Man Clutching a Horse in Water, after Poussin's "Deluge" (recto) (c. 1816): Art, History and Details

Man Clutching a Horse in Water, after Poussin's "Deluge" (recto) (c. 1816) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Théodore Géricault (French, 1791–1824); Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Géricault's drawing of a man clutching the mane of a horse as they struggle together to stay afloat is a direct copy of a detail from one of Nicolas Poussin's (1594-1665) most celebrated paintings, The Deluge, or Winter (see photo). Small in scale but monumental in feeling, the sheet exemplifies the artist's "antique manner" of drawing, which he began to develop around 1815. This style, with its heavy contour lines and broad washes, developed in tandem with Géricault's renewed interest in copying works of art from the past, such as prints after ancient sculpture and works by Raphael (1483-1520), Michelangelo (1475-1564), and Poussin.

Object facts

• Title: Man Clutching a Horse in Water, after Poussin's "Deluge" (recto)
• Date: c. 1816
• Creator attribution: Théodore Géricault (French, 1791–1824); Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over graphite
• Dimensions: Sheet: 18 x 26.2 cm (7 1/16 x 10 5/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.378.a

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Géricault, Théodore, and Marlborough Fine Art Ltd. Théodore Géricault, 1791-1824 : [exhibition] October-November, 1952, Marlborough Fine Art Limited. London: Marlborough Fine Art, 1952.
• Shepherd Gallery. Non-Dissenters : One Hundred and Seventy French Nineteenth Century Drawings, Pastels and Watercolors. New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1976.
• Grunchec, Philippe, and Théodore Géricault. Master Drawings by Géricault. Washington, D.C.: International Exhibitions Foundation, 1985.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.