The Raft of the Medusa (Art)

This is a huge painting by Théodore Géricault and it was done in the 1819, Romanticism period. Nowadays it is found in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

The painting is capturing a scene of an important event happened in June 1816, when a tragic ship accident happened.

A ship called Medusa sailed from the Senegalese port of Saint Louis with three other ships. This ship had been given by the British to the French king Louis XVII to show good faith. On the ship there were about 400 people including the crew, the governor and his soldiers. The captain, a fifty-three year old man had never driven a ship before. After the ship hit the shore and crashed, the crew went with the life boats and there weren’t enough for everyone. Then a carpenter managed to build a raft from the remaining of the ship and one hundred and fifty passengers stayed on it with the hope to survive but only fifteen of them had survived from the raft.

This painting is an oil canvas 193 x 282 inches. The painting’s subject is contemporary. It consists of a lot of different feelings and emotions which the artist has created. Each and every detail should have a meaning. There is a comparison between man and nature because of the rough waves of the sea and also depicts the weakness of people with the strength of nature. As I said before this painting is very emotional and you can see it from the people which are crying for help and also shows sadness, weakness, death, anguish and isolation. It is a very dramatic painting and has a sensitive subject.

The lines in this painting are mixed and that makes it stressful to look at. It has a very strong contrast between the light and dark colours. The colour is very appropriate with the scene. There is also a soft texture in the waves.

Bibliography:  

Steve Durbin, 2007. Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (by Tree) . [online] Available at: http://artandperception.com/2007/10/gericaults-the-raft-of-the-medusa-by-tree.html . [Accessed 19 February 2014].

Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, n.d. Géricault's Raft of the Medusa. [online] Available at: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/gericaults-raft-of-the-medusa1.html. [Accessed 19 February 2014].