-3, 1824 [possibly no. 17, “Dix études de diverses parties du corps humain” or handwritten addition to a copy of the catalogue in the British Museum, “trois têtes de guillotinés peints peu de temps après...270 (frs.)”; see Eitner 1959]. The painter Auguste Boulard (died 1897), Paris; his estate sale, Pairs, Hôtel Drouot, April 9–10, 1900, no. 130. Édouard Napoléon César Edmond Mortier, duc de Trévise (died 1946), Paris, from at least 1924 until at least 1937 [lent by to Paris 1924 and Paris 1937]. Pierre Dubaut (died 1968) by 1952 [lent by him to London, 1952 and later exhibitions; Dubaut may have acquired it directly from the Duc de Trévise, since they were co-authors of Paris 1924 and Dubaut was the author of Paris 1937]; by descent to his niece Jacqueline Dubaut- Bellonte, Paris; purchased by the Art Institute through her gallery, Galerie du Fleuve, 1992.