Théodore GéricaultFrankrig, 1791–1824Return from Russia
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The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, USA
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Géricault was an accomplished lithographer who realized the potential of the medium. Two stones were used to print this image—one for the design printed in black and the other to create the broad areas of tone printed in ochre. This is one of the earliest French lithographs in which a second color is somewhat integrated into the image instead of just being used for the overall background. Géricault added white watercolor to indicate snow on the lower portion of the scene. Unlike other artists who glorified the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), Gericault portrayed a realistic image of the misery and horrors of combat. This scene of two wounded soldiers and exhausted, starving animals is a powerful statement of the pitiful conditions following Napoleon's defeat by the Russians.
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Imens i livet hos Théodore Géricault
Hele livet1816
An affair with his uncle's wife: another reason to leave
At that time Géricault began a love affair with his uncle's wife, Alexandrine-Modeste Caruel, and feared its discovery; it was another, personal reason for his departure for Italy.
1816–1817
Naples and Rome: the shock of Michelangelo
Géricault visited Naples, drawing the landscapes and people, but spent most of his time in Rome. The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel shook him: Michelangelo's monumentality of form inspired his pen drawings, such as “Man Felling a Bull”, among the most interesting made in Rome.
autumn 1817
The book on the wreck of the Méduse reaches Géricault
In the autumn of 1817 the book “The Wreck of the Frigate Medusa” appeared, in which the eyewitnesses, the geographer-engineer Alexandre Corréard and the physician Henri Savigny, described the thirteen-day drift of the raft after the ship ran aground off the coast of Mauritania. The book reached Géricault, who saw in it the subject for the large painting he had long dreamed of.
1817–1818
Investigating the disaster: survivors, a model raft, morgues
Géricault re-created the event by studying the available materials and meeting witnesses: he got to know Corréard and Savigny, a carpenter from the Méduse made a scale model of the raft for him, and the artist modelled wax figures himself. He visited hospital morgues, drawing dead heads, emaciated bodies and severed limbs, and the preparation ended with a trip to Le Havre, where he painted studies of sea and sky.
1819
“The Raft of the Medusa” sparks a political controversy at the Salon
When first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1819, “The Raft of the Medusa” ignited political controversy: it indicted a corrupt establishment, in which the captain had left the crew and passengers to die, but also dramatized the eternal struggle of man against nature.
12 June – 30 December 1820
London: 50,000 visitors and 20,000 francs
The entrepreneur Bullock exhibited “The Raft of the Medusa” in London from 12 June to 30 December 1820; about 50,000 people saw it, critics called it a masterpiece, and its author was compared to Michelangelo and Caravaggio. Géricault was entitled to a third of the ticket receipts and received 20,000 francs.
