The Raft of the Medusa: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia


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| other_title_1 = {{Lang|fr|Le Radeau de la Méduse}}

| image=JEAN LOUIS THÉODORE GÉRICAULT - La Balsa de la Medusa (Museo del Louvre, 1818-19).jpg

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| artist=[[Théodore Géricault]]

| year=1818–19

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| museum=[[Louvre]]

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'''''The Raft of the Medusa''''' ({{lang-fr|Le Radeau de la Méduse}} {{IPA-|fr|lə ʁado d(ə) la medyz|}}) – originally titled '''''Scène de Naufrage''''' (''Shipwreck Scene'') – is an [[oil painting]] of 1818–19 by the French [[Romantic movement|Romantic]] painter and [[lithography|lithographer]] [[Théodore Géricault]] (1791–1824).<ref>{{cite book | last = Barnes | first = Julian | date = 2011 | title = A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FRoKuXZKEAUC&q=%22The+raft+of+the+medusa%22+%22Sc%C3%A8ne+de+Naufrage%22&pg=PT133 | location = New York | publisher = Vintage International Books | isbn = 9780307797865}}</ref> Completed when the artist was 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism. At {{convert|491|by|716|cm|ftin|abbr=on}},<ref>Berger, Klaus. ''Géricault and His Work''. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1955. 78.</ref> it is an over-life-size painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval [[French frigate Méduse (1810)|frigate ''Méduse'']], which ran aground off the coast of today's [[Mauritania]] on 2 July 1816. On 5 July 1816, at least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13&nbsp;days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation and dehydration and practiced [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] (theone [[custom of the sea]]). The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain.

Géricault chose to depict this eventlarge-scale inuncommissioned orderwork to launch his career, with a large-scale uncommissioned work onusing a subject that had already generated greatwidespread public interest.<ref name="Louvre">"[https://archive.today/2012.12.09-13303320121209133033/http://www.louvre.fr/llv/activite/detail_parcours.jsp?CURRENT_LLV_PARCOURS%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673226914&CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673327664&CURRENT_LLV_CHEMINEMENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673327664&bmLocale=en The Raft of the Medusa]". [[Louvre]]. Retrieved on 19 November 2008.</ref> The event fascinated him, and before he began work on the final painting, he undertook extensive research and produced many preparatory sketches. He interviewed two of the survivors and constructed a detailed scale model of the raft. He visited hospitals and morgues where he could view, first-hand, the colour and texture of the flesh of the dying and dead. As he had anticipated, the painting proved highly controversial at its first appearance in the 1819 [[Salon (Paris)|Paris Salon]], attracting passionate praise and condemnation in equal measure. However, it established his international reputation and today is widely seen as seminal in the early history of the [[Romanticism|Romantic movement]] in French painting.

Although ''The Raft of the Medusa'' retains elements of the traditions of [[history painting]], in both its choice of subject matter and its dramatic presentation, it represents a break from the calm and order of the prevailing [[Neoclassicism|Neoclassical]] school. Géricault's work attracted wide attention from its first showing and was then exhibited in London. The [[Louvre]] acquired it soon after the artist's death at the age of 32. The painting's influence can be seen in the works of [[Eugène Delacroix]], [[J. M. W. Turner]], [[Gustave Courbet]], and [[Édouard Manet]].<ref>Fried, 92</ref>

