Floor plan

Style galleriesNeoclassicism

Neoclassicism

A work made of oil on panel.
Two Draft Horses with a Sleeping Driver, by Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault, 1820–22
Towering, pale, celery-green trees frame a view of a lush park with about a dozen elegantly dressed, light-skinned men and women in this vertical landscape painting. The color palette is dominated by moss and lemon-lime green, golden yellow, and spruce blue. The men all wear jackets with long tails over knee-breeches, and their long hair is pulled back at the napes of their necks. The women wear long dresses with full skirts and hints of lace at the sleeves and bust, and their brown or white hair is pulled up. Nine of the men and women gather to our right on a stone terrace along the bottom edge of the painting. A man in butter yellow kneels in front of a woman wearing rose pink. Around this pair, people stand, kneel, sit, or recline wearing aquamarine blue, light turquoise, or ivory white. A man and woman sit on a bench to our left, a little removed from the larger group. This woman wears ruby red and the man leaning toward her wears topaz blue. Two people in the park beyond these groups are painted with only a few strokes of pale blue and white paint, and they look over a low hedge row lining the walking path. Beds of red flowers fill the lower corners of the composition in front of a statue of a woman to our left and a person, perhaps on a fountain, to our right. The grassy walking path and trees become more blue as they fade into the hazy distance between the tall tress to either side. The sky fades from pale blue along the horizon to a silvery blue, almost white, at the top.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Bénévent, by baron François Gérard, 1808
A work made of handcolored etching in black on cream laid paper.
A work made of pen and brown ink, with traces of graphite, on tan wove paper, laid down on cream wove paper.

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

Europe turns back to Greece and Rome: clear line, calm figures and civic virtue.

First room, north wall

  1. A work made of oil on panel.
    Head of a Guillotined ManJean Louis André Théodore Géricault, 1818–19Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Two Draft Horses with a Sleeping Driver, by Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault, 1820–22
    Two Draft Horses with a Sleeping DriverJean Louis André Théodore Géricault, 1820–22Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. Towering, pale, celery-green trees frame a view of a lush park with about a dozen elegantly dressed, light-skinned men and women in this vertical landscape painting. The color palette is dominated by moss and lemon-lime green, golden yellow, and spruce blue. The men all wear jackets with long tails over knee-breeches, and their long hair is pulled back at the napes of their necks. The women wear long dresses with full skirts and hints of lace at the sleeves and bust, and their brown or white hair is pulled up. Nine of the men and women gather to our right on a stone terrace along the bottom edge of the painting. A man in butter yellow kneels in front of a woman wearing rose pink. Around this pair, people stand, kneel, sit, or recline wearing aquamarine blue, light turquoise, or ivory white. A man and woman sit on a bench to our left, a little removed from the larger group. This woman wears ruby red and the man leaning toward her wears topaz blue. Two people in the park beyond these groups are painted with only a few strokes of pale blue and white paint, and they look over a low hedge row lining the walking path. Beds of red flowers fill the lower corners of the composition in front of a statue of a woman to our left and a person, perhaps on a fountain, to our right. The grassy walking path and trees become more blue as they fade into the hazy distance between the tall tress to either side. The sky fades from pale blue along the horizon to a silvery blue, almost white, at the top.
    A Game of Hot CocklesJean Honoré Fragonard, c. 1775/1780Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

First room, south wall

  1. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Bénévent, by baron François Gérard, 1808
    Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Bénéventbaron François Gérard, 1808Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. A work made of handcolored etching in black on cream laid paper.
    The Grotto of Posillipo (La Grotta di Posillipo)Louis Jean Desprez, 1785/90Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. A work made of pen and brown ink, with traces of graphite, on tan wove paper, laid down on cream wove paper.
    Sketches of Algerian MenEugène Delacroix, c. 1832Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, south wall

  1. A work made of graphite, on tan wove paper, perimeter mounted on ivory laid paper.
    Sheet of Sketches: Cavalry Battles and Mounted SoldiersJean Louis André Théodore Géricault, 1813/14Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Overdoor Painting, by Pierre Rousseau, 1790s
    Overdoor PaintingPierre Rousseau, 1790sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. Portrait of white man dressed in all black with medallion and sword.
    Amédée-David, the Comte de PastoretJean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1823–26Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, north wall

  1. Moonlight falls across several masted ships near a rocky shoreline in this horizontal painting. The sky fills the top three-quarters of the picture. A veil of slate-gray clouds is lit to pearl white around the crisp, full moon at the center of the composition. Patches of denim-blue sky are seen through breaks in the blanket of clouds. Moonlight reflects down the center of rippling, silvery-gray water that laps against a beach close to us, along the bottom edge of the painting. A tent is set up in the lower left corner of the composition. There, two women and one man stand looking at a glowing fire next to the tent. One woman holds a basket on her head, the other tucks a flat basket under one arm. The man stands between the two women, and a fourth man crouches near the fire, his back to us. In the opening of the tent, another woman kneels over a large bowl as she looks at the fire. A fifth person, a man, gazes at the fire as he sits smoking a long-stemmed pipe on a boulder. At the foot of the boulders, a man lies back against some bundles, one arm thrown up over his head. A dog curls up next to his hip. Not far from the sleeping man and in the center of the foreground, a man carries several long wooden objects, possibly oars, over one shoulder while a dog beyond him barks at the lapping surf. The beach curves like a C away from us, along the left. At the point of the curve in the middle distance, a structure like a city wall and gate jut out to the water’s edge. More buildings atop steep cliffs rise vertically beyond the gate. The shoreline curves into the distance again, and more buildings, including a lighthouse, and masted ships there are smoke-gray silhouettes. Near the lower right corner of the painting, four men pull on ropes tied around the prow of a small wooden boat while three others push it toward the land. Another man stands in the far end. A short distance beyond that boat is a tall wooden ship with three masts and rigging outlined against the night sky. Windows along the decks of that boat’s wide stern, angled toward us, glow with golden light. Beyond it and a bit to our left, another ship, smaller in scale, sails away from us. Several more ships move back to the horizon until we only see strokes of white and gray to indicate their unfurled sails.
    MoonlightClaude-Joseph Vernet, 1772Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. A work made of etching with roulette in black on ivory wove paper.
    The Forest of RochecardonJean-Michel Grobon, 1800Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. A work made of etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin on ivory laid paper.
    Pedro Romero killing the halted bull, plate 30 from The Art of BullfightingFrancisco Goya, 1814/16, published 1816Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Third room, north wall

  1. A work made of engraving in black on ivory wove paper.
    George Washington, Front View, from Oeuvre de CanovaAntonio Canova, 1817Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Two Men Contemplating the Moon, by Caspar David Friedrich, ca. 1825–30
    Two Men Contemplating the MoonCaspar David Friedrich, ca. 1825–30Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Third room, south wall

  1. The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda), by Luis Meléndez, ca. 1772
    The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda)Luis Meléndez, ca. 1772Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. A work made of soft ground etching from two plates, with roulette, on paper.
    Portrait of a Man in an Armchair, from Collection d'imitations de Dessins d'après les Principaux Maîtres Hollandais et FlamandsChristian Josi, 1826Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago