Theodore Gericault

Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) was a French painter whose dramatic, emotionally charged work helped shape early Romanticism. Born in Rouen, he trained in Paris and studied the art of the Old Masters, while also developing a keen interest in contemporary life and the power of the human body in motion. His most famous painting, *The Raft of the Medusa* (1818–1819), depicts survivors of a real shipwreck and became a landmark of modern history painting for its scale, realism, and political resonance. Géricault also produced portraits, studies of horses, and haunting images of the marginalized. He died in Paris at 32.