Theodore Gericault ⁽²⁾

Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) was the original wild child of French Romanticism—bold, brooding, and not afraid to shake things up. His most famous work, The Raft of the Medusa, is a massive, emotionally charged painting that dropped jaws when it debuted in 1819. Based on a real-life shipwreck and government scandal, the painting isn’t just a dramatic scene—it’s a political statement wrapped in raw human struggle. With its intense realism, twisted bodies, and stormy drama, Géricault’s raft launched Romanticism into uncharted waters (pun fully intended).

But Géricault wasn’t a one-hit wonder. He had a deep fascination with the human condition—sometimes in pretty dark ways. He studied corpses to get anatomy just right, painted portraits of mental illness with haunting empathy, and had a serious love of horses, capturing them mid-stride with astonishing detail. Tragically, he died young, at just 32, but his short life burned bright. Géricault didn’t just paint art—he painted intensity, injustice, and the wild pulse of life itself.