"Gericault #1," by John Farnsworth; oil on canvas, 50 by 37 1/2 inches. Farnsworth, a native Arizonan, is known for his larger-than-life depictions of horses and cattle. The title acknowledges the 19th-century artist Jean Louis Andre Theodore Gericault; the painting is based on a detail from one of Gericault's works, "AN OFFICER OF THE IMPERIAL GUARD."

In the early 1980's, a friend and I flew from Phoenix to Dallas for an exhibit of the works of El Greco. While there, we ventured on to Fort Worth for a William Wegman show at the Kimball Museum.  While there, I ran across a small, maybe six by eight inch, Flemish painting of Cavaliers riding through a village. Nipping at he heels of their horses was a small black and, as I remember it, white dog. The dog’s tongue, represented by a single, small, delicate stroke of bright red paint grabbed my attention. I thought, “what if that painting were enlarged to, say, four by six feet? What a great, abstract thing that red stroke would become! And what if that dog were made the subject of the painting, rather than a mere supporting element?

A short time later, in the Phoenix Art Museum, I came across a painting by Adolf Schreyer, in which there was an Arabian horse that caught my eye. I went home and created SCHREYER’S ARAB.

That was the beginning of an ongoing series that I still work on, from time to time. The primary objective has been to take the animal, (there have been dogs, a leopard, horses, even flowers depicted in the series) and make it the main subject, as opposed to leaving it as a secondary “character actor” element.

GERICAULT #1
From Gericault's "Officer of the Imperial Guard"
Oil on canvas
50" X 37 1/2"
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Collection: Leonard Pearlstein

Available as a Giclée Fine Art Print on Canvas:
45" x 45" image size
edition of 50/ 5 artist's proofs
current price: US $2000

Leroy Smith and his daughter when in Madrid, went right to the Prado Museum to see this painting, Peter Paul Rubens’ Saint George and the Dragon,  which was the inspiration for PRADO RUBENS. At the front desk, they asked for directions, and were disappointed to learn that the painting was not on display. It was either on tour or out for cleaning. Crestfallen, they decided to check out the rest of the paintings anyway, since they were already there. They started down the main corridor, and took the first left turn, then another, and lo and behold, there was the painting in all its glory! Did you know that Frans Snyder often painted the animals in Rubens’ paintings? It’s true, check it out.

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