== Background ==

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In June 1816, the French [[frigate]] ''[[French frigate Méduse (1810)|Méduse]]'', captained by [[Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys]], departed from [[Rochefort, Charente-Maritime|Rochefort]], bound for the [[Senegal]]ese port of [[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint-Louis]]. She headed a convoy of three other ships: the [[Combat stores ship|storeship]] ''Loire'', the [[brig]] [[HMS Plumper (1804)|''Argus'']] and the [[corvette]] ''Écho''. Viscount Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys, a recently returned royalist [[Émigré#The_French_Revolution|émigré]], had been appointed [[Ranks in the French Navy|captain]] of the frigate by the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|newly restored Bourbon]] administration despite having scarcely sailed in 20&nbsp;years.<ref>Zarzeczny, Matthew. "Theodore Géricault's 'The Raft of the Méduse' Part I". ''Member's Bulletin of The Napoleonic Society of America'', Fall 2001.</ref><ref>Zarzeczny, Matthew. "Theodore Géricault's 'The Raft of the Méduse' Part II". ''Member's Bulletin of The Napoleonic Society of America'', Spring 2002.</ref> After the wreck, public outrage mistakenly attributed responsibility for his appointment to [[Louis XVIII of France|Louis XVIII]], though this was a routine naval appointment made within the Ministry of the Navy and far outside the concerns of the monarch.<ref>For Louis XVIII's real political actions and appointments, see P. Mansel, ''Louis XVIII'' (London, 1981), and for the general political climate of the period, see Munro Price, ''The Perilous Crown: France between Revolutions'' (London, 2007).</ref> The frigate's mission was to accept the British return of Senegal under the terms of France's acceptance of the [[Treaty of Paris (1814)|Peace of Paris]]. The appointed French governor of Senegal, Colonel [[Julien-Désiré Schmaltz]], and his wife and daughter were among the passengers.<ref>Jore, Léonce (1953). "[http://www.persee.fr/doc/outre_0399-1385_1953_num_40_139_1188 La vie diverse et volontaire du colonel Julien, Désiré Schmaltz]". ''Revue d'histoire des colonies''. Vol. 40, No. 139, pp. 265–312.</ref>

In an effort to make good time, the ''Méduse'' overtook the other ships, but due to poor navigation it drifted {{convert|100|mi|km|-1|order=flip}} off course. On 2 July, it ran aground on a sandbank off the West African coast, near today's [[Mauritania]]. The collision was widely blamed on the incompetence of De Chaumereys, a returned [[émigré]] who lacked experience and ability, but had been granted his commission as a result of an act of political preferment.<ref name="Darcy">Grigsby, Darcy Grimaldo. ''Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France''. [[Yale University Press]], 2002. 174–78. {{ISBN|0-300-08887-6}}</ref><ref name="Eitner">Trapp, Frank Anderson. "Gericault's 'Raft of the Medusa', by Lorenz Eitner". ''The Art Bulletin'', Volume 58 No 1, March 1976. 134–37</ref><ref name="Eitner2">Eitner, 191–192</ref> Efforts to free the ship failed, so, on 5 July, the frightened passengers and crew started an attempt to travel the {{convert|60|mi|km|-1|order=flip|abbr=on}} to the African coast in the frigate's six boats. Although the ''Méduse'' was carrying 400 people, including 160 crew, there was space for only about 250 in the boats. The remainder of the ship's complement and half of a contingent of marine infantrymen intended to garrison Senegal<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles|last=Lavauzelle|page=30|title=Les Troupes de Marine 1622–1984|year=1986|publisher=Charles-Lavauzelle |isbn=2-7025-0142-7}}</ref>—at least 146 men and one woman—were piled onto a hastily built raft, that partially submerged once it was loaded. Seventeen crew members opted to stay aboard the grounded ''Méduse''. The captain and crew aboard the other boats intended to tow the raft, but after only a few miles the raft was turned loose.<ref>Borias, 2:19</ref> For sustenance the crew of the raft had only a bag of ship's biscuit (consumed on the first day), two casks of water (lost overboard during fighting) and six casks of wine.<ref>Savigny & Corréard, 59–60, 76, 105</ref>

