Bazin notes that near the end of his life, Géricault drew a series of Arab, Mameluk, Turkish, and Persian cavaliers and grooms with their Arabian mounts and numerous studies of Arabian horses with their distinctive harnesses. Arabian horses were mounted from the left side, and this view depicts the opposite flank. It is one of several studies made in preparation for a watercolor in the Louvre (RF 802) that shows the animal from the left side standing in shallow water with the hint of a surrounding landscape. That Géricault planned to show the horse with its hooves in water explains why he left them unfinished in this study.
Numbered at upper right in brown ink, "8". Estate stamp of Dubaut at lower right (Lugt 2103b).
Brack, General de, former owner.
Dubaut, Pierre, former owner.
Goetz, Walter, 1867-1958, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.
Thaw Catalogue Raisonné, 2017, no. 150, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, no. 73.
Bazin, Germain., and Géricault, Théodore. Théodore Géricault, Étude Critique, Documents Et Catalogue Raisonné / Germain Bazin. Paris: Bibliothèque Des Arts, 1987, vol. 7, 54-55, no. 2647.