| 1791, September 26 | Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault born in Rouen, son of a wealthy lawyer. |
| | The family moves to Paris. |
| 1801 | Death of his mother. |
| 1808-1810 | Studies painting with Carle Vernet, making frequent visits to the Louvre; is specially attracted by the works of Rubens. |
| 1810-1811 | Studies with Pierre Guérin, the David pupil. |
| 1812 | His first painting, Cavalry Officer on Horseback exhibited in the Salon. |
| 1814 | The Wounded Cuirasseer exhibited in the Salon. During the Hundred Days Géricault enlists with the Bourbon musketeers, but after a short time he leaves the army. |
| 1815 | The gayest months of his life with the group of artists, writers and former Napoleonic officers, in Horace Vernet's studio in Montmartre. Géricault becomes a liberal. He leaves Paris because of an unhappy love affair. End of his first creative period. |
| Spring 1816to Spring 1817 | In Florence and Rome. Here Michelangelo is his strongest inspiration. He goes to see Ingres and is delighted with his drawings. He makes many studies for Wild Horse Race. |
| Spring 1817to Spring 1820 | Back in France. First lithographs. He spends many months working on The Raft of the Medusa which is exhibited in the Salon of 1819. This work, be- cause it implied a severe criticism of the Bourbon Restoration, provokes a political scandal. The government, however, "to improve his ideas" gives him a commission for a religious painting. Géricault, in turn, assigns the project to his protégé, the young Delacroix. |
| Spring 1820to Spring 1822 | Géricault's stay in England, where The Raft of the Medusa is shown around the country for the price of admission. This enterprise brings him 17,000 gold francs. He makes many lithographs, he paints The Derby at Epsom. In the Fall of 1820 he goes to visit Louis David, exiled in Brussels. |
| Spring 1822to Spring 1823 | Géricault returns to Paris and looses a great deal of money through bank speculations. He does a series of portraits of insane people from the Sal- pétrière asylum. He has three riding accidents which leave him a complete invalid, February 1823. |
| 1824, January 18 | Dies as a result of his injuries. |