Louvre IV 1989 by Thomas Struth. And the Raft of the Medusa.

            The Postcard

A postally unused carte postale that was published by Taschen of Köln in 2000. On the divided back of the card it states:

'Thomas Struth
Louvre IV 1989
C-print, 184 x 217 cm (framed)
Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler, 
Berlin
From the Taschen book:
Art at the Turn of the Millennium.'

The Raft of the Medusa

The Louvre's visitors are looking at a painting called The Raft of the Medusa.

The Raft of the Medusa (French: Le Radeau de la Méduse) – originally titled Scène de Naufrage (Shipwreck Scene) – is an oil painting of 1818–19 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791–1824). 

Completed when the artist was 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism. At 491 by 716 cm (16 ft. 1 in by 23 ft. 6 in), it is an over-life-size painting that depicts the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania on the 2nd. July 1816. 

On the 5th. July 1816, at least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation and dehydration and practised cannibalism (the custom of the sea). 

The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain.

Géricault chose this large-scale un-commissioned work to launch his career, using a subject that had already generated widespread public interest. 

The event fascinated him, and before he began work on the final painting, he undertook extensive research, and produced many preparatory sketches. He interviewed two of the survivors, and constructed a detailed scale model of the raft. 

He visited hospitals and morgues where he could view, first-hand, the colour and texture of the flesh of the dying and dead. 

As he had anticipated, the painting proved highly controversial at its first appearance in the 1819 Paris Salon, attracting passionate praise and condemnation in equal measure. However, it established his international reputation, and today is widely seen as seminal in the early history of the Romantic movement in French painting.

Although The Raft of the Medusa retains elements of the traditions of history painting, in both its choice of subject matter and its dramatic presentation, it represents a break from the calm and order of the prevailing Neoclassical school. 

Géricault's work attracted wide attention from its first showing and was then exhibited in London. The Louvre acquired it soon after the artist's death at the age of 32. The painting's influence can be seen in the works of Eugène Delacroix, J. M. W. Turner, Gustave Courbet, and Édouard Manet.

Taken on: July 19, 2023

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Sets appears in: • Museums, Art Galleries and Libraries • Paris

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