In this article we improve our understanding of Théodore Géricault’s early years in Paris with an entirely new source: a first-person account of life at the pension Dubois & Loyseau/Loiseau written by one of Géricault’s fellow students, and several supplementary sources. The primary source describes the social dynamics of student life at the pension Dubois & Loiseau from the perspective of a student - a first; as well as discussions of the social status of the school and its students within elite Parisian society, links connecting Géricault’s school with that of M. Lemoine, and other fascinating details.
Moreover, our primary source did not follow Géricault into the arts, but instead pursued a military career as an officer in Napoléon’s cavalry. We learn of his life after the pension Dubois & Loiseau at various elite schools; then as an officer in Italy in the spring of 1812; and then marching into Russia with Napoléon. Géricault arrived in Italy four years after his former classmate. On October 13, 1812, just as Géricault was preparing to present his first major artistic success, the Charging Chasseur at the Salon exhibition, news arrived in Paris that Moscow was in flames.