‘The Raft of Medusa’ portrays victims of a shipwreck adrift on the sea without food and water at the moment they signal to a distant ship.
The painter chose to represent a dramatic moment o the instant when survivors regain hope of rescue.
In September 1816, the French were shocked at the news of the disaster that had befallen the government ship Medusa as it headed for Senegal in West Africa the previous July.
Medusa was one of four ships in a fleet sent by government of France to officially receive the British handover of the port of St Louis in Senegal. Medusa was to carry passengers, including the French governor of Senegal.
The French painter Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) befriend the ship’s surgeon , Henry Savigni, one of the tem who survived. Savigni provided Gericault with a direct eyewitness account of the event.
The Raft of Medusa: The History
