Raft of the Medusa, The

Painting by the French Romantic artist Théodore Géricault 1819 (Louvre, Paris). Based on a recent event – the wreck of the frigate Medusa – it depicts the moment when the few survivors on a raft, who have been reduced to murder and cannibalism, catch sight of a ship coming to their aid. Its brutal realism and dramatic power make it one of the foremost products of French Romanticism.

It was exhibited at the Salon of 1819 as Scène de Naufrage. It is now in the Louvre under the title of Le Radeau de la Méduse.