Alfred Dedreux (1810–1860) as a Child

Théodore Géricault, ca. 1819–20

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Look at the boy’s steady sideways gaze, then compare the warm yellow of his coat with the cool grey clouds behind him.

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The sitter, Alfred Dedreux, was born in 1810, so he was about nine or ten when Géricault painted him. He sits on a mossy rock in a grey suit and a loose yellow coat, set against a wide sky with banks of cloud. The canvas is small, under half a meter tall.

Oil on canvas · 18 x 15 in. (45.7 x 38.1 cm · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Romanticism

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Alfred Dedreux (1810–1860) as a Child

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Details and source

Museum title: Alfred Dedreux (1810–1860) as a Child
Artist: Théodore Géricault (French, Rouen 1791–1824 Paris)
Date: ca. 1819–20
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 18 x 15 in. (45.7 x 38.1 cm)
Credit line: The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Fund, 1941
Image license: CC0 1.0 · Public domain
Museum record: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Artist’s life 1791–1824

Romanticism c. 1800–1850

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Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.