The Raft of the Medusa<span> is an </span>oil painting<span> of 1818–1819 by the French </span>Romantic<span> painter and </span>lithographer Théodore Géricault<span> (1791–1824). Completed when the artist was 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism. At 491 cm × 716 cm (16' 1" × 23' 6"),</span><span> it is an over-life-size painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval </span><span>frigate Méduse</span><span>, which ran aground off the coast of today's </span>Mauritania<span> on 2 July 1816.</span>