In The Raft of the Medusa, the classical nude of Jacques Louis David, realism of subject, and a Romantic force of feeling were characteristically blended; the picture made a strong impression on the young Eugène Delacroix, who incidentally posed for one of the figures. A visit to England followed (1820-22), and marked a change of direction. The sporting print and English genre picture alike attracted Géricault, The Derby at Epsom 1821 (Louvre, Paris) being a striking result, and he made several lithographs of London life and character and in addition an equestrian portrait of the Prince Regent (Wallace Collection, London).

Géricault studied 1808-10 under a painter of hunting and racing scenes, Carle Vernet, and then under the classicist Guérin, 1810-11, though it was Baron Gros who really inspired him to the dash and spirit of his early pictures of Napoleonic cavalry officers. Géricault left Paris for Italy 1816-17, where he conceived ambitious projects of painting in the grand style of Michelangelo and Raphael, making studies for a large canvas suggested by the Barberi horse race. In 1822-23, back in Paris, he executed a series of portraits, clinical in their veracity, of mentally ill patients in the Salpetrière hospital.