What followed was a two-week nightmare of stormy seas, brutal killings, insanity and cannibalism. The wealthy were given access and ample space on the lifeboats while the remaining 149 people were forced onto a makeshift raft which was tied by a rope to one of the lifeboats.Īt some point, the raft was either intentionally or accidentally cut loose. Eventually, the ship had hit the bottom of the ocean. However, scared and inexperienced, the captain Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys forbid them from getting rid of the cannons as he did not want to anger his constituents back in France.

The crew decided to throw overboard extra weight in the hope of raising the ship out of the muck and floating out with the tide. The frigate quickly outpaced the other ships but it was simply floating too close to shore and inevitably hit a sandbar. Since the captain was inexperienced, all that the Méduse's crew were interested in was traveling as fast as possible and were sticking close to the African shoreline in order to do so. The role of the captain was given to Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys, a 53-year-old man who had not been on a ship for twenty-five years and had never commanded a frigate before in his life. Méduse held nearly four hundred people, as well as the new governor of Senegal. In the June of 1816, the frigate Méduse set sail with three other ships, setting their course for the Senegalese port of Saint-Louis which had been given to the French by the British as a sign of good faith to the reinstated king, Louis XVIII. It makes sense to start with the event that served as the inspiration behind the piece as the knowledge of Méduse's fate is crucial in understanding the Théodore Géricault's artwork. Théodore Géricault - The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-19, on view in Louvre - Image via We shall now take a look at the backstory of The Raft of the Medusa, analyze it in detail and investigate how far reaching and strong its influence on the art history truly was. Ultimately, The Raft of the Medusa became an inspiration for all the younger painters regardless of their visual preferences, quickly ascending to the iconic level it still enjoys today. Unmerciful and uncompromising in the depicted brutality, the desperation on canvas is as devastating as the story behind the painting. The French public was outraged when it found out what happened to the Méduse but was utterly shocked when they were presented with the painted version of the story - and make no mistake, French artistic community was never easily shocked. The Raft of the Medusa is an over-life-size painting that describes a terrifying and exhilarating moment following the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse. Completed when the artist was just 27 years of age, this artwork has become an icon of Romanticism and therefore presents a true milestone of the European artistic course.

A piece that manages to capture the brutal, authentic and raw emotion to the best of the medium's abilities, The Raft of the Medusa is an oil painting authored by the Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault in the year of 1818.

Raft of the medusa