Passion in The Raft of the Medusa

The little woman who was referred to as starting the Civil War was visiting Paris in the spring of 1853 (McCullough 216). She spent her days exploring the city and once while in the Grand Galerie of Le Louvre, she made this astute observation concerning the paintings on display: There were too few from a distance and close up that were "glorious enough to seize and control my whole being." Harriet Beecher Stowe felt that too many artists, "painted with dry eyes and cold hearts, thinking little of heroes, faith, love or immortality."

I ponder the impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin and think that it was written with all the passions she claimed were missing in the great paintings worthy of hanging in the Louvre. However, there was one painting that she spent one hour just looking at. It was Theodore Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa. It's a remarkable painting and shares the emotion that emerged from the paintbrush and the pen.

I will be contemplating how to write with tears, a warm heart, while thinking of heroes, faith, love and immortality. What a book it would be.

WIP 21,959