title: Ericsson

text: Other countries and colonies were exposed to Ericsson products through the influence of their parent countries. These included Australia and New Zealand, which by the late 1890s were Ericsson's largest non-European markets. Mass production techniques were now firmly established; telephones were losing some of their ornate finish and decoration.


title: Ericsson

text: Despite their successes elsewhere, Ericsson did not make significant sales in the United States. The Bell Group, Kellogg and Automatic Electric dominated the market. Ericsson eventually sold its U.S. assets. Sales in Mexico led to inroads into South American countries. South Africa and China were also generating significant sales. With his company now multinational, Lars Ericsson stepped down from the company in 1901.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson ignored the growth of automatic telephony in the United States and concentrated on manual exchange designs. Their first dial telephone was produced in 1921, although sales of the early automatic switching systems were slow until the equipment had proven itself on the world's markets. Telephones of this period had a simpler design and finish, and many of the early automatic desk telephones in Ericsson's catalogues were magneto styles with a dial on the front and appropriate changes to the electronics. Elaborate decals decorated the cases. World War I, the subsequent Great Depression and the loss of its Russian assets after the Revolution slowed the company's development while sales to other countries fell by about half.


title: Ericsson

text: The acquisition of other telecommunications companies put pressure on Ericsson's finances; in 1925, Karl Fredric Wincrantz took control of the company by acquiring most of the shares. Wincrantz was partly funded by Ivar Kreuger, an international financier. The company was renamed "Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson". Kreuger started showing interest in the company, being a major owner of Wincrantz holding companies.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson was saved from bankruptcy and closure with the help of banks including Stockholms Enskilda Bank (now Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken) and other Swedish investment banks controlled by the Wallenberg family, and some Swedish government backing. Marcus Wallenberg Jr. negotiated a deal with several Swedish banks to rebuild Ericsson financially. The banks gradually increased their possession of LM Ericsson "A" shares, while ITT was still the largest shareholder. In 1960, the Wallenberg family bought ITT's shares in Ericsson, and has since controlled the company.


title: Ericsson

text: In the 1920s and 1930s, the world telephone markets were being organized and stabilized by many governments. The fragmented town-by-town systems serviced by small, private companies that had evolved were integrated and offered for lease to a single company. Ericsson obtained some leases, which represented further sales of equipment to the growing networks. Ericsson got almost one-third of its sales under the control of its telephone operating companies.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson introduced the world's first fully automatic mobile telephone system, MTA, in 1956. It released one of the world's first hands-free speaker telephones in the 1960s. In 1954, it released the Ericofon. Ericsson crossbar switching equipment was used in telephone administrations in many countries. In 1983 the company introduced the ERIPAX suite of network products and services.


title: Ericsson

text: In the 1990s, during the emergence of the Internet, Ericsson was regarded as slow to realize its potential and falling behind in the area of IP technology. But the company had established an Internet project in 1995 called Infocom Systems to exploit opportunities leading from fixed-line telecom and IT. CEO Lars Ramqvist wrote in the 1996 annual report that in all three of its business areas – Mobile Telephones and Terminals, Mobile Systems, and Infocom Systems – "we will expand our operations as they relate to customer service and Internet Protocol (IP) access (Internet and intranet access)".


title: Ericsson

text: The growth of GSM, which became a "de facto" world standard, combined with Ericsson's other mobile standards, such as D-AMPS and PDC, meant that by the start of 1997, Ericsson had an estimated 40% share of the world's mobile market, with around 54 million subscribers. There were also around 188 million AXE lines in place or on order in 117 countries. Telecom and chip companies worked in the 1990s to provide Internet access over mobile telephones. Early versions such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) used packet data over the existing GSM network, in a form known as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), but these services, known as 2.5G, were fairly rudimentary and did not achieve much mass-market success.


title: Ericsson

text: The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had prepared the specifications for a 3G mobile service that included several technologies. Ericsson pushed hard for the WCDMA (wideband CDMA) form based on the GSM standard and began testing it in 1996. Japanese operator NTT Docomo signed deals to partner with Ericsson and Nokia, who came together in 1997 to support WCDMA over rival standards. DoCoMo was the first operator with a live 3G network, using its own version of WCDMA called FOMA. Ericsson was a significant developer of the WCDMA version of GSM, while US-based chip developer Qualcomm promoted the alternative system CDMA2000, building on the popularity of CDMA in the US market. This resulted in a patent infringement lawsuit that was resolved in March 1999 when the two companies agreed to pay each other royalties for the use of their respective technologies and Ericsson purchased Qualcomm's wireless infrastructure business and some R&D resources.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson issued a profit warning in March 2001. Over the coming year, sales to operators halved. Mobile telephones became a burden; the company's telephones unit made a loss of SEK 24 billion in 2000. A fire in a Philips chip factory in New Mexico in March 2000 caused severe disruption to Ericsson's phone production, dealing a "coup de grâce" to Ericsson's mobile phone hopes. Mobile phones would be spun off into a joint venture with Sony, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, in October 2001.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson launched several rounds of restructuring, refinancing and job-cutting; during 2001, staff numbers fell from 107,000 to 85,000. A further 20,000 went the next year, and 11,000 more in 2003. A new rights issue raised SEK 30 billion to keep the company afloat. The company had survived as mobile Internet started growing. With record profits, it was in better shape than many of its competitors.


title: Ericsson

text: The emergence of full mobile Internet began a period of growth for the global telecom industry, including Ericsson. After the launch of 3G services in 2003, people started to access the Internet using their telephones.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson was working on ways to improve WCDMA as operators were buying and rolling it out; it was the first generation of 3G access. New advances included IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and the next evolution of WCDMA, called High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA). It was initially deployed in the download version called HSDPA; the technology spread from the first test calls in the US in late 2005 to 59 commercial networks in September 2006. HSPA would provide the world's first mobile broadband.


title: Ericsson

text: In July 2016, Hans Vestberg stepped down as Ericsson's CEO after heading the company for six years. Jan Frykhammar, who has been working for the company since 1991 will be stepping in as interim CEO as Ericsson searches for a full-time replacement. On 16 January 2017, following Ericsson's announcement on 26 October 2016, new CEO Börje Ekholm started and interim CEO Jan Frykhammar stepped down the following day.


title: Ericsson

text: In June 2018, Ericsson, Inc. and Ericsson AB have agreed to pay $145,893 to settle potential civil liability for an apparent violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 538 (SSR).1


title: Ericsson

text: Around 2000, companies and governments began to push for standards for mobile Internet. In May 2000, the European Commission created the Wireless Strategic Initiative, a consortium of four telecommunications suppliers in Europe – Ericsson, Nokia, Alcatel (France) and Siemens (Germany) – to develop and test new prototypes for advanced wireless communications systems. Later that year, the consortium partners invited other companies to join them in a Wireless World Research Forum in 2001. In December 1999, Microsoft


title: Ericsson

text: and Ericsson announced a strategic partnership to combine the former's web browser and server software with the latter's mobile-internet technologies. In 2000, the Dot-com bubble burst with marked economic implications for Sweden. Ericsson, the world's largest producer of mobile telecommunications equipment, shed thousands of jobs, as did the country's Internet consulting firms and dot-com start-ups. In the same year, Intel, the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer, signed a $1.5 billion deal to supply flash memory to Ericsson over the next three years.


title: Ericsson

text: The short-lived joint venture called Ericsson Microsoft Mobile Venture, owned 70/30 percent by Ericsson and Microsoft, respectively, ended in October 2001 when Ericsson announced it would absorb the former joint venture and adopt a licensing agreement with Microsoft instead. The same month, Ericsson announced the launch of Sony Ericsson, a joint venture mobile telephone business, together with Sony. Sony Ericsson remained in operation until February 2012, when Sony bought out Ericsson's share; Ericsson said it wanted to focus on the global wireless market as a whole.


title: Ericsson

text: Lower stock prices and job losses affected many telecommunications companies in 2001. The major equipment manufacturers – Motorola (U.S.), Lucent Technologies (U.S.), Cisco Systems (U.S.), Marconi (UK), Siemens (Germany), Nokia (Finland), as well as Ericsson – all announced job cuts in their home countries and subsidiaries around the world. Ericsson's workforce worldwide fell during 2001 from 107,000 to 85,000.


title: Ericsson

text: In September 2001, Ericsson purchased the remaining shares in EHPT from Hewlett Packard. Founded in 1993, Ericsson Hewlett Packard Telecom (EHPT) was a joint venture made up of 60% Ericsson interests and 40% Hewlett-Packard interests.


title: Ericsson

text: In 2002, ICT investor losses topped $2 trillion and share prices fell by 95% until August that year. More than half a million people lost their jobs in the global telecom industry over the two years. The collapse of U.S. carrier WorldCom, with more than $107 billion in assets, was the biggest in U.S. history. The sector's problems caused bankruptcies and job losses, and led to changes in the leadership of several major companies. Ericsson made 20,000 more staff redundant and raised about $3 billion from its shareholders. In June 2002, Infineon Technologies (then the sixth-largest semiconductor supplier and a subsidiary of Siemens) bought Ericsson's microelectronics unit for $400 million.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson was an official backer in the 2005 launch of the .mobi top-level domain created specifically for the mobile internet.