According to critic Jonathan Miles, the raft carried the survivors "to the frontiers of human experience. Crazed, parched and starved, they slaughtered mutineers, ate their dead companions and killed the weakest."<ref name="Darcy" /><ref>Miles, Jonathan. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070327090526/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1543209.ece Death and the masterpiece]". ''[[The Times]]'', 24 March 2007. Retrieved on 20 November 2008.</ref> After 13 days, on 17 July 1816, the raft was rescued by the ''Argus'' by chance—no particular search effort was made by the French for the raft.<ref>Borias, 2:38</ref> By this time only 15 men were still alive; the others had been killed or thrown overboard by their comrades, died of starvation, or had thrown themselves into the sea in despair.<ref>Four or five of the survivors died later aboard the ''Argus''.</ref> The incident became a huge public embarrassment for the French monarchy, only recently restored to power after [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]]'s [[Hundred Days|defeat in 1815]].<ref name="Brandt">Brandt, Anthony. "Swept Away: When Gericault Painted the Raft of the Medusa, He Immersed Himself in His Subject's Horrors". ''American Scholar'', Autumn 2007.</ref><ref>The other boats became separated and though most eventually arrived at St Louis Island in Senegal, some put ashore further along the coast and lost some of their party to heat and starvation. Of the 17 men that remained behind on the ''Méduse'' only 3 were still alive when rescued by the British 42 days later.</ref>

== Description ==

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Géricault, who had just been forced to break off a painful affair with his aunt, shaved his head and from November 1818 to July 1819 lived a disciplined monastic existence in his studio in the Faubourg du Roule, being brought meals by his concierge and only occasionally spending an evening out.<ref name=christiansen/> He and his 18-year-old assistant, Louis-Alexis Jamar, slept in a small room adjacent to the studio; occasionally there were arguments and on one occasion Jamar walked off; after two days Géricault persuaded him to return. In his orderly studio, the artist worked in a methodical fashion in complete silence and found that even the noise of a mouse was sufficient to break his concentration.<ref name=christiansen/>

[[File:Théodore Géricault - Le Radeau de la Méduse esquisse (salon de 1819).jpg|thumb|left|''Study'' c. 1818–1819{{Circa|1818-19}}, 38&nbsp;cm × 46&nbsp;cm, [[Louvre]]. This preparatory oil sketch nearly fully realises the positions of the figures in the final work.]]

He used friends as models, most notably the painter [[Eugène Delacroix]] (1798–1863), who modelled for the figure in the foreground with face turned downward and one arm outstretched. Two of the raft's survivors are seen in shadow at the foot of the mast;<ref name="Hagen & Hagen, 376"/> three of the figures were painted from life—Corréard, Savigny and Lavillette. Jamar posed nude for the dead youth shown in the foreground about to slip into the sea, and was also the model for two other figures.<ref name=christiansen/>

Much later, Delacroix—who would become the standard-bearer of French Romanticism after Géricault's death—wrote, "Géricault allowed me to see his ''Raft of Medusa'' while he was still working on it. It made so tremendous an impression on me that when I came out of the studio I started running like a madman and did not stop till I reached my own room."<ref name="delacroix1863">{{cite book|editor-last=Piron|editor-first=E. A.|date=1865|url=https://archive.org/details/eugenedelacroixs00dela|title=Eugène Delacroix, sa vie et ses oeuvres|location=Paris|publisher=J. Claye|oclc=680871496|via=the Internet Archive|page=[https://archive.org/details/eugenedelacroixs00dela/page/61/mode/1up 61]|quote='...Il me permit d'aller voir sa Méduse pendant qu'il l'exécutait dans un atelier bizarre qu'il avait près des Ternes. L'impression que j'en reçus fut si vive, qu'en sortant je revins toujours courant et comme un fou jusqu'à la rue de la Planche ou j'habitais alors.'}}</ref><ref name=Delacroix1923>{{cite book|last=Delacroix|first=Eugène|title=Oeuvres littéraires. II. Essais sur les artistes célèbres|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k56597765|location=Paris|publisher=G. Crès et cie|date=1923|page=[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k56597765/f256.image 233]|via=Gallica}}</ref><ref name="Wellingtonxi">{{harvnb|Wellington|1980|p=xi}}.</ref><ref>Miles, 175–76</ref>

[[File:Portrait Study by Théodore Géricault, c. 1818-19, Getty Center.JPG|thumb|''Portrait Study of Joseph'', oil on canvas painting by Théodore Géricault, {{Circa|1818-19}}, Getty Center. Joseph served as model for at least two Black individuals in the final version of the artist's representation of Medusa's raft.]]

