The Raft of the Medusa, or Le Radeau de la Méduse in French, was first called Scène de Naufrage, which means "Shipwreck Scene." It is an oil picture by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791–1824). It was made between 1818 and 1819. This piece, which the artist finished when he or she was 27, has become a symbol of French Romanticism. It's 491 cm long and 716 cm wide, which is 16 feet 1 inch by 23 feet 6 inches. The over-life-size picture shows a moment after the French naval frigate Méduse sank off the coast of what is now Mauritania on July 2, 1816. At least 147 people were thrown off a hastily built raft on July 5, 1816. In the 13 days before they were rescued, all but 15 of them died, and the ones who made it through went hungry, thirsty, and practiced cannibalism, which was common at the time. The event became a scandal around the world, in part because many people thought the French captain was to blame for it.

Géricault used this big, uncommissioned piece to start his career. The subject had already sparked a lot of interest in the public. The event interested him, so he did a lot of study and made a lot of sketches before starting to work on the final painting. He talked to two of the survivors and built a scale model of the raft with lots of details. When he went to hospitals and morgues, he could see for himself how the flesh of the sick and dead looked and felt. As he had expected, the picture caused a lot of debate when it was first shown at the Paris Salon in 1819. It got both strong praise and harsh criticism. But it made him famous all over the world, and many people today think of it as a key moment in the early history of the Romantic movement in French painting.

There are some historical painting aspects in The Raft of the Medusa, but the painting's subject matter and dramatic style are very different from the calm and orderly style of the Neoclassical school around that time. Géricault's work got a lot of attention when it was first shown, and it was later exhibited in London. It was bought by the Louvre soon after the artist died at age 32. A lot of artists, like Eugène Delacroix, J. M. W. Turner, Gustave Courbet, and Édouard Manet, were influenced by this painting.