title: Ericsson

text: Co-operation with Hewlett-Packard did not end with EHPT; in 2003 Ericsson outsourced its IT to HP, which included Managed Services, Help Desk Support, Data Center Operations, and HP Utility Data Center. The contract was extended in 2008. In October 2005, Ericsson acquired the bulk of the troubled UK telecommunications manufacturer Marconi Company, including its brand name that dates back to the creation of the original Marconi Company by the "father of radio" Guglielmo Marconi. In September 2006, Ericsson sold the greater part of its defense business Ericsson Microwave Systems, which mainly produced sensor and radar systems, to Saab AB, which renamed the company to Saab Microwave Systems.


title: Ericsson

text: In 2007, Ericsson acquired carrier edge-router maker Redback Networks, and then Entrisphere, a US-based company providing fiber-access technology. In September 2007, Ericsson acquired an 84% interest in German customer-care and billing software firm LHS, a stake later raised to 100%. In 2008, Ericsson sold its enterprise PBX division to Aastra Technologies, and acquired Tandberg Television, the television technology division of Norwegian company Tandberg. ==


title: Ericsson

text: In 2009, Ericsson bought the CDMA2000 and LTE business of Nortel's carrier networks division for US$1.18 billion; Bizitek, a Turkish business support systems integrator; the Estonian manufacturing operations of electronic manufacturing company Elcoteq; and completed its acquisition of LHS. Acquisitions in 2010 included assets from the Strategy and Technology Group of inCode, a North American business and consulting-services company; Nortel's majority shareholding (50% plus one share) in LG-Nortel, a joint venture between LG Electronics and Nortel Networks providing sales, R&D and industrial capacity in South Korea, now known as Ericsson-LG; further Nortel carrier-division assets, relating from Nortel's GSM business in the United States and Canada; Optimi Corporation, a U.S.–Spanish telecommunications vendor specializing in network optimization and management; and Pride, a consulting and systems-integration company operating in Italy.


title: Ericsson

text: In 2011, Ericsson acquired manufacturing and research facilities, and staff from the Guangdong Nortel Telecommunication Equipment Company (GDNT) as well as Nortel's Multiservice Switch business. Ericsson acquired U.S. company Telcordia Technologies in January 2012, an operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) company. In March, Ericsson announced it was buying the broadcast-services division of Technicolor, a media broadcast technology company. In April 2012 Ericsson completed the acquisition of BelAir Networks a strong Wi-Fi network technology company.


title: Ericsson

text: On 3 May 2013, Ericsson announced it would divest its power cable operations to Danish company NKT Holding. On 1 July 2013, Ericsson announced it would acquire the media management company Red Bee Media, subject to regulatory approval. The acquisition was completed on 9 May 2014. In September 2013, Ericsson completed its acquisition of Microsoft's Mediaroom business and televisions services, originally announced in April the same year. The acquisition makes Ericsson the largest provider of IPTV and multi-screen services in the world, by market share; it was renamed Ericsson Mediaroom. In September 2014, Ericsson acquired majority stake in Apcera for cloud policy compliance. In October 2015, Ericsson completed the acquisition of Envivio, a software encoding company. In April 2016, Ericsson acquired Polish and Ukrainian operations of software development company Ericpol, a long-time supplier to Ericsson. Approximately 2,300 Ericpol employees joined Ericsson, bringing software development competence in radio, cloud, and IP.


title: Ericsson

text: On 20 June 2017, Bloomberg disclosed that Ericsson hired Morgan Stanley to explore the sale of its media businesses. The Red Bee Media business was kept in-house as an independent subsidiary company, as no suitable buyer was found, but a 51% stake of the remainder of the Media Solution division was sold to private equity firm One Equity Partners, the new company being named MediaKind. The transaction was completed on 31 January 2019. In February 2018, Ericsson acquired the location-based mobile data management platform Placecast. Ericsson has since integrated Placecast's platform and capabilities with its programmatic mobile ad subsidiary, Emodo. In May 2018, SoftBank partnered with Ericsson to trial new radio technology. In September 2020, Ericsson acquired US-based carrier equipment manufacturer Cradlepoint for $1.1 billion.


title: Ericsson

text: In November 2021, Ericsson announced it had reached an agreement to acquire Vonage for $6.2 billion. The acquisition completed in July 2022.


title: Ericsson

text: , members of the board of directors of LM Ericsson were: Leif Johansson, Jacob Wallenberg, Kristin S. Rinne, Helena Stjernholm, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Börje Ekholm, Ulf J. Johansson, Mikael Lännqvist, Zlatko Hadzic, Kjell-Åke Soting, Nora Denzel, Kristin Skogen Lund, Pehr Claesson, Karin Åberg and Roger Svensson.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson has structured its R&D in three levels depending on when products or technologies will be introduced to customers and users. Its research and development organization is part of 'Group Function Technology' and addresses several facets of network architecture: wireless access networks; radio access technologies; broadband technologies; packet technologies; multimedia technologies; services software; EMF safety and sustainability; security; and global services. The head of research since 2012 is Sara Mazur.


title: Ericsson

text: Group Function Technology holds research co-operations with several major universities and research institutes including Lund University in Sweden, Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and Beijing Institute of Technology in China. Ericsson also holds research co-operations within several European research programs such as GigaWam and OASE. Ericsson holds 33,000 granted patents and is the number-one holder of GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA, and LTE essential patents. In 2021, the WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators report ranked Ericsson's number of patent applications published under the PCT System as 6th in the world, with 1,989 patent applications being published during 2020. This position is up from their previous ranking as 7th in 2019 with 1,698 applications.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson hosts a developer program called Ericsson Developer Connection designed to encourage development of applications and services. Ericsson also has an open innovation initiative for beta applications and beta API's & tools called Ericsson Labs. The company hosts several internal innovation competitions among its employees.


title: Ericsson

text: In May 2022, it was announced that Ericsson and Intel are pooling R&D excellence to create high-performing Cloud RAN solutions. The organisations have pooled to launch a tech hub in California, USA. The hub focuses on the benefits that Ericsson Cloud RAN and Intel technology can bring to: improving energy efficiency and network performance, reducing time to market, and monetizing new business opportunities such as enterprise applications.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson's business includes technology research, development, network systems and software development, and running operations for telecom service providers. and software Ericsson offers end-to-end services for all major mobile communication standards, and has three main business units.


title: Ericsson

text: Business Area Networks, previously called Business Unit Networks, develop network infrastructure for communication needs over mobile and fixed connections. Its products include radio base stations, radio network controllers, mobile switching centers and service application nodes. Operators use Ericsson products to migrate from 2G to 3G and, most recently, to 4G networks.


title: Ericsson

text: The company's network division has been described as a driver in the development of 2G, 3G, 4G/LTE and 5G technology, and the evolution towards all-IP, and it develops and deploys advanced LTE systems, but it is still developing the older GSM, WCDMA, and CDMA technologies. The company's networks portfolio also includes microwave transport, Internet Protocol (IP) networks, fixed-access services for copper and fiber, and mobile broadband modules, several levels of fixed broadband access, radio access networks from small pico cells to high-capacity macro cells and controllers for radio base stations.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson's network rollout services employ in-house capabilities, subcontractors and central resources to make changes to live networks. Services such as technology deployment, network transformation, support services and network optimization are also provided.


title: Ericsson

text: This unit provides core networks, Operations Support Systems such as network management and analytics, and Business Support Systems such as billing and mediation. Within the Digital Services unit, there is an m-Commerce offering, which focuses on service providers and facilitates their working with financial institutions and intermediaries. Ericsson has announced m-commerce deals with Western Union and African wireless carrier MTN.


title: Ericsson

text: The unit is active in 180 countries; it supplies managed services, systems integration, consulting, network rollout, design and optimization, broadcast services, learning services and support.


title: Ericsson

text: The company also works with television and media, public safety, and utilities. Ericsson claims to manage networks that serve more than 1 billion subscribers worldwide, and to support customer networks that serve more than 2.5 billion subscribers.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson's Broadcast Services unit was evolved into a unit called Red Bee Media, which has been spun out into a joint venture. It deals with the playout of live and pre-recorded, commercial and public service television programmes, including presentation (continuity announcements), trailers, and ancillary access services such as closed-caption subtitles, audio description and in-vision sign language interpreters. Its media management services consist of Managed Media Preparation and Managed Media Internet Delivery.


title: Ericsson

text: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Ericsson) was a joint venture with Sony that merged the previous mobile telephone operations of both companies. It manufactured mobile telephones, accessories and personal computer (PC) cards. Sony Ericsson was responsible for product design and development, marketing, sales, distribution and customer services. On 16 February 2012, Sony announced it had completed the full acquisition of Sony Ericsson, after which it changed name to Sony Mobile Communications, and nearly a year later it moved headquarters from Sweden to Japan.


title: Ericsson

text: As a joint venture with Sony, Ericsson's mobile telephone production was moved into the company Sony Ericsson in 2001. The following is a list of mobile phones marketed under the brand name Ericsson.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson Mobile Platforms existed for eight years; on 12 February 2009, Ericsson announced it would be merged with the mobile platform company of STMicroelectronics, ST-NXP Wireless, to create a 50/50 joint venture owned by Ericsson and STMicroelectronics.


title: Ericsson

text: This joint venture was divested in 2013 and remaining activities can be found in Ericsson Modems and STMicroelectronics. Ericsson Mobile Platform ceased being a legal entity early 2009.


title: Ericsson

text: Starting in 1983 Ericsson Enterprise provided communications systems and services for businesses, public entities and educational institutions. It produced products for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)-based private branch exchanges (PBX), wireless local area networks (WLAN), and mobile intranets.