Géricault, who was an [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allen |first=Denise Maria |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51294110 |title=Masterpieces of Painting in the J. Paul Getty Museum |date=2003 |publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum |isbn=0-89236-709-1 |edition=5th |location=Los Angeles |pages=86 |language=en |oclc=51294110}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> hired a [[Haiti|Haitian]] model named [[Joseph (art model)|Joseph]] to paint at least two Black individuals on the raft.<ref name=":32">{{Cite news |last=Bar |first=Roni |date=2017-02-06 |title=Cannibalism, Insanity and Class Warfare: The Tragedy Behind 'The Raft of the Medusa' Painting |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/life/2017-02-06/ty-article-magazine/the-tragedy-behind-the-raft-of-the-medusa/0000017f-e2fa-d7b2-a77f-e3ff95f00000 |access-date=2023-02-11}}</ref> Most notably, Joseph served as a model for what is considered to be a representation of Jean Charles, a military officer waving a dark red handkerchief in hopes of being noticed by the passing ship. Influenced by an ancient [[Classical Greece|Greek Classical]] sculpture titled ''[[Belvedere Torso]]'' and with his back turned toward the viewer, Joseph's silhouette is placed atop the pyramidal grouping of survivors in the composition's right half.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |last=Black McCoy |first=Claire |date=2021-05-27 |title=Théodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa |url=https://smarthistory.org/theodore-gericault-raft-of-the-medusa/ |access-date=2023-02-11 |website=Smarthistory}}</ref> In addition, a small rendering of Joseph's face, with his gaze directed toward the spectator, is placed within a group of three figures positioned between the wooden [[Mast (sailing)|mast]] and the supporting rope on the mast's right-hand side.<ref name=":32" />

Géricault painted with small brushes and viscous oils, which allowed little time for reworking and were dry by the next morning. He kept his colours apart from each other: his palette consisted of [[vermilion]], white, [[naples yellow]], two different [[red ochre|yellow ochres]], two [[red ochre]]s, [[sienna|raw sienna]], [[light red]], [[burnt sienna]], [[Carmine|crimson lake]], [[Prussian blue]], [[peach black]], [[Bone char|ivory black]], [[Van Dyke brown|Cassel earth]] and [[bitumen]].<ref name=christiansen/> Bitumen has a velvety, lustrous appearance when first painted, but over a period of time discolours to a black treacle, while contracting and thus creating a wrinkled surface, which cannot be renovated.<ref name=gayford/> As a result of this, details in large areas of the work can hardly be discerned today.<ref name=banham>

Banham, Joanna. "[http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=375817 "Shipwreck!"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316034608/http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=375817 |date=16 March 2009 }} ". ''[[Times Educational Supplement]]'', 21 February 2003. Retrieved on 6 January 2008.

</ref>

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The young Géricault had painted copies of work by [[Pierre-Paul Prud'hon]] (1758–1823), whose "thunderously tragic pictures" include his masterpiece, ''Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime'', where oppressive darkness and the compositional base of a naked, sprawled corpse obviously influenced Géricault's painting.<ref name=gayford>Gayford, Martin. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20160505155053/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-23003606.html Distinctive power]". ''[[The Spectator]]'', 1 November 1997.</ref>

The foreground figure of the older man may be a reference to [[Ugolino and Dante|Ugolino]] from [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s [[Divine Comedy|''Inferno'']]—a subject that Géricault had contemplated painting—and seems to borrow from a painting of Ugolini by [[Henry Fuseli]] (1741–1825) that Géricault may have known from prints. In Dante, Ugolino is guilty of [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]], which was one of the most sensational aspects of the days on the raft. Géricault seems to allude to this through the borrowing from Fuseli.<ref name="R73">Noon, 84. Riding (June 2003), 73. [[:File:Ugolino and his Sons Starving to Death in the Tower 1806 1a.jpg|Print after the Fuseli Ugolino]]</ref> An early study for ''The Raft of the Medusa'' in [[Watercolor painting|watercolour]], now in the Louvre, is much more explicit, depicting a figure gnawing on the arm of a headless corpse.<ref>''Scène de cannibalisme sur le radeau de la Méduse''. Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, RF 53032, recto. [[Joconde]] # 50350513324</ref>

