The core collection has been rounded out by pieces on loan from area collectors, many of whom likely learned about the artist from the Winthrop bequest, which came to Harvard in the 1940s. Although the lenders have chosen to remain anonymous, Albinson identified them as “people who have spent a lot of time at the museum. As collectors and scholars they were exposed to the riches of the Winthrop collection, and you see it in what they chose to collect themselves.”
With this show, another generation will come to know Géricault. In part that is because, along with Ewa Lajer-Burcharth,  the William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts, Albinson is teaching the undergraduate seminar “Romanticism Revisted: Géricault” this semester.  Albinson said young people seem to have a natural affinity for the work, with its “issues of social justice and issues of race.”

Although Géricault painted during a period of peace, the French Restoration, the horrors of war were never far away. For example, his “Return from Russia,” with a mutilated soldier leading a blinded colleague, recalls Napoleon’s ill-fated campaign in graphic detail, while the starving, desperate figures of “The Raft of the Medusa,” refer to a real-life tragedy brought about in part because of political corruption. (The Medusa’s captain was a Royalist political appointee who left his passengers to starve after the ship was grounded.) The painting’s inclusion in a recent Jay-Z and Beyoncé video highlights its continued relevance.

The painting’s pop culture moment also furthers one of the artist’s own aims. As he succumbed to illnesses, Géricault began working more with other artists —and increasingly in lithography, a print process that allowed a broader distribution of his work.

“For the last two years of his life, it allowed him to get his work out there and work with others in a more collaborative way,” says Albinson. The exhibit ends with a selection of works influenced by the artist.

Although it is unlikely that Géricault could have presaged the Carters, the idea remains. “I wanted to think about how he set up his own posthumous reputation,” says Albinson. “I hope to get people to see Géricault as I do — as someone who did push back against the norms.”