In a letter to the previous owner, dated 30 December 1995, Professor Eitner confirms the attribution of the present drawing to Géricault and notes that the drawing is a free invention rather than a direct study from nature. He compares the 'looseness and spontaneity of the pencil work' to Géricault's handling of his drawings of the English period, between 1820 and 1821, but the composition itself, according to Eitner, seems more to date from the artist's French period. Professor Eitner relates the 'motif and mood' of the present drawing, particularly its industrial character, to Gericault's Lime Kiln datable 1822-3, now in the Louvre, L. Eitner, Gericault, London 1983, p. 320, pl. 44.
We are grateful to Professor Eitner for his help in cataloguing the present drawing.