title: Ericsson

text: Ericsson Enterprise operated mainly from Sweden but also operated through regional units and other partners/distributors. In 2008 it was sold to Aastra.


title: Ericsson

text: On 7 December 2019, Ericsson agreed to pay more than $1.2 billion (€1.09 billion) to settle U.S. Department of Justice FCPA criminal and civil investigations into foreign corruption. US authorities accused the company of conducting a campaign of corruption between 2000 and 2016 across China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kuwait and Djibouti. Ericsson admitted to paying bribes, falsifying books and records and failing to implement reasonable internal accounting controls in an attempt to strengthen its position in the telecommunications industry.


title: Ericsson

text: In 2022, an internal investigation into corruption inside the company was leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It detailed corruption in at least 10 countries. Ericsson has admitted "serious breaches of compliance rules".


title: Ericsson

text: The leak also revealed that some subcontractors working on behalf of Ericsson paid bribes to the Islamic State in order to continue operating the telecom network in occupied regions of Iraq.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The Raft of the Medusa ( ) – originally titled Scène de Naufrage ("Shipwreck Scene") – is an oil painting of 1818–19 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791–1824). Completed when the artist was 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism. At , it is an over-life-size painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate "Méduse", which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania on 2 July 1816. On 5 July 1816, at least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation and dehydration and practiced cannibalism (the custom of the sea). The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Géricault chose to depict this event in order to launch his career with a large-scale uncommissioned work on a subject that had already generated great public interest. The event fascinated him, and before he began work on the final painting, he undertook extensive research and produced many preparatory sketches. He interviewed two of the survivors and constructed a detailed scale model of the raft. He visited hospitals and morgues where he could view, first-hand, the colour and texture of the flesh of the dying and dead. As he had anticipated, the painting proved highly controversial at its first appearance in the 1819 Paris Salon, attracting passionate praise and condemnation in equal measure. However, it established his international reputation and today is widely seen as seminal in the early history of the Romantic movement in French painting.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Although "The Raft of the Medusa" retains elements of the traditions of history painting, in both its choice of subject matter and its dramatic presentation, it represents a break from the calm and order of the prevailing Neoclassical school. Géricault's work attracted wide attention from its first showing and was then exhibited in London. The Louvre acquired it soon after the artist's death at the age of 32. The painting's influence can be seen in the works of Eugène Delacroix, J. M. W. Turner, Gustave Courbet, and Édouard Manet.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: In June 1816, the French frigate "Méduse", captained by Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys, departed from Rochefort, bound for the Senegalese port of Saint-Louis. She headed a convoy of three other ships: the storeship "Loire", the brig "Argus" and the corvette "Écho". Viscount Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys, a recently returned royalist émigré, had been appointed captain of the frigate by the newly restored Bourbon administration despite having scarcely sailed in 20 years. After the wreck, public outrage mistakenly attributed responsibility for his appointment to Louis XVIII, though his was a routine naval appointment made within the Ministry of the Navy and far outside the concerns of the monarch. The frigate's mission was to accept the British return of Senegal under the terms of France's acceptance of the Peace of Paris. The appointed French governor of Senegal, Colonel Julien-Désiré Schmaltz, and his wife and daughter were among the passengers.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: In an effort to make good time, the "Méduse" overtook the other ships, but due to poor navigation it drifted off course. On 2 July, it ran aground on a sandbank off the West African coast, near today's Mauritania. The collision was widely blamed on the incompetence of De Chaumereys, a returned émigré who lacked experience and ability, but had been granted his commission as a result of an act of political preferment. Efforts to free the ship failed, so, on 5 July, the frightened passengers and crew started an attempt to travel the to the African coast in the frigate's six boats. Although the "Méduse" was carrying 400 people, including 160 crew, there was space for only about 250 in the boats. The remainder of the ship's complement and half of a contingent of marine infantrymen intended to garrison Senegal—at least 146 men and one woman—were piled onto a hastily built raft, that partially submerged once it was loaded. Seventeen crew members opted to stay aboard the grounded "Méduse". The captain and crew aboard the other boats intended to tow the raft, but after only a few miles the raft was turned loose. For sustenance the crew of the raft had only a bag of ship's biscuit (consumed on the first day), two casks of water (lost overboard during fighting) and six casks of wine.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: According to critic Jonathan Miles, the raft carried the survivors "to the frontiers of human experience. Crazed, parched and starved, they slaughtered mutineers, ate their dead companions and killed the weakest." After 13 days, on 17 July 1816, the raft was rescued by the "Argus" by chance—no particular search effort was made by the French for the raft. By this time only 15 men were still alive; the others had been killed or thrown overboard by their comrades, died of starvation, or had thrown themselves into the sea in despair. The incident became a huge public embarrassment for the French monarchy, only recently restored to power after Napoleon's defeat in 1815.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: "The Raft of the Medusa" portrays the moment when, after 13 days adrift on the raft, the remaining 15 survivors view a ship approaching from a distance. According to an early British reviewer, the work is set at a moment when "the ruin of the raft may be said to be complete". The painting is on a monumental scale of , so that most of the figures rendered are life-sized and those in the foreground almost twice life-size, pushed close to the picture plane and crowding onto the viewer, who is drawn into the physical action as a participant.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The makeshift raft is shown as barely seaworthy as it rides the deep waves, while the men are rendered as broken and in utter despair. One old man holds the corpse of his son at his knees; another tears his hair out in frustration and defeat. A number of bodies litter the foreground, waiting to be swept away by the surrounding waves. The men in the middle have just viewed a rescue ship; one points it out to another, and an African crew member, Jean Charles, stands on an empty barrel and frantically waves his handkerchief to draw the ship's attention.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The pictorial composition of the painting is constructed upon two pyramidal structures. The perimeter of the large mast on the left of the canvas forms the first. The horizontal grouping of dead and dying figures in the foreground forms the base from which the survivors emerge, surging upward towards the emotional peak, where the central figure waves desperately at a rescue ship.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The viewer's attention is first drawn to the centre of the canvas, then follows the directional flow of the survivors' bodies, viewed from behind and straining to the right. According to the art historian Justin Wintle, "a single horizontal diagonal rhythm [leads] us from the dead at the bottom left, to the living at the apex." Two other diagonal lines are used to heighten the dramatic tension. One follows the mast and its rigging and leads the viewer's eye towards an approaching wave that threatens to engulf the raft, while the second, composed of reaching figures, leads to the distant silhouette of the "Argus", the ship that eventually rescued the survivors.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Géricault's palette is composed of pallid flesh tones, and the murky colours of the survivors' clothes, the sea and the clouds. Overall the painting is dark and relies largely on the use of sombre, mostly brown pigments, a palette that Géricault believed was effective in suggesting tragedy and pain. The work's lighting has been described as "Caravaggesque", after the Italian artist closely associated with tenebrism—the use of violent contrast between light and dark. Even Géricault's treatment of the sea is muted, being rendered in dark greens rather than the deep blues that could have afforded contrast with the tones of the raft and its figures. From the distant area of the rescue ship, a bright light shines, providing illumination to an otherwise dull brown scene.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Géricault was captivated by accounts of the widely publicised 1816 shipwreck, and realised that a depiction of the event might be an opportunity to establish his reputation as a painter. Having decided to proceed, he undertook extensive research before he began the painting. In early 1818, he met with two survivors: Henri Savigny, a surgeon, and Alexandre Corréard, an engineer from the École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers. Their emotional descriptions of their experiences largely inspired the tone of the final painting. 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."


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Earlier travels had exposed Géricault to victims of insanity and plague, and while researching the "Méduse" his effort to be historically accurate and realistic led to an obsession with the stiffness of corpses. To achieve the most authentic rendering of the flesh tones of the dead, he made sketches of bodies in the morgue of the Hospital Beaujon, studied the faces of dying hospital patients, brought severed limbs back to his studio to study their decay, and for a fortnight drew a severed head, borrowed from a lunatic asylum and stored on his studio roof.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: He worked with Corréard, Savigny and another of the survivors, the carpenter Lavillette, to construct an accurately detailed scale model of the raft, which was reproduced on the finished canvas, even showing the gaps between some of the planks. Géricault posed models, compiled a dossier of documentation, copied relevant paintings by other artists, and went to Le Havre to study the sea and sky. Despite suffering from fever, he travelled to the coast on a number of occasions to witness storms breaking on the shore, and a visit to artists in England afforded further opportunity to study the elements while crossing the English Channel.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: He drew and painted numerous preparatory sketches while deciding which of several alternative moments of the disaster he would depict in the final work. The painting's conception proved slow and difficult for Géricault, and he struggled to select a single pictorially effective moment to best capture the inherent drama of the event.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Among the scenes he considered were the mutiny against the officers from the second day on the raft, the cannibalism that occurred after only a few days, and the rescue. Géricault ultimately settled on the moment, recounted by one of the survivors, when they first saw, on the horizon, the approaching rescue ship "Argus"—visible in the upper right of the painting—which they attempted to signal. The ship, however, passed by. In the words of one of the surviving crew members, "From the delirium of joy, we fell into profound despondency and grief."


