Abandoned at Sea, Driven to Cannibalism: Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa (1819) | Dark Art Storie

Stand too close to the canvas, and you might hear something below, counting who is left... In June 1816 the French frigate Méduse sailed for Senegal under a captain who had scarcely sailed in twenty years and owed his command to political favor. On 2 July she ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania. At least 147 people were crowded onto a makeshift raft that was meant to be towed ashore, but it was cut loose after a few miles. Within days the survivors fought, killed mutineers and ate their dead. After thirteen days the brig Argus rescued them; only fifteen were still alive. Théodore Géricault interviewed two survivors, built a scale model of the raft, studied corpses and severed limbs, and had his friend Eugène Delacroix pose for one of the figures. He painted the moment the Argus first passed them by. Shown at the Salon of 1819 to a divided reception, the painting now hangs in the Louvre. Géricault died in 1824, aged 32. Oil on canvas, 491 x 716 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Sources: Wikipedia, "The Raft of the Medusa" (citing the Louvre and others). Image: Wikimedia Commons, Théodore Géricault, La Balsa de la Medusa (Museo del Louvre, 1818-19) (public domain, PD-Art). Narration and music: ElevenLabs. #ArtHistory #DarkArt #Gericault #RaftOfTheMedusa #Louvre #HiddenSecrets