Romanticism, topicality, sensuality…

The Raft of the Medusa

Théodore Géricault

When you leave the Salle des États, turn your attention to the large 19th-century French paintings in the Salle Mollien... 

At the Salon of 1819, Théodore Géricault presented his huge painting The Raft of the Medusa, a dramatic scene illustrating the recent wreck of a French ship – an event that had shocked the public. One hundred and fifty people drifted for thirteen days on a makeshift raft, falling prey to thirst, starvation, disease and cannibalism. Only fifteen survived to tell the tale.

The pyramidal composition and precise draughtsmanship are classically inspired. However, Géricault’s pallid, unforgiving lighting draws attention to the emaciated bodies of the dead and living heaped together atop the precarious vessel. The work was completed in 8 months. While working on the painting, the artist met with survivors, used scale models, visited morgues, and studied dying hospital patients. The result divided the critics: some were captivated, and others repulsed by the powerfully confrontational image.

The painting was acquired by the Louvre in 1824, shortly after the artist’s death.

Liberty Leading the People

Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix is regarded as one of the great Romantic painters. Contrary to popular belief, Liberty Leading the People does not portray the French Revolution of 1789, but the three-day uprising of July 1830 when Parisians took to the streets to defend their freedoms – that of the press in particular – from the tyrannical rule of Charles X. In this work described by Delacroix as ‘a modern subject, a barricade’, the allegorical figure of Liberty has something of the beauty of a Greek goddess but is personified by a sensual and vibrant woman of the people.  This painting, the most famous by Delacroix, has been referenced in all kinds of freedom fights.