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: To a public well-versed in the particulars of the disaster, the scene would have been understood to encompass the aftermath of the crew's abandonment, focusing on the moment when all hope seemed lost—the "Argus" reappeared two hours later and rescued those who remained.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The author Rupert Christiansen points out that the painting depicts more figures than had been on the raft at the time of the rescue—including corpses which were not recorded by the rescuers. Instead of the sunny morning and calm water reported on the day of the rescue, Géricault depicted a gathering storm and dark, heaving sea to reinforce the emotional gloom.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Géricault, who had just been forced to break off a painful affair with his aunt, shaved his head and from November 1818 to July 1819 lived a disciplined monastic existence in his studio in the Faubourg du Roule, being brought meals by his concierge and only occasionally spending an evening out. He and his 18-year-old assistant, Louis-Alexis Jamar, slept in a small room adjacent to the studio; occasionally there were arguments and on one occasion Jamar walked off; after two days Géricault persuaded him to return. In his orderly studio, the artist worked in a methodical fashion in complete silence and found that even the noise of a mouse was sufficient to break his concentration.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: He used friends as models, most notably the painter Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), who modelled for the figure in the foreground with face turned downward and one arm outstretched. Two of the raft's survivors are seen in shadow at the foot of the mast; three of the figures were painted from life—Corréard, Savigny and Lavillette. Jamar posed nude for the dead youth shown in the foreground about to slip into the sea, and was also the model for two other figures.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Much later, Delacroix—who would become the standard-bearer of French Romanticism after Géricault's death—wrote, "Géricault allowed me to see his "Raft of Medusa" while he was still working on it. It made so tremendous an impression on me that when I came out of the studio I started running like a madman and did not stop till I reached my own room."


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Géricault painted with small brushes and viscous oils, which allowed little time for reworking and were dry by the next morning. He kept his colours apart from each other: his palette consisted of vermilion, white, naples yellow, two different yellow ochres, two red ochres, raw sienna, light red, burnt sienna, crimson lake, Prussian blue, peach black, ivory black, Cassel earth and bitumen. Bitumen has a velvety, lustrous appearance when first painted, but over a period of time discolours to a black treacle, while contracting and thus creating a wrinkled surface, which cannot be renovated. As a result of this, details in large areas of the work can hardly be discerned today.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Géricault drew an outline sketch of the composition onto the canvas. He then posed models one at a time, completing each figure before moving onto the next, as opposed to the more usual method of working over the whole composition. The concentration in this way on individual elements gave the work both a "shocking physicality" and a sense of deliberate theatricality—which some critics consider an adverse effect. Over 30 years after the completion of the work, his friend Montfort recalled:


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: [Géricault's method] astonished me as much as his intense industry. He painted directly on the white canvas, without rough sketch or any preparation of any sort, except for the firmly traced contours, and yet the solidity of the work was none the worse for it. I was struck by the keen attention with which he examined the model before touching brush to canvas. He seemed to proceed slowly, when in reality he executed very rapidly, placing one touch after the other in its place, rarely having to go over his work more than once. There was very little perceptible movement of his body or arms. His expression was perfectly calm ...


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Working with little distraction, the artist completed the painting in eight months; the project as a whole took 18 months.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: "The Raft of the Medusa" fuses many influences from the Old Masters, from the "Last Judgment" and Sistine Chapel ceiling of Michelangelo (1475–1564) and Raphael's "Transfiguration", to the monumental approach of Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) and Antoine-Jean Gros (1771–1835), to contemporary events. By the 18th century, shipwrecks had become a recognised feature of marine art, as well as an increasingly common occurrence as more journeys were made by sea. Claude Joseph Vernet (1714–1789) created many such images, achieving naturalistic colour through direct observation—unlike other artists at that time—and was said to have tied himself to the mast of a ship in order to witness a storm.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Although the men depicted on the raft had spent 13 days adrift and suffered hunger, disease and cannibalism, Géricault pays tribute to the traditions of heroic painting and presents his figures as muscular and healthy. According to the art historian Richard Muther, there is still a strong debt to Classicism in the work. The fact that the majority of the figures are almost naked, he wrote, arose from a desire to avoid "unpictorial" costumes. Muther observes that there is "still something academic in the figures, which do not seem to be sufficiently weakened by privation, disease, and the struggle with death".


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The influence of Jacques-Louis David can be seen in the painting's scale, in the sculptural tautness of the figures and in the heightened manner in which a particularly significant "fruitful moment"—the first awareness of the approaching ship—is described. In 1793, David also painted an important current event with "The Death of Marat". His painting had an enormous political impact during the time of the revolution in France, and it served as an important precedent for Géricault's decision to also paint a current event. David's pupil, Antoine-Jean Gros, had, like David, represented "the grandiosities of a school irredeemably associated with a lost cause", but in some major works, he had given equal prominence to Napoleon and anonymous dead or dying figures. Géricault had been particularly impressed by the 1804 painting "Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Victims of Jaffa", by Gros.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The young Géricault had painted copies of work by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758–1823), whose "thunderously tragic pictures" include his masterpiece, "Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime", where oppressive darkness and the compositional base of a naked, sprawled corpse obviously influenced Géricault's painting.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The foreground figure of the older man may be a reference to Ugolino from Dante's "Inferno"—a subject that Géricault had contemplated painting—and seems to borrow from a painting of Ugolini by Henry Fuseli (1741–1825) that Géricault may have known from prints. In Dante, Ugolino is guilty of cannibalism, which was one of the most sensational aspects of the days on the raft. Géricault seems to allude to this through the borrowing from Fuseli. An early study for "The Raft of the Medusa" in watercolour, now in the Louvre, is much more explicit, depicting a figure gnawing on the arm of a headless corpse.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Several English and American paintings including "The Death of Major Pierson" by John Singleton Copley (1738–1815)—also painted within two years of the event—had established a precedent for a contemporary subject. Copley had also painted several large and heroic depictions of disasters at sea which Géricault may have known from prints: "Watson and the Shark" (1778), in which a black man is central to the action, and which, like "The Raft of the Medusa", concentrated on the actors of the drama rather than the seascape; "The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782" (1791), which was an influence on both the style and subject matter of Géricault's work; and "" (1790s), which has a strikingly similar composition. A further important precedent for the political component was the works of Francisco Goya, particularly his "The Disasters of War" series of 1810–12, and his 1814 masterpiece "The Third of May 1808". Goya also produced a painting of a disaster at sea, called simply "Shipwreck" (date unknown), but although the sentiment is similar, the composition and style have nothing in common with "The Raft of the Medusa". It is unlikely that Géricault had seen the picture.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: "The Raft of the Medusa" was first shown at the 1819 Paris Salon, under the title "Scène de Naufrage" ("Shipwreck Scene"), although its real subject would have been unmistakable for contemporary viewers. The exhibition was sponsored by Louis XVIII and featured nearly 1,300 paintings, 208 sculptures and numerous other engravings and architectural designs. Géricault's canvas was the star at the exhibition: "It strikes and attracts all eyes" ("Le Journal de Paris"). Louis XVIII visited three days before the opening and reportedly said: """", freely translated as "Monsieur Géricault, your shipwreck is certainly no disaster". The critics were divided: the horror and "terribilità" of the subject exercised fascination, but devotees of classicism expressed their distaste for what they described as a "pile of corpses", whose realism they considered a far cry from the "ideal beauty" represented by Girodet's "Pygmalion and Galatea", which triumphed the same year. Géricault's work expressed a paradox: how could a hideous subject be translated into a powerful painting, how could the painter reconcile art and reality? Marie-Philippe Coupin de la Couperie, a French painter and contemporary of Géricault, provided one answer: "Monsieur Géricault seems mistaken. The goal of painting is to speak to the soul and the eyes, not to repel." The painting had fervent admirers too, including French writer and art critic Auguste Jal, who praised its political theme, its liberal position–its advancement of the negro and critique of ultra-royalism–and its modernity. The historian Jules Michelet approved: "our whole society is aboard the raft of the Medusa".


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Géricault had deliberately sought to be both politically and artistically confrontational. Critics responded to his aggressive approach in kind, and their reactions were either ones of revulsion or praise, depending on whether the writer's sympathies favoured the Bourbon or Liberal viewpoint. The painting was seen as largely sympathetic to the men on the raft, and thus by extension to the anti-imperial cause adopted by the survivors Savigny and Corréard. The decision to place a black man at the pinnacle of the composition was a controversial expression of Géricault's abolitionist sympathies. The art critic Christine Riding has speculated that the painting's later exhibition in London was planned to coincide with anti-slavery agitation there. According to art critic and curator Karen Wilkin, Géricault's painting acts as a "cynical indictment of the bungling malfeasance of France's post-Napoleonic officialdom, much of which was recruited from the surviving families of the "Ancien Régime"".


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The painting generally impressed the viewing public, although its subject matter repelled many, thus denying Géricault the popular acclaim which he had hoped to achieve. At the end of the exhibition, the painting was awarded a gold medal by the judging panel, but they did not give the work the greater prestige of selecting it for the Louvre's national collection. Instead, Géricault was awarded a commission on the subject of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which he clandestinely offered to Delacroix, whose finished painting he then signed as his own. Géricault retreated to the countryside, where he collapsed from exhaustion, and his unsold work was rolled up and stored in a friend's studio.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Géricault arranged for the painting to be exhibited in London in 1820, where it was shown at William Bullock's Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, from 10 June until the end of the year, and viewed by about 40,000 visitors. The reception in London was more positive than that in Paris, and the painting was hailed as representative of a new direction in French art. It received more positive reviews than when it was shown at the Salon. In part, this was due to the manner of the painting's exhibition: in Paris it had initially been hung high in the Salon Carré—a mistake that Géricault recognised when he saw the work installed—but in London it was placed close to the ground, emphasising its monumental impact. There may have been other reasons for its popularity in England as well, including "a degree of national self-congratulation", the appeal of the painting as lurid entertainment, and two theatrical entertainments based around the events on the raft which coincided with the exhibition and borrowed heavily from Géricault's depiction. From the London exhibition Géricault earned close to 20,000 francs, which was his share of the fees charged to visitors, and substantially more than he would have been paid had the French government purchased the work from him. After the London exhibition, Bullock brought the painting to Dublin early in 1821, but the exhibition there was far less successful, in large part due to a competing exhibition of a moving panorama, "The Wreck of the Medusa" by the Marshall brothers firm, which was said to have been painted under the direction of one of the survivors of the disaster.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: "The Raft of the Medusa" was championed by the curator of the Louvre, comte de Forbin who purchased it for the museum from Géricault's heirs after his death in 1824. The painting now dominates its gallery there. The display caption tells us that "the only hero in this poignant story is humanity".


