The Raft of the Medusa, masterpiece by Theodore Gericault at the Musee du Louvre. ‘The Raft of Medusa’ portrays victims of a shipwreck adrift on the sea without food and water at the moment they signal to a distant ship.
The painter chose to represent a dramatic moment of the instant when survivors regain hope of rescue.
Historian often regards the Raft of the Medusa as the most important painting of French romanticism.
By locating the scene off the coast of Africa, Gericault incorporated an element of exoticism. Nature – cruel and unforgiving – is central to the scene, reflected in the turbulent sea, dark clouds and imperiled raft.
The painting concerned the situation of the shipwreck of the French fleet ship Medusa in 1819 off coast of Senegal due to human error and the catastrophic rescue effort of the survivors at sea, abandoned by the ship’s crew.
The Raft of Medusa
