Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault

Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault (1791-1824), French painter, was leader of the school of Romantic realism. He was a pupil of Vernet and then of Guérin, in whose studio he met Delacroix. Criticism of his masterpiece, "Le Radeau de la Méduse" of 1819 drove Géricault to England, where he executed racing scenes, landscapes, and numerious lithographs. He returned to Paris in 1822, in poor health due to excesses, and died in Paris in 1824 at the age of thirty-three.