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: At some time between 1826 and 1830 American artist George Cooke (1793–1849) made a copy of the painting in a smaller size, (130.5 x 196.2 cm; approximately 4 ft × 6 ft), which was shown in Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C. to crowds who knew about the controversy surrounding the shipwreck. Reviews favoured the painting, which also stimulated plays, poems, performances and a children's book. It was bought by a former admiral, Uriah Phillips, who left it in 1862 to the New York Historical Society, where it was miscatalogued as by Gilbert Stuart and remained inaccessible until the mistake was uncovered in 2006, after an enquiry by Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, a professor of art history at the University of Delaware. The university's conservation department undertook restoration of the work.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Because of deterioration in the condition of Géricault's original, the Louvre in 1859–60 commissioned two French artists, Pierre-Désiré Guillemet and , to make a full size copy of the original for loan exhibitions.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: In the autumn of 1939, the "Medusa" was packed for removal from the Louvre in anticipation of the outbreak of war. A scenery truck from the Comédie-Française transported the painting to Versailles in the night of 3 September. Some time later, the "Medusa" was moved to the Château de Chambord where it remained until after the end of the Second World War.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: In its insistence on portraying an unpleasant truth, "The Raft of the Medusa" was a landmark in the emerging Romantic movement in French painting, and "laid the foundations of an aesthetic revolution" against the prevailing Neoclassical style. Géricault's compositional structure and depiction of the figures are classical, but the contrasting turbulence of the subject represents a significant change in artistic direction and creates an important bridge between Neoclassical and Romantic styles. By 1815, Jacques-Louis David, then in exile in Brussels, was both the leading proponent of the popular history painting genre, which he had perfected, and a master of the Neoclassical style. In France, both history painting and the Neoclassical style continued through the work of Antoine-Jean Gros, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, François Gérard, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Pierre-Narcisse Guérin—teacher of both Géricault and Delacroix—and other artists who remained committed to the artistic traditions of David and Nicolas Poussin.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: In his introduction to "The Journal of Eugène Delacroix", Hubert Wellington wrote about Delacroix's opinion of the state of French painting just prior to the Salon of 1819. According to Wellington, "The curious blend of classic with realistic outlook which had been imposed by the discipline of David was now losing both animation and interest. The master himself was nearing his end, and exiled in Belgium. His most docile pupil, Girodet, a refined and cultivated classicist, was producing pictures of astonishing frigidity. Gérard, immensely successful painter of portraits under the Empire—some of them admirable—fell in with the new vogue for large pictures of history, but without enthusiasm."


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: "The Raft of the Medusa" contains the gestures and grand scale of traditional history painting; however, it presents ordinary people, rather than heroes, reacting to the unfolding drama. Géricault's raft pointedly lacks a hero, and his painting presents no cause beyond sheer survival. The work represents, in the words of Christine Riding, "the fallacy of hope and pointless suffering, and at worst, the basic human instinct to survive, which had superseded all moral considerations and plunged civilised man into barbarism".


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The unblemished musculature of the central figure waving to the rescue ship is reminiscent of the Neoclassical, however the naturalism of light and shadow, the authenticity of the desperation shown by the survivors and the emotional character of the composition differentiate it from Neoclassical austerity. It was a further departure from the religious or classical themes of earlier works because it depicted contemporary events with ordinary and unheroic figures. Both the choice of subject matter and the heightened manner in which the dramatic moment is depicted are typical of Romantic painting—strong indications of the extent to which Géricault had moved from the prevalent Neoclassical movement.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Hubert Wellington said that while Delacroix was a lifelong admirer of Gros, the dominating enthusiasm of his youth was for Géricault. The dramatic composition of Géricault, with its strong contrasts of tone and unconventional gestures, stimulated Delacroix to trust his own creative impulses on a large work. Delacroix said, "Géricault allowed me to see his "Raft of Medusa" while he was still working on it." The painting's influence is seen in Delacroix's "The Barque of Dante" (1822) and reappears as inspiration in Delacroix's later works, such as "The Shipwreck of Don Juan" (1840).


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: According to Wellington, Delacroix's masterpiece of 1830, "Liberty Leading the People", springs directly from Géricault's "The Raft of the Medusa" and Delacroix's own "Massacre at Chios". Wellington wrote that "While Géricault carried his interest in actual detail to the point of searching for more survivors from the wreck as models, Delacroix felt his composition more vividly as a whole, thought of his figures and crowds as types, and dominated them by the symbolic figure of Republican Liberty which is one of his finest plastic inventions."


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The art historian Albert Elsen believed that "The Raft of the Medusa" and Delacroix's "Massacre at Chios" provided the inspiration for the grandiose sweep of Auguste Rodin's monumental sculpture "The Gates of Hell". He wrote that "Delacroix's "Massacre at Chios" and Géricault's "Raft of the Medusa" confronted Rodin on a heroic scale with the innocent nameless victims of political tragedies ... If Rodin was inspired to rival Michelangelo's "Last Judgment", he had Géricault's "Raft of the Medusa" in front of him for encouragement."


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: While Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) could be described as an anti-Romantic painter, his major works like "A Burial at Ornans" (1849–50) and "The Artist's Studio" (1855) owe a debt to "The Raft of the Medusa". The influence is not only in Courbet's enormous scale, but in his willingness to portray ordinary people and current political events, and to record people, places and events in real, everyday surroundings. The 2004 exhibition at the Clark Art Institute, "Bonjour Monsieur Courbet: The Bruyas Collection from the Musee Fabre, Montpellier", sought to compare the 19th-century Realist painters Courbet, Honoré Daumier (1808–1879), and early Édouard Manet (1832–1883) with artists associated with Romanticism, including Géricault and Delacroix. Citing "The Raft of the Medusa" as an instrumental influence on Realism, the exhibition drew comparisons between all of the artists. The critic Michael Fried sees Manet directly borrowing the figure of the man cradling his son for the composition of "Angels at the Tomb of Christ".


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The influence of "The Raft of the Medusa" was felt by artists beyond France. Francis Danby, a British painter born in Ireland, probably was inspired by Géricault's picture when he painted "Sunset at Sea after a Storm" in 1824, and wrote in 1829 that "The Raft of the Medusa" was "the finest and grandest historical picture I have ever seen".


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: The subject of marine tragedy was undertaken by J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), who, like many English artists, probably saw Géricault's painting when it was exhibited in London in 1820. His "A Disaster at Sea" (c. 1835) chronicled a similar incident, this time a British catastrophe, with a swamped vessel and dying figures also placed in the foreground. Placing a person of color in the centre of the drama was revisited by Turner, with similar abolitionist overtones, in his "The Slave Ship" (1840).


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: "The Gulf Stream" (1899), by the American artist Winslow Homer (1836–1910), replicates the composition of "The Raft of the Medusa" with a damaged vessel, ominously surrounded by sharks and threatened by a waterspout. Like Géricault, Homer makes a black man the pivotal figure in the scene, though here he is the vessel's sole occupant. A ship in the distance mirrors the "Argus" from Géricault's painting. The move from the drama of Romanticism to the new Realism is exemplified by the stoic resignation of Homer's figure. The man's condition, which in earlier works might have been characterised by hope or helplessness, has turned to "sullen rage".


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: In the early 1990s, sculptor John Connell, in his "Raft Project", a collaborative project with painter Eugene Newmann, recreated "The Raft of the Medusa" by making life-sized sculptures out of wood, paper and tar and placing them on a large wooden raft.


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Remarking on the contrast between the dying figures in the foreground and the figures in the mid-ground waving towards the approaching rescue ship, the French art historian Georges-Antoine Borias wrote that Géricault's painting represents, "on the one hand, desolation and death. On the other, hope and life."


