Théodore Géricault

The same uniqueness, variety, and inviduality also makes Romanticism a modern movement. The constant search for change and the reformation of the old order are both found in Romantic architecture. By not identifying with one revival or one group, Romantics maintened modern ideals. Staying true to human emotion, not becoming machinated or bland because of fear of non-approval or lack of commercial appeal is truly modern.

Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) was a contemporary of Jacques-Louis David and a prominent Romantic painter in France. His great work, The Raft of the “Medusa,” was painted in response to a political scandal and tragedy. The “Medusa” was a government ship with hundreds of men on board. When it sunk off the coast of Western Africa, only a few men were rescued. The captain and officers of the ship left the men to die. By painting The Raft, Géricault was responding to the new post-Napolean monarchy in France. Though the painting itself is Romantic, with exaggerated figures reaching towards the heavens and dark, dramatic lighting, Géricault employed an almost Neoclassical method in researching the painting. He interviewed survivors, studied a model of the raft, and even studied corpses in a morgue. This Enlightenment-driven search for facts and truth seems to be contradictory to Romantic imagination. However, the constant, and inherently modern, element of Géricault’s Romanticism, like David’s Neoclassicism, is the search for the truth and response to hypocrisy of government.