Victor Bachereau Reverchon (French, b.1842) after Théodore Géricault

The famous French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) painted the prototype (491 x 716 cm.) in 1818-19 at the age of 27. The Raft of the Medusa is an icon of French Romanticism. It is a painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania on July 5, 1816.