bourbon restoration franceconcept:era modern
The Raft of the Medusa
Oil on canvas (1818–1819) by Théodore Géricault. Monumental depiction of survivors on a makeshift raft following the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse (1816), with 147 survivors dwindling to 15 over 13 days. A political scandal and the inaugural work of French Romantic painting. Held at the Louvre Museum, Paris.
Scholarly Significance
Anchor the inauguration of French Romantic painting with Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, a key work in the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism.
Notes
- ·Géricault spent 18 months on the painting; he interviewed survivors, made detailed studies of severed limbs from hospitals, and had a replica raft built in his studio.
- ·He submitted it to the 1819 Salon as 'Scene of Shipwreck' to avoid direct political censorship.
- ·The Bourbon government recognised the implied critique and awarded the painting only a gold medal rather than the state purchase Géricault sought.
- ·Géricault took the painting to London 1820–1821, where it was shown to paying audiences with great success.
- ·After Géricault's death in 1824 (aged 32), the French state purchased it and it entered the Louvre.
- ·Delacroix reportedly posed for one of the figures in the foreground; the two artists were close friends.