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: For Kenneth Clark, "The Raft of the Medusa" "remains the chief example of romantic pathos expressed through the nude; and that obsession with death, which drove Géricault to frequent mortuary chambers and places of public execution, gives truth to his figures of the dead and the dying. Their outlines may be taken from the classics, but they have been seen again with a craving for violent experience."


title: The Raft of the Medusa

text: Today, a bronze bas-relief of "The Raft of the Medusa" by Antoine Étex adorns Géricault's grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.


title: Marwan Kenzari

text: Marwan Kenzari (; born 16 January 1983) is a Dutch actor. Starting his career in 2008, he first came to prominence for his role in the 2013 film "Wolf", which earned him a Golden Calf award for Best Actor. Since 2016, he has been starring in English-language films, including "Aladdin" (2019), "The Old Guard" (2020) and "Black Adam" (2022), which earned him international recognition.


title: Marwan Kenzari

text: Kenzari was born on 16 January 1983 in The Hague, Netherlands, to a Tunisian family. His father was a construction worker, while his mother was a housewife. As a teenager he was mainly interested in football before a girl he was seeing signed them up to audition for the Dutch version of the musical "Chicago". In 2009, Kenzari graduated at the Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduation he was recruited by the Toneelgroep Amsterdam, which allowed him to tour in Moscow, London, Vienna and New York City with the group.


title: Marwan Kenzari

text: Kenzari has acted in films and TV series in his native Dutch since 2008. In 2013, he won a Golden Calf for Best Actor at the Netherlands Film Festival for his role in the feature film "Wolf" (2013). He trained for over a year to play the role of kickboxer Majid. With his toned body, he was also featured on the cover of Dutch "Men's Health" in 2013. His performance in the film was well received by critics, with "Variety" naming him an "International Star You Should Know". In 2014, Kenzari won a Shooting Stars Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Marwan Kenzari

text: In 2016 he appeared in the English-language films "Collide", "Ben-Hur" and "The Promise", which resulted in "The Hollywood Reporter" naming him amongst their list of "15 International Breakout Talents of 2016". In 2019, Kenzari played villain Jafar in Disney's live-action adaptation of "Aladdin". He gained international recognition after portraying the role with mainstream media giving him the nickname "hot Jafar". In July 2020, Kenzari appeared in "The Old Guard" as one of the film's protagonists. In February 2021, Kenzari was cast in a role for the upcoming film "Black Adam".


title: Marwan Kenzari

text: He starred as the controversial Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) officer Raymond Westerling in the 2020 film "The East", which was released on Amazon Prime Video.


title: Bill Irwin

text: William Mills Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has made a number of appearances on film and television, and he won a Tony Award for his role in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on Broadway. He is also known as Mr. Noodle on the "Sesame Street" segment "Elmo's World", has appeared in the "Sesame Street" film short "Does Air Move Things?", regularly appeared as a therapist on "", and had a recurring role as "The Dick & Jane Killer" on "". From 2017 to 2019, he appeared as Cary Loudermilk on the FX television series "Legion".


title: Bill Irwin

text: Irwin was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Elizabeth (née Mills), a teacher, and Horace G. Irwin, an aerospace engineer. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1974 and attended Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College the following year. In 1975, he helped found the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, California. He credits his experience with the circus, performing in schools under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, as having made him a working artist. In 1979, Irwin left the company to pursue stage work.


title: Bill Irwin

text: Irwin has created several highly regarded stage shows that incorporate elements of clowning, often in collaboration with composer Doug Skinner. These works included "The Regard of Flight" (1982), which ran on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in April 1987 for 17 performances. "Largely New York" (1989), "Fool Moon" (1993), "The Harlequin Studies" (2003), and "Mr. Fox: A Rumination" (2004). "Mr. Fox" is a production that Irwin has worked on for years, a biography of 19th century clown George Washington Lafayette Fox that also has autobiographical elements. In 2013, he teamed with his occasional partner David Shiner to create and perform in the Off-Broadway "clowning revue-with-music" "Old Hats" along with actress and musician Nellie McKay. "Old Hats" won the 2013 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue. "Old Hats" was revived in New York City in 2016 with Shiner and Irwin returning and a new third performer, musician Shaina Taub, in between sketches Taub performed original songs with a band.


title: Bill Irwin

text: He adapted Molière's play "Les Fourberies de Scapin" as a comedy called "Scapin", and has played the title role in several productions. He appeared in the play at the Off-Broadway Roundabout Theatre Company Laura Pels Theatre in January through March 1997, after performing in the play at the Seattle Rep. His adaptation allowed him to interpolate his signature clowning routines into the course of the action.


title: Bill Irwin

text: In 1996, Irwin performed with The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps at the 1996 Summer Olympics, in a "band on the run" sequence where he played Dr. Hubert Peterson of the fictitious Federation of United Marching Associations of America.


title: Bill Irwin

text: Although Irwin is best known for his theatrical clown work, he has also been featured in a number of dramatic plays. Irwin appeared with Steve Martin and Robin Williams in the Lincoln Center Off-Broadway production of "Waiting for Godot", in 1988, in the role of Lucky. Lucky's only lines consist of a famous 500-word-long monologue, an ironic element for Irwin since much of his clown-based stage work was silent.


title: Bill Irwin

text: He directed the 1998 Roundabout Theatre Company production of "A Flea in Her Ear". He appeared in 2002 with Sally Field in the replacement cast of "The Goat or Who is Sylvia?" In 2005, he starred as George alongside Kathleen Turner in a revival of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", for which he won a Tony Award. He played Vladimir (Didi) in the 2009 Broadway revival of "Waiting for Godot", and Mr. McAfee in the Broadway revival of "Bye Bye Birdie". In 2011, he appeared in "King Lear" at the Public Theatre.


title: Bill Irwin

text: Irwin's first featured film role was in 1980, appearing as Harold Hamgravy in Robert Altman's "Popeye" starring Robin Williams. He has appeared in over 20 films, mainly in supporting roles. Irwin's principal film roles include playing Eddie Collins in "Eight Men Out", which tells the true story of the "Black Sox" gambling scandal of 1919, and "My Blue Heaven", a 1990 comedy with Steve Martin and Rick Moranis. Irwin tap-danced in a leading role in 1991's "Stepping Out" with Liza Minnelli, appeared as a mime in the Paul Mazursky film "Scenes from a Mall" alongside Woody Allen and Bette Midler, and played Charlie Sheen's father in "Hot Shots!" (1991). His authentic vaudevillian skills landed him a role in the Sam Shepard film "Silent Tongue" in 1994, and he appeared in film adaptations of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "The Laramie Project" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". He played an ex-brain surgeon and house salesman in the Nickelodeon series "The Adventures of Pete & Pete". In 2006, Irwin played the solitary Mr. Leeds in M. Night Shyamalan's "Lady in the Water" and had a small role in 2007's "Across the Universe". He received critical acclaim for his role as Paul, father to Anne Hathaway's character Kym, in the 2008 drama "Rachel Getting Married".


title: Bill Irwin

text: Irwin's most notable television roles have been Enrico Ballati, "The Flying Man", on the television series "Northern Exposure", Mr. Noodle in the "Elmo's World" segment of the PBS children's show "Sesame Street", and the "Dick & Jane" serial killer on "". He was featured in the 1988 music video of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin (along with McFerrin and Robin Williams) and the 1996 music video of "Let Me into Your Heart" by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Irwin was also featured in HBO's 1997 production "Subway Stories". He has also appeared on "The Cosby Show", "Saturday Night Live", "3rd Rock from the Sun", "Law & Order", and "Lights Out".


title: Bill Irwin

text: In 2011, Irwin guest starred in the pilot episode of the CBS television drama "A Gifted Man". He starred in the 2013 medical drama TNT television series, "Monday Mornings" as Buck Tierney. In 2014, he guest starred in the episode "The One Percent Solution" of CBS' "Elementary".


title: Bill Irwin

text: Irwin voices the robot TARS in the film "Interstellar" and puppeteers the robot in most scenes (those which are not computer-generated). He is featured in the PBS series "Great Performances", in the episode titled "Bill Irwin, Clown Prince", initially broadcast in December 2004.


title: Bill Irwin

text: He regularly appears on the NBC crime series "" as therapist Dr. Peter Lindstrom. Lindstrom normally appears on the show while counseling main character Lieutenant Olivia Benson. Irwin also appeared on the television series "Sleepy Hollow", playing the character of Atticus Nevins. Between 2017 and 2019, he appeared in the FX television series "Legion".


title: Bill Irwin

text: He is married to Martha Roth, an "actress-turned-nurse midwife", whom he met while seeking treatment for a stiff neck. They have an adopted son, Santos Patrick Morales Irwin, who was born in 1991.


title: Bill Irwin

text: Irwin was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer's Fellowship in 1981 and 1983. In 1984, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow and was the first performance artist to be awarded a five-year MacArthur Fellowship. For "Largely New York", he won a New York Drama Critics Circle Special Citation in 1988, and an Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk Award in 1989. This show also received five nominations for Tony Awards.


title: Bill Irwin

text: In 1992, he won an Obie Award for his performance in "Texts for Nothing". Together with David Shiner, he won a special Tony Award for Live Theatrical Presentation in 1999 for their show "Fool Moon". In 1993, this show had already won a Drama Desk Award for "Unique Theatrical Experience" and an Outer Critics Circle "Special Achievement" Award.


title: Bill Irwin

text: In 2000, the Jazz Tap Ensemble in Los Angeles received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) "for a commission of a new work by Bill Irwin." In 2004, the Signature Theatre Company, New York, received a $40,000 NEA grant for "the world premiere production of 'Mr. Fox: A Rumination' by Bill Irwin."


title: Bill Irwin

text: In 2005, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his appearance as George in the revival of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".