Several English and American paintings including ''[[The Death of Major Pierson]]'' by [[John Singleton Copley]] (1738–1815)—also painted within two years of the event—had established a precedent for a contemporary subject. Copley had also painted several large and heroic depictions of disasters at sea which Géricault may have known from prints: ''[[Watson and the Shark]]'' (1778), in which a black man is central to the action, and which, like ''The Raft of the Medusa'', concentrated on the actors of the drama rather than the seascape; ''[[The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782]]'' (1791), which was an influence on both the style and subject matter of Géricault's work; and ''[[:File:SceneofaShipwreck-Copley.png|Scene of a Shipwreck]]'' (1790s), which has a strikingly similar composition.<ref name="R77"/><ref name="Nicholson">Nicholson, Benedict. "The Raft of the Medusa from the Point of View of the Subject-Matter". ''Burlington Magazine'', XCVI, August 1954. 241–8</ref> A further important precedent for the political component was the works of [[Francisco Goya]], particularly his ''[[The Disasters of War]]'' series of 1810–12, and his 1814 masterpiece ''[[The Third of May 1808]]''. Goya also produced a painting of a disaster at sea, called simply ''Shipwreck'' (date unknown), but although the sentiment is similar, the composition and style have nothing in common with ''The Raft of the Medusa''. It is unlikely that Géricault had seen the picture.<ref name="Nicholson"/>

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''The Raft of the Medusa'' contains the gestures and grand scale of traditional history painting; however, it presents ordinary people, rather than heroes, reacting to the unfolding drama.<ref name="Boime141">Boime, 141</ref> Géricault's raft pointedly lacks a hero, and his painting presents no cause beyond sheer survival. The work represents, in the words of Christine Riding, "the fallacy of hope and pointless suffering, and at worst, the basic human instinct to survive, which had superseded all moral considerations and plunged civilised man into barbarism".<ref name="Christine"/>

The artist's abolitionist views are said to have been expressed in his decision to prominently feature at least two Black individuals, particularly the dominant figure seen waving a dark red handkerchief. According to scholars Klaus Berger and Diane Chalmers Johnson, Géricault made "him the focal point of the drama, the strongest and most perceptive of the survivors, in a sense, the 'hero of the scene.{{'"}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Berger |first1=Klaus |last2=Johnson |first2=Diane Chalmers |date=1969 |title=Art as Confrontation: The Black Man in the Work of Gericault |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25087857 |journal=The Massachusetts Review |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=301–340 |jstor=25087857 |issn=0025-4878}}</ref> They argue that the artist's choice to do so was not a "last-minute" decision as evidenced by early sketches for the work, including a portrait study of the Haitian model Joseph, and point to Géricault's concerns regarding the "extreme cruelties" of illegal [[History of slavery|slave trade]] in the [[List of French possessions and colonies|French colonies]].<ref name=":0" /> Depicting a Black figure as a hero to convey an abolitionist message was uncommon at the time, as the official symbol of the French abolitionist group, the ''[[Society of the Friends of the Blacks|Société des amis des Noirs]]'', was an emblem, originally created by [[Josiah Wedgwood|Josiah Wedgewood]], titled [[Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion|“Am I Not a Man and a Brother?”]] (or “Ne suis-je pas ton frere?”) that depicts a Black man begging on one knee for liberation. Scholar Susan Libby highlights how this trope of a helpless, subservient slave became commonplace in European art.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Libby |first1=Susan H. |title=Blacks and Blackness in European Art of the Long Nineteenth Century |last2=Childs |first2=Adrienne L. |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4094-2200-6 |location=Burlington, VT |pages=23–25}}</ref> Gericault’s choice to place the Black man as the active “hero” deviated from popular ideas about enslaved people. The subject of marine tragedy was undertaken by [[J. M. W. Turner]] (1775–1851), who, like many English artists, probably saw Géricault's painting when it was exhibited in London in 1820.<ref name="r89">Riding (June 2003), 89</ref><ref>"[http://www.artsmia.org/crossing-the-channel/historical.html Crossing the Channel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306132745/http://www.artsmia.org/crossing-the-channel/historical.html |date=6 March 2016 }}". Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, 2003. Retrieved on 1 January 2009.</ref> His ''A Disaster at Sea'' ({{Circa|1835}}) chronicled a similar incident, this time a British catastrophe, with a swamped vessel and dying figures also placed in the foreground. Placing a person of color in the centre of the drama was revisited by Turner, with similar [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] overtones, in his ''[[The Slave Ship]]'' (1840).<ref name="r89" />

