Le Radeau de la Méduse

[Cliff Haley]

This is the Raft of the Medusa painted by Théodore Géricault in 1818.

And this is my narrative

At first glance this is a representation of a dramatic event with a short lifespan. It has a clear beginning, a climax and a conclusion. The ship Medusa left France in 1816 bound for Senegal. Off the coast of Mauritania, it struck a reef and in a panic, the crew and passengers abandoned the ship in small boats and a hastily prepared raft. Within minutes the group became separated and the raft, with no way to steer, drifted out to sea. For twelve days the raft drifted, and out of 146 people who boarded, only fifteen survived to be rescued by the French frigate Argus. While shipwrecks were no strange occurrence in the 19th century, this particular shipwreck became a scandal of epic proportions, inspiring this painting by Théodore Géricault.

A number of details turned the tragedy into a scandal. The conditions on the raft were horrific. The ship’s crew and passengers fought in the initial hours with the crew killing many of the passengers. At first the bodies were dumped overboard, but as the stores of food ran out, the survivors turned to cannibalism. The weakest and wounded were pushed overboard or murdered, and those strong enough to resist their fellow castaways drifted for twelve days under the equatorial sun.

The horror and madness of the experience would have passed for an unfortunate accident if not for the politics of the day. The ship set sail months after the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of Louis XVIII as the French monarch. In place of the experienced naval officer who would have piloted the ship, a recently returned noble émigré who had not commanded a ship since before the revolution in 1789 was put in charge. His incompetence directly led to the grounding of the Medusa, and his decision to leave the crew and passengers to die aboard the raft caused the new government incredible embarrassment.

Turning to Gericault’s painting the first thing we should note is that the actual painting is enormous, around 16 ft x 23 ft. The painting is designed to draw the viewer’s attention up the pyramid to the ship on the horizon, the rescuing Argus. As everyone, in and out of the painting, is looking to the ship on the horizon, towards the possible future, one man looks the other direction. The contrast between this vacant stare and the excited relief of the other castaways is further emphasized by the position of the makeshift mast. What is the man looking at? Why is he not participating in the excitement of the others? Is he too overcome with grief? Is he resigned to the fate of the currents? Has he lost hope?

These questions take on a greater importance when you consider the turbulent history of France over the past 30 years. From monarchy to revolution and republic to empire and finally back to monarchy, with a short second interlude of Napoleon, the French were buffeted by political violence as the Medusa’s raft was battered by the waves and current. With each new regime, Parisians and French were relieved and disappointed in turn as each rescuer turned into a tyrant and war continued. With its turbulent seas and ominous skies, the painting by Gericault captures the mood of the French citizenry as they were dragged through the madness of the 18th and 19th centuries.

[John Lee]

Very nicely done. I particularly like your venture into French political history and the depiction of the noble émigré captain. The positioning of this painting as a metaphor for the larger upheaval that shaped France in the early 19th century is also well fashioned. Work such as yours here has to navigate between the intent of the artist and your intent to interpret the past. I like the way you balanced those sometimes conflicting demands. I would add that the turbulent seas may have some metaphorical value, either as representative of events in France around (prior to) the 1816 shipwreck or as indicative of the events to come in the Revolution of 1830.