title: Bill Irwin

text: Irwin received a 2008 CFCA Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actor" for his role in "Rachel Getting Married". In 2010, The New Victory Theater presented Irwin with the first-ever New Victory Arts Award. He was honored for "bringing the arts to kids and kids to the arts." Nathan Lane and Jonathan Demme spoke at the ceremony. Irwin is also on the board of The New 42nd Street, Inc.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Mohammad Azharuddin (born 8 February 1963) is an Indian politician and a former international cricketer and former captain of India national cricket team. He is the working president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee and was the member of parliament for Moradabad. He played 99 Test matches and 334 One Day Internationals for the Indian national cricket team before his international career came to an end after he was found to have been involved in a match fixing scandal in 2000 and subsequently banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for life. In 2012, the Andhra Pradesh High Court lifted the life ban.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: In 2009, Azharuddin was elected as a member of the parliament for Moradabad on an Indian National Congress party ticket. In September 2019, Azharuddin was elected as the president of Hyderabad Cricket Association.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin was born on 8 February 1963. He was born in Hyderabad to Mohammad Azizuddin and Yousuf Sultana. He attended All Saints High School and graduated from Nizam College, Osmania University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Azharuddin married his first wife Naureen in 1987 and they had two sons, Asaduddin and Ayazuddin. Ayazuddin died in a bike accident in 2011. After 9 years of marriage to Naureen, Azharuddin confessed of his relationship with actress Sangita Bijlani whom he said he fell in love with at first sight during an ad shoot in 1985. Subsequently, Azharuddin divorced Naureen and married Bijlani in 1996. They were married for fourteen years until 2010 after which they got separated due to Azharuddin's rumoured link up to badminton player Jwala Gutta. Azharuddin married Shannon Marie, his third wife, secretly and recentlyrevealed about her.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin was known for his wristy strokeplay, much like Indian cricketer Gundappa Viswanath and Pakistani cricketer Zaheer Abbas. He made his debut for the Indian cricket team in Test cricket in 1984 against England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 31 December 1984, where he scored 110 in his first innings from 322 deliveries, alongside Ravi Shastri who scored 111, in what was ultimately a drawn match. He subsequently scored two more centuries in his next two Test matches. He scored 121 against England at Lord's in 1990. India was faced with the prospect of a follow-on when Azharuddin came in to bat at number five and scored his hundred off 88 balls in a losing cause. Former England cricketer Vic Marks called it "the most dazzling Test century" he had ever witnessed, in his column for "The Observer". In the Second Test in Manchester, Azharuddin made 179 in reply to England's first innings total of 519. Playing attacking cricket, he made 103 runs off 107 balls between lunch and tea on day three, while putting on a 112-run stand with Sachin Tendulkar. Playing his 39th Test, he reached his 10th Test century off 155 balls. The match ended in a draw. Azharuddin ended the series with 426 runs at 85.20. This tally was the highest by an Asian captain in a Test series in England until 2018 when it was broken by Virat Kohli.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin scored a record-equalling century for an Indian player in the Second Test at Calcutta during South Africa's India tour in 1996–97. In reply to South Africa's first innings score of 428, Azharuddin brought up his century off 74 deliveries, equalling Kapil Dev's record for the fastest Test century by an India player and fourth overall, in terms of balls faced. Resuming batting on day three on the fall of Javagal Srinath's wicket after retiring hurt the previous evening, Azharuddin reached 50 in 35 balls, then the second fastest for India and scored 91 runs in the first session of play. He struck a 161-run partnership with Anil Kumble for the eighth wicket, another India national record, "hooking and pulling" while dealing with his "weakness against the short-pitched delivery". He particularly attacked Lance Klusener scoring 20 runs off his 14th over. It was his fourth century at this venue and 15th overall. However, India was handed one of its biggest defeats despite another attacking innings by Azharuddin in the fourth innings. Azharuddin followed this up with a second-innings century in the next Test, also the last, of the series. He made an unbeaten 163 and helped his team record their hitherto biggest win in Test history in terms of runs (280). He was named the man of the match, and the series. He aggregated 388 runs for the series at 77.60.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Predominantly a middle order batsman, Azharuddin was known for his attacking brand of cricket and strong slip catching, though continuously struggled against the short ball. Azharuddin played 99 test matches for India and scored 6,215 runs at an average of 45.03, including 22 centuries and 21 half-centuries. His record in One Day Internationals (ODIs) was 9,378 runs from 334 matches at an average of 36.92. As a fielder, he took 156 catches in ODI cricket. Azharuddin started his career with a 110 against England in Kolkata in 1984 and ended with a 102 against South Africa in Banglaore in 2000 thus, becoming the only Indian and the fifth batsman ever to score a century in his first and last Test matches.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin was convicted of match fixing in 2000, and banned for life by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). During India's 2000 tour of South Africa, a series that was won by India 3–2, Azharuddin scored 112 runs at an average of 28. Other key Indian cricketers whom Azharuddin groomed and also brought into the match-fixing fold displayed similarly dismal performances.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin became the captain of the Indian team, succeeding Krishnamachari Srikkanth in 1989. He led the Indian team in 47 Test matches and 174 One Day Internationals. He led the team to victory in 90 ODIs, the highest until surpassed by MS Dhoni on 2 September 2014. His 14 test match wins as captain was a record until it was beaten by Sourav Ganguly, who has 21 test match wins to his name.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin was accused of match fixing in the match fixing scandal in 2000. The CBI report states that Azharuddin was the one to introduce then South African Captain Hansie Cronje to the bookies. The International Cricket Council and the BCCI banned Azharuddin for life, based on a report by K Madhavan of the Central Bureau of Investigation.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: On 8 November 2012, a divisional bench consisting of Justice Ashutosh Mohunta and Krishna Mohan Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court revoked the ban imposed based on the evidence found. The court concluded that the ban was illegal, although Azharuddin never came back on the field. Azharuddin was 49 when the verdict was announced. He is currently the chairman of Hyderabad cricket board since 2019.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin was a middle order batsman of India. He was known for a graceful and fluid batting style. John Woodcock, a cricket writer, said of him, "It's no use asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin. It would be like expecting a greyhound to win The Derby." Retired cricketer Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan stated that "Azharuddin had the best wrists in the game". Michael Atherton and Angus Fraser said Azharuddin's "genius was second only to Brian Lara among batsmen of their generation."


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin formally joined the Indian National Congress party on 19 February 2009. He won the 2009 Indian general election from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh to become a member of parliament of India. Azaharuddin had disclosed his intention to contest the 2019 elections from Secunderabad Parliamentary constituency in 2019.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin established a state of art gym called "Est" at Banjara Hills which has a spa, a coffee and snacks bar, and a massage saloon. The gym is spacious, with all the regulars like treadmills, stair-masters, cycles, a cross-trainer, a Smith machine, bench presses, a couple of Swiss balls and a few weights.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1986 and the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, in recognition of his distinguished contribution in the field of sports, in 1988. He was named one of five "Wisden"'s Cricketers of the Year for the year 1991.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: Azharuddin married Naureen in 1987. In 1996, he divorced her and married actress Sangeeta Bijlani. The marriage reportedly ended in a divorce in 2010 due to Azharuddin's affair with badminton player Jwala Gutta.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: He had two sons with his first wife; his younger son, Mohammad Ayazuddin, died in a road accident in 2011. The young cricketer was monitored in an intensive care unit with severe and multiple injuries in kidneys, chest and head. Many VIPs, including the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and other politicians arrived at the hospital to console Azharuddin and his family members. His elder son, Mohammad Asaduddin, married Anam Mirza, the sister of Sania Mirza, in 2019.


