Musée du Louvre IV, Paris 1989

»Musée du Louvre 4, Paris 1989« is one of a series of large-scale photographs that Thomas Struth has taken in major museums around the world, analysing the behaviour of visitors in the context of the museum. Here we see a group of visitors with their backs to the camera, looking at Théodore Géricault's famous painting 'Le Radeau de la Méduse' (The Raft of the Medusa) (1818-1819), which is exhibited in the Louvre Gallery. The attitude of the viewers and the spatial situation are in stark contrast to the violent subject of the painting.

Géricault was depicting a tragic episode in the history of the French colonial navy: the sinking of the frigate Méduse. The frigate's mission was to transport administrative material, officials and soldiers to the future colony of Senegal. It ran aground on a sandbank on 2 July 1816. At least 147 people were abandoned on a makeshift raft. Few survived starvation, dehydration and cannibalism. The event became an international scandal, partly because the cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain, who was serving the recently restored monarchy.