Delacroix

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was one of the most important of the French Romantic painters. His early education was at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand, where he steeped himself in the classics and won awards for drawing. In 1815 he began his training with Pierre-Narcisse Guerin in the neoclassical style of Jacques-Louis David.


Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of color profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, and the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.


In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres, Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on color and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modeled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.


However, Delacroix was given neither to sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible."

Liberty Leading the People

Delacroix's most influential work came in 1830 with the painting Liberty Leading the People, which for choice of subject and technique highlights the differences between the romantic approach and the neoclassical style. Probably Delacroix's best known painting, it is an unforgettable image of Parisians, having taken up arms, marching forward under the banner of the tricolor representing liberty and freedom; Delacroix was inspired by contemporary events to invoke the romantic image of the spirit of liberty. The soldiers lying dead in the foreground offer poignant counterpoint to the symbolic female figure, who is illuminated triumphantly, as if in a spotlight.

The Execution of Doge Marino Faliero

The Execution of Doge Marino Faliero was painted in 1825-26 and was based on Lord Byron's play Marino Faliero.   Byron explained that he had chosen to depict Faliero as a noble man, unfortunately of an ungovernable temper, who was not "actuated by jealousy of his wife; but rather by respect for her, and for his own honor, warranted by his past services and present dignity." In Byron's work, Faliero feels that the injustices suffered by him at the hands of the nobles equal those suffered by the common people, whose fate causes him growing concern. Byron's choice of Faliero as his subject may thus be interpreted as his reaction to the post-Waterloo political climate in Europe, characterized by political oppression, corruption, state control of private lives, and restrictions on freedom of action. This political climate drove Byron, the rebellious aristocrat who understood that he had nothing to gain by revolution, almost to despair. Byron's frustrations are reflected in Faliero's mixed feelings of defiance and guilt over his treason to the state and his own class, together with his awareness of having sunk so low that he now keeps the company of people whom he pities and despises at the same time.

The Massacre at Chios

Delacroix's painting of the Massacre at Chios, created in 1824, shows sick, dying Greek civilians about to be slaughtered by the Turks. One of several paintings he made of this contemporary event, it expresses sympathy for the Greek cause in the War for Independence against the Turks, a popular sentiment at the time for the French people. Delacroix was quickly recognized as a leading painter in the new Romantic style, and the picture was bought by the state. His depiction of suffering was controversial however, as there was no glorious event taking place, no patriots raising their swords in valor as in David's Oath of the Horatii, only a disaster. Many critics deplored the painting's despairing tone; the artist Antoine-Jean Gros called it "a massacre of art". The pathos in the depiction of an infant clutching its dead mother's breast had an especially powerful effect, although this detail was condemned as unfit for art by Delacroix's critics. A viewing of the paintings of John Constable prompted Delacroix to make extensive, freely painted changes to the sky and distant landscape.

A spectacular illustration of the enthusiasm aroused amongst the romantic youth by the revolt of the Greeks against the Turks, the Massacre at Chios was directly inspired by the savage Turkish repression of the population of the island of Chios in April 1822. The critics at the Salon of 1824 received this fine painting very unfavourably. Delacroix had been inspired by Constable's Hay-Wain, which was exhibited at the same Salon, reworking the landscape background with a vibrant touch.

The Death of Sardanapalus

The Death of Sardanapalus was produced in 1827. Sardanapalus' attitude of calm detachment is a familiar pose in Romantic imagery in this period in Europe. The painting, which was not exhibited again for many years afterward, has been regarded by some critics as a gruesome fantasy involving death and lust. Especially shocking is the struggle of a nude woman whose throat is about to be cut, a scene placed prominently in the foreground for maximum impact. However, the sensuous beauty and exotic colors of the composition make the picture appear pleasing and shocking at the same time.

In the Death of Sardanapalus, inspired by the work of another Romantic, the poet Byron, Delacroix painted an apotheosis of cruelty. The composition, all reds and golds, portrays the holocaust of the legendary Assyrian king, destroying his possessions before committing suicide. The insurgents are attacking his castle; all is lost; stretched out on a sumptuous bed at the summit of an immense pyre, Sardanapalus orders eunuchs and palace officers to cut the throats of his women, his pages, and even his favourite dogs and horses; none of the objects that have served his pleasure are to survive him. His women are placed on a level with his horses and dogs.

The Barque of Dante

The Barque of Dante was produced by Delacroix in 1822. This is an oil on canvas and was promoted in the Salon. This painting is somewhat based on the event's taken from the eighth canto of Dante's Inferno. This example of artwork shows how the painting style is moving away from neo-classicism. The painting is filled with action from the choppy waves to the unknown world around them. These are themes from the romantic period that are showcased in respect to the sublime. There is a lot of unknown territories, and the infinite greatness is in fact scary. The subjects are on a rickety boat sailing past the City of the Dead on the River Styx. The tormented souls show a great contrast to the two poets, Dante and Virgil. The use of red is adding a vibrancy to the painting that can help create excitement. This is very much a product of the romantic period because this influence to evoke emotion was a break from the unemotional artwork of the Neoclassical period that focused on the style of ancient Greek and Roman art.