Virginia Parker & Jean Caruel
Gericault Life
Biard, François Augustin, L’Hôpital des fous une jeune fille ne reconnaît pas ses parents. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen.
Parker & Caruel
The families of Théodore Géricault and Carle Vernet can be linked in different ways. Carle and Théodore shared a love of riding and horses. Both Théodore and Carle frequented the Cirque Olympique of Franconi. Carle Vernet and a number of Théodore’s relations were Freemasons. The Musée français of Géricault relations Louis Robillard de Péronville and Pierre Laurent celebrated the art of Carle’s father Joseph Vernet and employed Moreau le Jeune, Carle Vernet’s father-in-law. Horace Vernet and Théodore Géricault were close friends. Livio Vernet, Carle’s older brother was an employee of the tobacco monopoly and thus a colleague of sorts of Pierre Antoine Robillard and his nephew Jacques Florent Robillard, both Géricault relations.
In our view the strongest connection linking the families of Théodore Géricault and Carle Vernet was mental illness. Jean Vincent Charles Caruel, Théodore’s maternal grandfather died in a maison de force in Pontorson in western Normandy in 1779. Virginia Parker survived the passing of her husband Claude Joseph Vernet, the father of Carle Vernet, in 1789 by two decades, all of which Virginia spent in the Maison des desmoiselles Douay at n° 30 rue Bellefond in Paris until her death on November 16, 1810.
Mental illness in Géricault’s family was a closely-guarded secret during the 19th century. The upwardly mobile Caruels were likely tight-lipped about the incidence of madness in males of the Caruel line, if family members actually recognized any such trend. Virginia Parker’s illness, deterioration, and eventual confinement was much more public. The fame of Claude Joseph Vernet as a painter made Virginia’s illness a topic of gossip. The fact that the mother of Carle Vernet was confined in Paris virtually guarantees her children and grandchildren visited her regularly. Did Jean Baptiste Caruel discuss his father’s confinement and breakdown in Normandy with Carle Vernet? What of Jean Baptiste’s brother François Louis Caruel, who lived in Paris not far from the Louvre on the rue de Poulies.
We have stated before that we regard madness and faith as inter-connected topics at the very center of Gericault’s life and art. What did Carle Vernet think of the work of the church in caring for the mentally-ill? What did Jean Baptiste Caruel think about the quality of care his father received from the frères de Charité in Pontorson? Perhaps neither family discussed their shared connection. This seems unlikely. Horace Vernet was very close to Théodore. Moreover, the Vernets had learned to live with Virginia Parker’s illness. We will continue this discussion.