title: Mohammad Azharuddin

text: A Bollywood film "Azhar", directed by Tony D'Souza, was based on his life. The film featured Emraan Hashmi as Azharuddin, Nargis Fakhri as Sangeeta Bijlani and Prachi Desai as first wife Naureen. It was released on 13 May 2016. The film was criticized for whitewashing his complicity in the match-fixing scandal.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) and to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program (NIP). All IC agencies report directly to the DNI. The DNI also serves, upon invitation, as an advisor to the president of the United States, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council on all intelligence matters. The DNI, supported by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), produces the President's Daily Brief (PDB), a top-secret document including intelligence from all IC agencies, handed each morning to the president of the United States.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: President George W. Bush strengthened the role of the DNI on July 30, 2008, with Executive Order 13470, which, among other things, solidified the DNI's authority to set goals for intelligence gathering and analysis and to set policy for intelligence sharing with foreign agencies and for the hiring and firing of senior intelligence officials. The DNI was given further responsibility for the entire IC's whistleblowing and source protection by President Obama via Presidential Policy Directive 19 on October 10, 2012.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: Under , "under ordinary circumstances, it is desirable" that either the director or the principal deputy director of national intelligence be an active-duty commissioned officer in the armed forces or have training or experience in military intelligence activities and requirements. Only one of the two positions can be held by a military officer at any given time. The statute does not specify what rank the commissioned officer will hold during their tenure in either position. The DNI, who is appointed by the president of the United States and is subject to confirmation by the United States Senate, serves at the pleasure of the president.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: Upon the inauguration of President Joe Biden, the position was elevated to Cabinet-level. The DNI attends all Cabinet meetings and liaises with the Executive Office of the President and other Cabinet secretaries in the execution of their duties.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: Before the DNI was formally established, the head of the Intelligence Community was the director of central intelligence (DCI), who concurrently served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: The 9/11 Commission recommended establishing the DNI position in its "9/11 Commission Report", not released until July 22, 2004, as it had identified major intelligence failures that called into question how well the intelligence community was able to protect U.S. interests against foreign terrorist attacks.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: Senators Dianne Feinstein, Jay Rockefeller and Bob Graham introduced S. 2645 on June 19, 2002, to create the position of Director of National Intelligence. Other similar legislation soon followed. After considerable debate on the scope of the DNI's powers and authorities, the United States Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 by votes of 336–75 in the House of Representatives, and 89–2 in the Senate. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on December 17, 2004. Among other things, the law established the DNI position as the designated leader of the United States Intelligence Community and prohibited the DNI from serving as the CIA director or the head of any other intelligence community element at the same time. In addition, the law required the CIA Director to report his agency's activities to the DNI.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: Critics say compromises during the bill's crafting led to the establishment of a DNI whose powers are too weak to adequately lead, manage and improve the performance of the intelligence community. In particular, the law left the United States Department of Defense in charge of the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: The first Director of National Intelligence was U.S. ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte who was appointed on February 17, 2005, by President George W. Bush, subject to confirmation by the Senate. It was reported that President Bush's first choice for DNI was former director of central intelligence Robert M. Gates, who was serving as president of Texas A&M University, but who declined the offer. Negroponte was confirmed by a Senate vote of 98–2 on April 21, 2005, and he was sworn in by President Bush the same day.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: On February 13, 2007, Mike McConnell became the second Director of National Intelligence, after Negroponte was appointed Deputy Secretary of State. Donald M. Kerr was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence on October 4, 2007, and sworn in on October 9, 2007. Kerr, from Virginia, was previously the director of the National Reconnaissance Office and the deputy director for science and technology at the CIA before that. Earlier in his career, he was an assistant director at the FBI, in charge of their Laboratory Division from 1997 to 2001.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: On July 20, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated retired Air Force lieutenant general James Clapper as the fourth DNI. Clapper was confirmed by the Senate on August 5, and replaced acting director David C. Gompert. This followed Obama's dismissal of the third DNI, retired Navy admiral Dennis C. Blair, whose resignation became effective May 28, 2010.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: The fifth DNI, Dan Coats, the sixth DNI, John Ratcliffe, and acting DNIs Joseph Maguire, Richard Grenell and Lora Shiao, all served between March 16, 2017, and January 21, 2021, during the administration of President Donald Trump.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: The seventh and current DNI is Avril Haines, who took office on January 21, 2021. The first woman to hold the office, she was nominated by President-elect Joe Biden on November 23, 2020 and confirmed by the Senate on January 20, 2021.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: Declan McCullagh at News.com wrote on August 24, 2007, that the DNI site was configured to repel all search engines to index any page at DNI.gov. This effectively made the DNI website invisible to all search engines and in turn, any search queries. Ross Feinstein, Spokesman for the DNI, said that the cloaking was removed as of September 3, 2007. "We're not even sure how (the robots.txt file) got there"but it was again somehow hidden the next day. On September 7, McCullagh reported that the DNI appeared to be open to web searches again.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: In September 2007, the Office of the DNI released ""Intelligence Community 100 Day & 500 Day Plans for Integration & Collaboration"". These plans include a series of initiatives designed to build the foundation for increased cooperation and reform of the U.S. Intelligence Community.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as an independent agency to assist the DNI. The ODNI's goal is to effectively integrate foreign, military and domestic intelligence in defense of the homeland and of United States interests abroad. The ODNI has about 1,750 employees. Its headquarters are in McLean, Virginia.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: The ODNI continued to evolve under succeeding directors, culminating in an organization focused on intelligence integration across the community.


title: Director of National Intelligence

text: The ODNI leadership includes the director, principal deputy director and chief operating officer. In addition, the Director of Defense Intelligence reports to the DNI.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: The Manchurian Candidate is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: The novel has twice been adapted into a feature film with the same title: the first was released in 1962 and the second in 2004.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: Major Bennett Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and the rest of their infantry platoon are captured by an elite Soviet commando unit during the Korean War in 1952. They are taken to Manchuria, and brainwashed into believing Shaw saved their lives in combat – for which Shaw is subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: Years after the war, Marco, now back in the United States working as an intelligence officer, begins suffering a recurring nightmare in which the seated platoon members are surrounded by a group of sweet little old ladies who had been a part of their brainwashing. One of the ladies tells Sergeant Shaw to murder two of his platoon comrades. The backdrop with the old ladies changes back and forth between them and Chinese/Soviet intelligence officials. When Marco learns that another of the platoon's soldiers has been suffering the exact same nightmare, he starts looking into why this is happening.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: Major Marco looks up Sergeant Raymond Shaw and discovers that Shaw's new manservant is someone he recognizes from Korea. Marco and the manservant start fighting in Shaw's house and both are bloodied significantly. Marco is arrested, and when Shaw sees that it is his old major they rekindle their old friendship. Both find love interests: for Marco, it is Rose Cheyney, whom he meets on a train; and for Raymond, it is Jocelyn Jordan, the daughter of Senator Thomas Jordan, a neighbor of Shaw's. Senator Jordan and Shaw's mother do not like each other, but Raymond continues to see Jocelyn.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: It is revealed that the Communists have been using Shaw as a sleeper agent who, activated by a post-hypnotic trigger, immediately forgets the assignments he carries out and therefore can never betray the operation either purposely or inadvertently. In Shaw's case, the suggestion that he play solitaire is the trigger. Seeing the queen of diamonds playing card transforms him into an assassin who will kill anyone at whom he is directed. Shaw's KGB handler is his domineering mother, Eleanor. Married to McCarthy-esque Senator Johnny Iselin, Eleanor has convinced the Communist powers to help install her husband as president and allow them to control the American government through him.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: By observing Shaw, Marco discovers the trigger shortly before the national convention of Iselin's political party. He uses the queen of diamonds card to draw out Eleanor's plan: after she obtains the vice presidential nomination for Iselin, Shaw is to shoot the presidential candidate so that Iselin can succeed him. Blaming the killing on the Communists will enable Iselin to assume dictatorial powers. Marco reprograms Shaw, although it is unclear until the final pages whether this is successful. At the convention, Shaw instead shoots and kills his mother and Senator Iselin. Marco is the first person to reach Shaw's sniper nest, getting there just before Shaw turns the gun on himself and commits suicide.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: In 1998, software developer C. J. Silverio noted that several long passages of the novel seemed to be adapted from Robert Graves's 1934 novel "I, Claudius". Forensic linguist John Olsson judged that "There can be no disputing that Richard Condon plagiarized from Robert Graves." Olsson went on to state that "As plagiarists go, Condon is quite creative, he does not confine himself to one source and is prepared to throw other ingredients into the pot." Jonathan Lethem, in his influential essay "The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism", has included Condon's novels as "texts that become troubling to their admirers after the discovery of their 'plagiarized' elements".


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: The book has twice been adapted into a feature film of the same title. "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) is considered a classic of the political thriller genre. It was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Laurence Harvey as Shaw, Frank Sinatra as Marco, and Angela Lansbury as Eleanor in an Academy Award-nominated performance.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004) was directed by Jonathan Demme, and starred Liev Schreiber as Shaw, Denzel Washington as Marco, and Meryl Streep as Eleanor. It was generally well received by critics, and moderately successful at the box office. The film updated the conflict (and brainwashing) to the Persian Gulf War in 1991, had a U.S. corporation (called "Manchurian Global") as the perpetrator of the brainwashing and conspiracy instead of foreign Communist groups, and dropped the Johnny Iselin character in favor of making both Shaw and his mother elected politicians.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: Both adaptations discard several elements of the book. The book spends more time describing the brainwashers and the facility in Manchuria where the Americans were held. The head of the project grants Raymond a "gift"; after his brainwashing, he becomes quite sexually active, in contrast to his reserved nature beforehand where he had not even kissed his love interest, Jocelyn Jordan.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: In the novel, Mrs. Iselin and her son travel abroad, where she uses him to kill various political figures and possibly Jocelyn Jordan's first husband. Rosie, Marco's love interest, is the ex-fiancée of one of his associates handling the Shaw case for Army Intelligence, making things between the couple tense. The movie adaptations also all but omit the novel's portrayal of incest between Raymond and his mother, only hinting at it with a mouth-to-mouth kiss.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: As a child, Mrs. Iselin was sexually abused by her father, but fell in love with him and idolized him after his early death. Towards the end of the book, as Raymond is hypnotized by the Queen of Diamonds, he reminds her of her father and they sleep together.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: The 1962 version does not state outright the political affiliation of Senators Iselin and Jordan (implied to be Republicans), although in the 2004 film the equivalent characters are Democrats. According to David Willis McCullough, Senator Iselin is modelled on Republican senator Joseph McCarthy and, according to Condon, Shaw's mother is based on McCarthy's counsel Roy Cohn.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: Kevin Puts has adapted the work into an opera. His opera "The Manchurian Candidate" premiered in March 2015 at the Minnesota Opera. It has been performed by the Austin Opera and at the Seagle Festival in the Adirondacks of New York.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: A copy of The Manchurian Candidate is a major plot point in the 1999 novel False Memory (novel) by Dean Koontz.


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: In the season 4 episode "Chuck versus Phase Three" of the TV series "Chuck", the protagonist compares his experience of remembering dreams to "The Manchurian Candidate".


title: The Manchurian Candidate

text: The Dutch far-right politician Thierry Baudet was dubbed "Vladimir Putin’s Manchurian candidate" by former party member Henk Otten, because Baudets openly supports the Russian point of view in the Russo-Ukrainian war.


title: Stratford-upon-Avon

text: Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and south-west of Warwick. The town is the southernmost point of the Arden area on the edge of the Cotswolds. In the 2021 census Stratford had a population of 30,495; an increase from 27,894 in the 2011 census and 22,338 in the 2001 Census.


title: Stratford-upon-Avon

text: Stratford was originally inhabited by Britons before Anglo-Saxons and remained a village before the lord of the manor, John of Coutances, set out plans to develop it into a town in 1196. In that same year, Stratford was granted a charter from King Richard I to hold a weekly market in the town, giving it its status as a market town. As a result, Stratford experienced an increase in trade and commerce as well as urban expansion.