Theodore Géricault: The Painting of The Shipwreck of Medusa

Gericault, Theodore, 1791-1824. Raft of the Medusa. 1819. Oil on canvas, 491x716cm. Musée du Louvre. https://jstor.org/stable/community.13596750.
Portrait of Theodore Gericault by Horace Vernet c. 1822–1823

Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Gericault (1791-1824) was born in Rouen, and studied under Carle Vernet and Pierre Guérin. His most famous works include The Raft of the Medusa, painted in 1818-1819 and currently exhibited in The Louvre, as well as his series of portraits of inmates of an asylum that were commissioned by a friend.1

Géricault’s Portraits of the Insane

Géricault, Théodore France, Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures, RF 1938

Gericault was inspired to create his homage to the Medusa shipwreck after experiencing his own sense of turmoil—Gericault was involved in an affair with his aunt that he had to abruptly terminate when she had his child. Gericault’s creative process included frequent visits to the Paris morgue where he sketched and studied the corpses, and he additionally kept several amputated limbs and a severed head in his studio to study their decay.2

Theodore Gericault, Four Studies of a Severed Head, 1818

The Painting

The oil painting itself is large in scale, 491 by 716 centimeters, and presents a striking scene. The remnants of the raft and the survivors are harshly lit from the left from a light source out of frame, which creates strong shadows that emphasize the harshness and drama of the scene. The painting has no central focal point, and instead is composed of two triangular forms, one formed by the peak of the mast and makeshift sail, the other by the main atop the shoulders of his fellow survivors waving a flag with desperation.34

This more unorthodox structure adds to the visual chaos of the painting, leaving the viewer with a sense of instability. In the background to the left, a massive wave looms over the horizon line, while on the right the gathered clouds form around a darkening sky. Corpses hang off the raft haphazardly, while some of the survivors reach upward toward the help they see. This aid is not depicted in the painting, however, leaving it ambiguous whether there is truly salvation for the raft’s occupants.

Théodore Géricault. The Raft of the “Medusa.” 1819. Oil on canvas, 491 x 716 cm. Musée du Louvre. Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives. Artstor. https://jstor.org/stable/community.18121028.

Socio-political Significance

Gericault’s painting was not only a feat of technical skill and artistry, but also a significant painting in terms of its social and political commentary.5 At its unveiling in 1819, its display  posed a question to viewers and critics—would they embrace the painting and its liberal symbolism of equality and its critique of the government’s corruption, or would they shun it and be seen as conservative and unmoved by the plights of the people?

Additionally, his inclusion of Black men is noted by Klaus Berger and Diane Chalmers Johnson, who write that this choice by Gericault reflects his liberal stance and his strong sense of morality and justice. 6The Black man depicted in The Raft of the Medusa at the top of the pile of other bodies, waving for help, represents the great struggle for freedom and equality. The fact that the figure is facing away from the viewer adds anonymity, making the figure emblematic of the greater struggle rather than focusing on the figure’s personal plight.

John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark
Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream

The Raft of the Medusa has inspired viewers for decades, and has been a source of inspiration for many other interpretations and works of art, notably Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley and The Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer.

  1. “Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault (1791 – 1824) | National Gallery, London.” n.d. Www.nationalgallery.org.uk.https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/jean-louis-andre-theodore-gericault. ↩︎
  2. Brandt, Anthony. Review of Swept Away: When Géricault painted The Raft of the Medusa, he immersed himself in his subject’s horrors, by Jonathan Miles. The American Scholar 76, no. 4 (2007): 131–33. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41221785. ↩︎
  3. Rose, Gillian. “Visual Methodologies.” In Research Methods for English Studies, 2nd ed., edited by Gabriele Griffin. Edinburgh University Press, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b4xz.8. ↩︎
  4. Collins, Bradford R. “What Is Art History?” Art Education 44, no. 1 (1991): 53–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/3193265. ↩︎
  5. O’BRIEN, DAVID. “Censorship of Visual Culture in France, 1815—1852.” Yale French Studies, no. 122 (2012): 37–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23646025. ↩︎
  6. Berger, Klaus, and Diane Chalmers Johnson. “Art as Confrontation: The Black Man in the Work of Gericault.” The Massachusetts Review 10, no. 2 (1969): 301–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25087857. ↩︎

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