Portrait of Adam Elmore by Gericault

Portrait of Adam Elmore

Géricault executed this portrait of Adam Elmore during the artist's second visit to London in 1821, when he resided with the sitter and his wife, Zoë.
Having paused during a seaside stroll along the Channel, Adam gazes into the distance. His location, indeed, speaks to the circumstances of the portrait's creation: a moment when the French painter was working in an English idiom.

A successful English horse breeder and accomplished equestrian, Adam married Zoë (née Séguin), the daughter of a wealthy French businessman, in 1816. The couple hosted a number of musicians and artists at their London home at 3 John Street, off Edgware Road. In addition to Géricault, Jules-Robert Auguste and Eugène Delacroix (to whom Adam gave riding lessons) stayed with the young couple during the 1820s. How Géricault first made the couple's acquaintance—at the races, through a mutual friend such as Auguste, or via another connection—remains unknown, but the painter and horse-lover stayed with the Elmores for several months at the end of his second London sojourn. Their hospitality enabled Géricault to immerse himself in the English artistic scene and the artist likely produced this portrait as a gift for his friend and benefactor.