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JACQUES SELIGMANN & CO., INC.
5 EAST 57TH. STREET
NEW YORK 22, N.Y.

PAINTINGS  WORKS OF ART

CABLE ADDRESS GLAENSTARK
TELEPHONE: PLAZA-3-0250

Mr. Richard S. Davis
Wayzata 5
Minnesota

Cont'd.   -2-   May 19, 1953

No.8070

GERICAULT, Theodore (Rouen 1791 - Paris 1824

Extract from letter by Dr. Klaus Berger, University of Kansas Museum of Art, September 22, 1952.

"Your own watercolor represents, in my opinion 'The Battle of Maipu' (in Argentina) March 5, 1818, and is related to the lithograph of the same subject Delteil No. 19, dated 1819. This date would fix the style of the watercolor...'

Dr. Berger wrote further: 
"The author of the catalogue raisoné of Gericault's lithographs, Loys Delteil, explains:

'This piece (The Battle of Maipu) as well as the three following works were painted for a young man named Cramer, Junior Lieutenant in the French Army, commissioned in 1815, who had seen service in the American Army of Independence where he became aide-de-camp of General San Martin. Returning to Paris, he persuaded Gericault to carry out these four sketches, gratuitously, saying that on his return to Buenos Aires they would make his fortune.'

I believe, therefore, that Gericault might have made your watercolor as a kind of study for the lithograph in question."

Note:
The Battle of Maipu was one of the great battles in San Martin's campaign to drive the Spanish from Chile and gain independence for that country. Maipu is in western Argentina, close

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