Romanticism · 1819
Théodore Géricault 1791–1824
The Louvre · Paris
Survivors of a shipwreck heap on a raft, straining toward a speck on the horizon — Géricault built a national scandal into a monument.
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Chapter 1 of 7
Before you stretches a canvas almost five metres wide — and a catastrophe France desperately wanted to forget. In 1816 the frigate Méduse ran aground off Senegal. One hundred and forty-nine people were cast onto a makeshift raft.
Géricault, twenty-seven years old and furious, spent eighteen months turning that political disgrace into Romanticism's first masterpiece.
Where to see it
Paris
Room 700 · Salle Mollien · Level 1 · Denon wing
The Hear Art 3D museum guide walks you to it.
Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
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