The White Horse Tavern 1821 - 1822

Curator: Théodore Géricault’s "The White Horse Tavern," housed here at the Harvard Art Museums, presents a seemingly simple scene. Editor: The composition, though, has this strange diagonal pull, almost as if the scene might tip forward. Curator: It’s the liminal space of transition, literally a stopover. Horses, since antiquity, have symbolized power, virility, and even freedom. The weary rider and the two horses signify the toils of journeys. Editor: The painting’s materiality strikes me too. Notice the thick impasto in the horses’ coats versus the thinner washes in the cloudy sky. Curator: Indeed, Géricault's brushwork intensifies the drama, mirroring the social tensions of post-Napoleonic France, I think. A society in flux. Editor: I see it as a study in contrasts, a moment captured using light and shadow. The artist definitely had a gift for texture.