Paintings

The Raft of the Medusa

Théodore Géricault

1818–1819

Géricault depicts the desperate survivors of the French frigate Méduse, which ran aground off West Africa in 1816. Of about 150 people cast adrift on a makeshift raft, only fifteen survived after thirteen days of starvation and violence. The pyramidal composition rises from the dead in the foreground to a figure waving a cloth toward a tiny rescue ship on the horizon.

Historical Context

The wreck became a national scandal because the incompetent captain had been appointed through royal favour. Géricault researched exhaustively, interviewing survivors, building a scale model of the raft and studying corpses in morgues. The result is a milestone of Romanticism, transforming a contemporary tragedy into a monumental history painting.

Provenance

Exhibited at the Salon of 1819, then held by the artist’s friends; acquired by the Louvre after Géricault’s death in 1824.