The Raft of the Medusa
Handmade Replica

Original artwork details

Current location: Musée du Louvre

Original size: 193.3 x 281.9 in (491 x 716 cm)

Date created: 1819

Art movement: Romanticism

This work marks a turning point in history painting. It takes as its subject a controversial news item questioning the negligence of the government of Louis XVIII in the case of the sinking of a French frigate off the coast of Senegal in 1816. The castaways, abandoned to their fate, had engaged in acts of cannibalism.

To paint it, the artist had reconstructed a real raft in his studio and illustrated corpses. In search of realism, Géricault does not abandon a particular neoclassical ideal: his castaways are athletes, and he does not openly represent acts of cannibalism. By placing a man of black color at the top of the human pyramid, did Géricault want to declare slavery? This complex work retains its share of mystery.