A quiz question · medium
Of the 147 people cast adrift on the Medusa's raft in 1816, how many were alive when it was found thirteen days later?
Storm, mutiny, murder, and cannibalism did the rest. Géricault interviewed survivors and painted the scene at history-painting scale; it hangs in the Louvre.
Read the full story →From the story
The Wreck of the Medusa in 1816 and the Raft That Became France's Most Scandalous Painting In July 1816 the French frigate Medusa — commanded by an incompetent émigré appointee — ran aground off West Africa. The privileged took the boats; 147 people were cast off on a makeshift raft. Thirteen days later 15 were alive, having survived mutiny, murder, and cannibalism. Géricault's enormous painting of the raft turned the scandal into immortal art.
Related questions
- Where did the Great Fire of London start on 2 September 1666?
- What unusual atmospheric effect did the 1883 Krakatoa eruption produce worldwide for several years?
- When did the AZF fertilizer plant explosion in Toulouse occur?
- Which toxic chemical leaked from the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal on 2-3 December 1984?