The painter that jumpstarted the Romanticism period was named Theodore Gericault. Gericault was born in 1791 and died in 1824 at the young age of 32. He only ever had 3 paintings displayed to the public in his lifetime. One of these paintings was The Raft of the Medusa. This painting displays the government ship called, the Medusa. This ship was carrying French colonists to Senegal sank of the coast of Africa. When it started sinking the captain and the crew were the first to take the lifeboats. They were towing a makeshift raft behind the lifeboat with over 140 people on that makeshift raft. The captain and crew cut the rope eventually and left the immigrants without food or water for twelve days. Out of the 140 immigrants, only 15 lived.
