studies in composition.
the Raft of the Medusa is considered an excellent composition . in the first painting i referenced the essential structures in the masterpiece.
on my outline drawing i wrote, 'bright sky' in the top left corner. then the mast divided the space with sweeping lines of the sail crossing the top and bottom of the center third of the canvas vertical and horizontal intersection .
i added arrows cascading up the left side for the wave, and downward toward the center bottom for the forlorn raft.
right of the mast the sailors form a mountain to raise a flag, to a ship on the horizon, all in a dark ragging sea.
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The Raft of the Medusa – originally titled Scène de Naufrage – is an oil painting of 1818–19 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault. Completed when the artist was 27
The Raft of the Medusa, painting (1819) by French Romantic artist Théodore Géricault depicting the survivors of a shipwreck adrift and starving on a raft. Géricault astonished viewers by painting, in harrowing detail, not an antique and noble subject but a recent gruesome incident.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Raft-of-the-Medusa
