Five Horses Seen from Behind

Gericault painted horses the way other painters of 1820 painted generals. This canvas shows five of them from behind in a stable, rumps to the viewer, an angle that came close to an insult to the subject. Napoleon's painters had spent 20 years putting horses under emperors, rearing, in profile, at the head of armies. Gericault went to the cavalry stables and painted what a stableman sees. He was in his early 30s and unwell. A series of riding falls left him with an injury that never healed, and he died in 1824, at 32. The Louvre bought the picture at auction 25 years after that. His friend the painter Francois Lehoux had worked on it alongside him, finishing the horses' feet and the clutter of the stable at Gericault's own request.