# Portrait of a Kleptomaniac [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GÉRICAULT, Théodore]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 61,2 x 50,2 cm ## Commentary Portrait of a Kleptomaniac c. 1820 Oil on canvas, 61,2 x 50,2 cm Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent This painting belongs to a series of ten portraits of mental patients that Géricault painted in Parisian lunatic asylums around 1820. Géricault was the friend of the psychiatrist Dr. Georget, to whom he presented the ten works. The project reflected the notion at that time that there was a link between mental illness and facial expression. Five of the ten portraits survived, including the one in Ghent. Géricault displays an almost scientific interest in facial expression in this work, which is balanced by his Romantic empathy with the depth of this grimacing face. The painting illustrates the pursuit of truth through the concentrated observation of reality that typified the leading Romantic painters and writers. ## Related artworks - [A Carabinier with his Horse]() - [A Charge of Cuirassiers]() - [A Madwoman and Compulsive Gambler]() - [A Turk \(Mustapha\)]() - [An Officer of the Chasseurs Commanding a Charge]() - [English Horse in Stable]() - [Grey Horse Called L'Aly]() - [Heroic Landscape with Fishermen]() - [Horse Market: Five Horses at the Stake]() - [Man with Delusions of Military Command]() - [Nymph and Satyr \(Jupiter and Antiope\)]() - [Portrait of a Man]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()