The unblemished musculature of the central figure waving to the rescue ship is reminiscent of the Neoclassical, however the naturalism of light and shadow, the authenticity of the desperation shown by the survivors and the emotional character of the composition differentiate it from Neoclassical austerity. It was a further departure from the religious or classical themes of earlier works because it depicted contemporary events with ordinary and unheroic figures. Both the choice of subject matter and the heightened manner in which the dramatic moment is depicted are typical of Romantic painting—strong indications of the extent to which Géricault had moved from the prevalent Neoclassical movement.<ref name="Wilkin"/>

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The influence of ''The Raft of the Medusa'' was felt by artists beyond France. [[Francis Danby]], a British painter born in Ireland, probably was inspired by Géricault's picture when he painted ''Sunset at Sea after a Storm'' in 1824, and wrote in 1829 that ''The Raft of the Medusa'' was "the finest and grandest historical picture I have ever seen".<ref>Noon, 85</ref>

The subject of marine tragedy was undertaken by [[J. M. W. Turner]] (1775–1851), who, like many English artists, probably saw Géricault's painting when it was exhibited in London in 1820.<ref name="r89">Riding (June 2003), 89</ref><ref>"[http://www.artsmia.org/crossing-the-channel/historical.html Crossing the Channel]". Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, 2003. Retrieved on 1 January 2009.</ref> His ''A Disaster at Sea'' (c. 1835) chronicled a similar incident, this time a British catastrophe, with a swamped vessel and dying figures also placed in the foreground. Placing a person of color in the centre of the drama was revisited by Turner, with similar [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] overtones, in his ''[[The Slave Ship]]'' (1840).<ref name="r89" />

''[[The Gulf Stream (painting)|The Gulf Stream]]'' (1899), by the American artist [[Winslow Homer]] (1836–1910), replicates the composition of ''The Raft of the Medusa'' with a damaged vessel, ominously surrounded by sharks and threatened by a waterspout. Like Géricault, Homer makes a black man the pivotal figure in the scene, though here he is the vessel's sole occupant. A ship in the distance mirrors the ''Argus'' from Géricault's painting.<ref name="Dorment">Dorment, Richard. "Painting the Unpaintable". ''The New York Review of Books''. 27 September 1990.</ref> The move from the drama of Romanticism to the new Realism is exemplified by the stoic resignation of Homer's figure.<ref>Griffin, Randall C. ''Homer, Eakins & Anshutz: The Search for American Identity in the Gilded Age''. Penn State Press, 2004. 102. {{ISBN|0-271-02329-5}}</ref> The man's condition, which in earlier works might have been characterised by hope or helplessness, has turned to "sullen rage".<ref name="Dorment" />

In the early 1990s, the American sculptor [[John Connell (artist)|John Connell]], in his ''Raft Project'', a collaborative project with painter Eugene Newmann, recreated ''The Raft of the Medusa'' by making life-sized sculptures out of wood, paper and tar and placing them on a large wooden raft.<ref>ARTnews, Summer 1993</ref>

Remarking on the contrast between the dying figures in the foreground and the figures in the mid-ground waving towards the approaching rescue ship, the French art historian Georges-Antoine Borias wrote that Géricault's painting represents, "on the one hand, desolation and death. On the other, hope and life."<ref>Borias, 12:32</ref>

