‘The Raft of the Medusa’ was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1819. Théodore Géricault showed the enormous canvas under the less revealing title *Scène de Naufrage* (“Shipwreck Scene”), though contemporary viewers quickly recognized its connection to the Méduse disaster.
The painting depicts survivors stranded after the French frigate Méduse ran aground off the West African coast on 2 July 1816. At least 146 people were left on a hastily built raft; only 15 survived the 13 days before rescue. Reports of starvation, dehydration, violence, and cannibalism made the incident a political scandal for the restored Bourbon monarchy.
At the Salon, the painting provoked both admiration and outrage. Its monumental scale, grim realism, unstable composition, and contemporary subject challenged the calm idealism associated with Neoclassical history painting. It later received a warmer response during its exhibition in London, where its dramatic size and subject attracted large audiences.
The work is now regarded as a defining image of French Romanticism. The Louvre acquired it after Géricault’s death, and its influence extended to artists including Eugène Delacroix, J. M. W. Turner, Gustave Courbet, and Édouard Manet.