Blakes Piece of Art

The Raft of the Medusa

An oil painting of 1818–1819 by the French Romantic painter Théodore Géricault (1791–1824).

The Raft of the Medusa depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania. At least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 of them died in the 13 days before their rescue and those who survived endured starvation, dehydration, cannibalism, and madness. The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain acting under the authority of the recently restored French monarchy.