... and then there was the French
Romantic painter,
Théodore Géricault (1791–1824), who went to extraordinary lengths to capture authenticity in the subject of his larger-than-life oil painting,
The Raft of the Medusa. Which was based on a contemporary scandal, the shipwreck of the Medusa in 1816.
Géricault so thoroughly immersed himself in researching the full horror of his subject matter that he became completely obsessed by it :
Quote: According to the art historian Georges-Antoine Borias, "Géricault established his studio across from Beaujon hospital. And here began a mournful descent. Behind locked doors he threw himself into his work. Nothing repulsed him. He was dreaded and avoided."[26]
With particular attention to corpses:
Quote:To achieve the most authentic rendering of the flesh tones of the dead,[3] he made sketches of bodies in the morgue of the Hospital Beaujon,[25] studied the faces of dying hospital patients,[27] brought severed limbs back to his studio to study their decay,[25][28] and for a fortnight drew a severed head, borrowed from a lunatic asylum and stored on his studio roof.[27]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa
According to my art teacher in high school, the smell emanating from his studio caused his neighbours to complain to the authorities. I don't know for certain whether this was actually true or not ... but it has always stayed in my mind whenever confronted with images of
The Raft!
Agh.
