Théodore GéricaultFrench, 1791–1824The Severed Heads
May one see it?
Unknown: the museum keeps its counsel
Nationalmuseum
Stockholm, Sweden
The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.
- In this state since
- Sep 27, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
At the Paris Salon of 1819, Géricault caused a sensation with his monumental work The Raft of Medusa. The painting featured the dead, the dying and the survivors of a French shipwreck off the African coast. This catastrophe and the government’s handling of it caused a political scandal in France. In preparation for the painting, Géricault made numerous studies of corpses and body parts – one of these is The Severed Heads. The macabre realism in this picture marks a departure from previous ideals and a new interest in more dramatic subjects.
Nationalmuseum
Particulars
Sources
- Nationalmuseum: the museum's own open data · fetched 3 days ago
- Image: Nationalmuseum — Public Domain Mark 1.0