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File:Gros - Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau cropped.png|[[Antoine-Jean Gros]], detail from ''[[Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau|Napoleon on the battlefield of Eylau]]'', 1807, Louvre. Like Gros, Géricault had seen and felt the exhilaration of violence, and was distraught by the human consequences.<ref name="Eitner" />

File:Delacroix barque of dante 1822 louvre 189cmx246cm 950px.jpg|[[Eugène Delacroix]], ''[[The Barque of Dante]]'', 1822. ''The Raft of the Medusa'''s influence on the work of the young Delacroix was immediately apparent in this painting, as well as in later works.<ref name="N14" />

File:EugèneScène Delacroixdes - Le Massacremassacres de Scio.jpg|Eugène Delacroix, ''[[The Massacre at Chios|Massacre at Chios]]'', 1824, 419&nbsp;cm × 354&nbsp;cm, Louvre. This painting springs directly from Géricault's ''The Raft of the Medusa'' and was painted in 1824, the year Géricault died.<ref>Wellington, 19–49</ref>

File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - A Disaster at Sea - Google Art Project.jpg|[[J. M. W. Turner]], ''A Disaster at Sea'' (also known as ''The Wreck of the Amphitrite''), c. 1833–35{{Circa|1833-35}}, 171.5&nbsp;cm × 220.5&nbsp;cm, [[Tate]], London. Turner probably saw Géricault's painting when it was exhibited in London in 1820.

File:Winslow Homer - The Gulf Stream - Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|[[Winslow Homer]], ''The Gulf Stream'', 1899, 71.5&nbsp;cm × 124.8&nbsp;cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]

</gallery>

==See also==

* ''[[100 Great Paintings]]'', 1980 BBC series

* ''[[Das Floß der Medusa]]'', an oratorio on the same subject

* [[Scandals in art]]

== Citations ==

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== General and cited references ==

{{refbegin|30em}}

* Alhadeff, Albert. ''The Raft of the Medusa: Géricault, Art, and Race'', Prestel, 2002, {{ISBN|3-7913-2782-8}}, {{ISBN|978-3-7913-2782-2}}.

* [[Julian Barnes|Barnes, Julian]]. ''[[A History of the World in 10½ Chapters]]''. London: Jonathan Cape, 1989. {{ISBN|0-09-954012-6}}. Chapter 5, ''Shipwreck'', is an analysis of the painting.

* Berger, Klaus & Gaericault, Thaeodore. ''Gericault: Drawings & Watercolors''. New York: H. Bittner and Company, 1946.

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* Fried, Michael. ''Manet's Modernism: Or, the Face of Painting in the 1860s''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. {{ISBN|0-226-26217-0}}.

* Grigsby, Darcy Grimaldo. ''Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France, (a study of the works of Girodet, Gros, Gericault, and Delacroix).'' [[Yale University Press]], 2002. {{ISBN|0-300-08887-6}}.

* Hagen, Rose-Marie & Hagen, Rainer. ''What Great Paintings Say''. Vol. 1. Taschen, 2007 (25th ed.). 374–7374–377. {{ISBN|3-8228-4790-9}}.

* McKee, Alexander. ''Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft''. London: Souvenir Press, 1975. {{ISBN|0-451-20044-6}}.

* {{cite book|last=McKee|first=Alexander|author-link=Alexander McKee (author)|title=Wreck of the Medusa: Mutiny, Murder, and Survival on the High Seas |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|year=2007|isbn=978-1602391864|url= https://archive.org/details/wreckofmedusa00alex/page/156/mode/2up}}

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{{refend}}

== External links ==

{{Commons category|The Raft of the Medusa|''The Raft of the Medusa''}}

{{External media | width = 210px | alignfloat = right | video1 = [http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/gericaults-raft-of-the-medusa1.html Géricault's ''Raft of the Medusa''], [[Smarthistory]] at [[Khan Academy]]}}

* The official painting record at the [http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/raft-medusa Louvre website]

{{Théodore Géricault}}

{{Gericault}}

{{Louvre Museum}}

{{Romanticism}}

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[[Category:Paintings by Théodore Géricault]]

[[Category:Paintings in the Louvre by French artists]]

[[Category:Louis XVIII]]