Géricault: The Raft of the `Medusa'

Painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault was the leader of the French Romantic movement; The Raft of the `Medusa' was his most ambitious work. In this film we see how he consciously sought for `headline' public events to provide a subject for a major work that would launch his career. The Medusa, a government vessel, had foundered off the West African coast, and 150 people tried to escape on a raft. After thirteen days, only fifteen were rescued alive. They had had nothing but a few drops of wine - and human meat - to sustain them. The tragedy was blamed on official negligence and created a political scandal. Géricault depicted the instant when the survivors first saw the rescue ship, and he went to extraordinary lengths to achieve authenticity: he interviewed survivors and drew their portraits, he had a model of the raft built, he even studied corpses in the morgue.

© 1998-2008 The Roland Collection & Pira Intl.