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Many know the large painting hanging in the Salle Mollien of the Louvre by Théodore Géricault but did you know it was based on a true story? Le Radeau de la Méduse (The Raft of the Medusa) was painted in 1818 when Géricault was just 27. It depicts the story of the French ship Medusa, a 40-gun Pallas frigate that was used during the Napoleonic Wars in 1810. On June 17, 1816, the Medusa left the port of Aix alongside three other ships in the fleet.

Through a series of bad choices by the captain who didn’t know what he was doing the Medusa crashed into a sandbar and then things got much worse.

With two casks of water and wine (gotta love the French) and floating under the hot sun the worst was yet to happen. As their raft mates died, they were eaten by the others to survive. Thirteen days later on July 17, only fifteen members remained when they were spotted by the Argus and rescued, 5 more died before they reached the shore.

Géricault’s early sketches of the painting, two of which are in the Louvre, show a few slight differences from the final version. The first sketch shows the raft’s position off from the one we know so well. If you look closely at each of the figures you can see how they changed and why I love to find earlier sketches of these monumental works. It’s like getting a glimpse into the artist's mind before the final monumental piece that hangs in the Louvre today.


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