Talking about Géricault's painting "The Raft of the Medusa"

"Parler du tableau de Géricault "Le Radeau de la Méduse""
French C1 writing exercise

Journalist Marie Bisson is talking to art expert Gérard du Maurier about "The Raft of the Medusa", the famous painting by French artist Théodore Géricault on her TV show.

Discover Géricault's painting "Le Radeau de la Méduse".

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "welcome to [something]", "a (TV) programme", "a masterpiece", "to be delighted to [do]", "a painting", "a manifesto", "to denounce [something]", "monarchy", "political corruption", "to elaborate on a point", "to be inspired by [something]", "a shipwreck", "a frigate (boat)", "to survive to [something]", "atrocious", "cannibalism", "the authorities", "to do all one could", "to strike [someone] (surprise)", "despair", "half-naked", "to be shocked", "to feel (feelings)", "such suffering", "depicted (painting)", "monumental", "a canvas".

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

- Hello Mr du Maurier, and welcome to our programme on Géricault's masterpiece, "The Raft of the Medusa". - Hello, I am delighted to be able to talk about my favourite painting. - Many people say that Géricault's piece is more than a simple painting. - Indeed, you could say that it is almost a manifesto because through this painting, Géricault wanted to denounce the incompetence of the French monarchy as well as the political corruption. - That's very interesting! Could you elaborate on that point? - Géricault's masterpiece was directly inspired by the tragic shipwreck of the real frigate "The Medusa" in 1816, which fifteen people survived to in atrocious conditions: hunger, thirst and, worst of all, cannibalism. The authorities did all they could to hide the truth: the ship's captain had been appointed for political reasons rather than for his experience. - What strikes me the most is the level of despair on the half-naked characters' faces. At the time, wasn't the public shocked by this painting? - Yes, and that was exactly what the artist wanted them to feel because no one had ever seen such suffering depicted on a monumental canvas. - Mr du Maurier, thank you very much for your explanation!

Getting that for you now...