1857 Géricault Caraibe
Géricault Life
Henri Monnier (1799-1877) was a French playwright, actor, and humorist. He created a pair of fictional bourgeois characters: Mr. and Mrs. Prudhomme, who allowed Monnier to critique society, entertain, and earn a living. In 1857, Monnier published the “Memoires of Mr. Joseph Prudhomme” in which we find a description of the entertainments of Paris during his youth. One of these descriptions features an individual named Géricault.
Henri Monnier
“…It was in the garden of the Capuchins that the Franconi brothers first erected their Circus. It was there that the physicist laid the foundations of the great art of phantasmagoria and of prestidigitation, almost unknown to our fathers. It was in this smoky theater where Vernet [the actor] debuted as a child, where Potier, Tiercelin, Brunet, Bosquier, Gavaudan, Odry, Cazot shone in turn and together, and where the friends came to see the poor Lepeintre and accompany him to his final repose.
I spent hours at a time there, mostly before the stall of a wild prince whose crown of feathers and body painted in many colors commanded my admiration above all others. Before every performance His Highness’s major-domo would deliver exactly the same speech to the assembled crowd:
‘Are there any within this honorable gathering who speak caraïbe?* His Highness is ready to respond to all questions in the language of his fathers.’
As you well imagine, everyone in the crowd remained silent. However, one day I saw a young man step forward from a group of fifteen and sixteen year-olds and climb resolutely onto the simple stage. A full head of hair, piercing and lively eyes, an aquiline nose, and an air of radiant amiability and resolution distinguished the new arrival.
‘What do you want?’ – the majordomo asked him.
‘I want to speak with the prince and give him some important news of his own country.’
‘So, you understand caraïbe?’
‘Perfectly.’
The young man then immediately produced a stream of prodigious volubility, each word more extraordinary than that which preceded. The wild prince, eyes wide and full of fear, mouth agape, stared alternately between his interlocutor and the major-domo. The crowd quickly sensed the embarrassment of the “prince” and began mocking him. The major-domo signaled frantically for the music, which erupted in an awful din, and pushed His Highness behind the curtain – announcing that the performance was about to start.
‘Bravo, Géricault! bravo!’ – cried the companions of the young man, opening their ranks to receive him. ‘You won your bet!’
From this moment forward the ostrich plumes, cotton jerkin, and moccasins of the savage prince lost all their prestige in my eyes. I began to wander among the Capuchin gardens less often. My affections moved from the savage to the wax figures of the salon of Curtius on the boulevard du Temple…”
[*a language of the Caribbean]
“Memoires de Monsieur Joseph Prudhomme” Tome 1, Paris: Librairie Nouvelle 1857, pp. 38-40.
Commentary
The Monnier account is traditionally presented as an innocuous anecdote which confirmed Géricault’s presence, as a youth, in the amusement gardens in Paris. Few critics have scrutinized the role of leisure in Géricault’s life, or the painter’s connection to specific parts of Paris. One critic who has is Jean François Belhoste. M. Belhoste very kindly provided me with a copy of his important 2019 article – “Le Chasseur à cheval et la manufacture: Géricault à la Manufacture de tabac,” published in the Revue de l’Art in January, 2019, which we will discuss elsewhere in the November issue of GLM.