(Rouen 1791-1824 Paris)
Tullia running her chariot over the body of her father, indistinctly inscribed and dated Rome(?) 1809 and indistinctly inscribed on the stretcher Tullia fille de Servius Tullius/ … son premier époux … elle …, oil on canvas, 65 x 80,5 cm, without frame.

Provenance:
Most probably Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 12 April 1870, Collection M. Thirion from Dijon, room n°2, n° 19, as Tableaux/Géricault/ - « Tullia fait écraser son père sous les roues de son char»;
European Private Collection.

The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné prepared by Mr Bruno Chenique.

A certificate of authenticity issued by Mr Bruno Chenique, 16 September 2020, is available upon request.

The present lot depicts Roman Princess Tullia, the daughter of the ancient Roman King Servius Tullius, driving her chariot over the body of her murdered father.
She persuaded her husband, Tarquin the Proud, to overthrow her father so that they could become king and queen. King Servius Tullius was assassinated and thrown from the Senate onto the street. His body was run over by his daughter.

The horses move away in horror from the corpse of Servius Tullius as if they did not want to participate in the crime scene. The driver, with an outraged expression, points to the corpse. Tullia, at his side, orders him to advance. The figure wearing a toga on the right, his hands outstreched, reinforces this atmosphere of astonishment. On the far left, in the shade, the two murderers flee, leaving Tullia to finish their crime.

The painting is dated 1808, thus belonging to a very small number of works produced during Theodore Géricault’s training under Carle Vernet between 1808 and 1810.

It combines the classicism of an ancient scene and the romanticism of a blood crime.