As the roots of Blake and Goya take hold, 19th century France witnesses an extraordinary upsurge of Romanticism. Liberty, equality and the rights of man were the ambitions of the day. Spearheaded by Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, the new Romantic style captured the mood of heightened emotions, activism and rebellion that was pulsating across the country. Themes of heroism, self-sacrifice and solidarity fill their canvases. Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa and Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People exemplify – better than any other works of this period - all the progressive aspirations of the day. They are wildly dramatic and romantic pieces of art that are the culmination of decades of struggling for political freedom.