Liberty Leading the People (1830)
Louvre, Paris
Bare-breasted Marianne with the tricolour leads Parisians over the barricades in the July Revolution
Image: Eugène Delacroix · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Art
Eugène Delacroix
1798–1863 · French
Romanticism
Eugène Delacroix was the leader of French Romantic painting, championing expressive colour and movement against the cool Neoclassical line of his rival Ingres. His dramatic canvases of revolution, massacre and exotic North Africa – above all Liberty Leading the People – made him a hero to later painters from the Impressionists to Picasso.
How to spot them
- ▸Turbulent, crowded compositions full of violent movement, rich reds and vivid colour
- ▸Literary and historical subjects from Dante, Byron and Shakespeare, and wars of liberation
- ▸Orientalist scenes of North Africa inspired by his 1832 journey to Morocco and Algeria
- ▸Quiz clue: colour versus line – Delacroix against Ingres
Key works
The Death of Sardanapalus (1827)
Louvre, Paris
Assyrian king calmly watches his concubines and horses slaughtered; inspired by Byron's play
Image: Eugène Delacroix · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
The Massacre at Chios (1824)
Louvre, Paris
Ottoman atrocities of 1822 on the Greek island of Chios during the Greek War of Independence
Image: Eugène Delacroix · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
The Barque of Dante (1822)
Louvre, Paris
Dante and Virgil crossing the Styx; his first major Salon picture
Image: Eugène Delacroix · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Women of Algiers in their Apartment (1834)
Louvre, Paris
Harem interior later reworked by Picasso in a series of 15 variations
Image: Eugène Delacroix · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, near Paris, in 1798; rumours persist that his real father was Talleyrand.
- •Liberty Leading the People commemorates the July Revolution of 1830 that toppled Charles X.
- •Liberty Leading the People appeared on the French 100-franc banknote.
- •In 1832 he travelled to Morocco and Algeria with a French diplomatic mission.
- •His great rival was Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the champion of Neoclassical line.
- •He painted murals in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, including Jacob Wrestling with the Angel.
- •He was a close friend of Frédéric Chopin, whom he painted.
- •His last apartment and studio in Paris is now the Musée National Eugène Delacroix.
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Sources
- National Gallery, London — Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Eugène Delacroix