Dead Cat
Théodore Géricault, 1820
For now, just to look at
The photograph we have of this work is not sharp enough to print at the quality we want, so we are not selling it for now. We are looking for a better one.
About the work
- Artist
- Théodore Géricault
- Date
- 1820
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 0,50 m x 0,61 m (con marco: 0,80 m x 0,89 m)
- Collection
- Musée du Louvre, Department of Paintings (Paris)
- Reference
- XDV-4093
What the museum label doesn't tell you
A dead cat, limbs dangling off a stone ledge, painted with such tactile precision you can trace every strand of tabby fur and the dead weight of its body. It reads like a forensic study. Yet when the Louvre showed it in 2022, they placed it inside 'Les Choses', their history of still life — meaning the museum treats this creature as an object, not a subject. Attributed to Géricault and hung today in his room at Sully, the picture waited nearly two centuries to enter the collection, bought only in 2003. Where does a portrait of death end and a still life begin?
