Eugene Delacroix
Biography/Paintings of French Romantic
History Painter.
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Eugene Delacroix |
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Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)One of the best history painters of the modern era, French artist Eugene Delacroix was also the leader of the French Romanticism art movement. His passionate brushwork had a significant impact on the style of Impressionism, and his experimentation with exotic subject matter inspired exponents in the Symbolism movement. Influenced early in his career by French Romantics such as Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835) and Theodore Gericault (1791-1824), as well as English landscapists and portraitists, like William Hogarth, his most famous work is probably Liberty Leading the People, (1830, Louvre, Paris). Biography Born at Charenton, near Paris in 1798 it is believed his father was infertile, and his real father may have been the renowned diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, who was later to become Prime Minister of France. Delacroix certainly resembled Talleyrand in looks and character, and Talleyrand went on to protect the artist throughout his career. Delacroix was educated at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand, where he learned the classics and won awards for drawing. His uncle, impressed with his sketches, encouraged him to study art at the Beaux-Arts Academy in Paris. |
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Early Career In 1815 he entered the studio of artist Pierre-Narcisse Guerin, whose neoclassical painting was in the style of Jacques-Louis David. His early works from this period show influences of Raphael and Rubens, in colour and style, which can be seen in two religious commission, The Virgin of the Harvest (1819) and The Virgin of the Sacred Heart (1821). Around this time, he befriended the artist Theodore Gericault, and the populist Paul Delaroche (1797-1856), two other leading members of the Romantic movement in Paris. It was Gericault's work, the Raft of the Medusa, that inspired Delacroix to produce his first major painting: Dante and Virgil. This painting was accepted by the Paris Salon in 1822 but widely condemned by the public. However, two years later, he received public acclaim for his work Massacre of Chios. Throughout his art career Delacroix would fall in and out of public favour. |
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Sardanapalus and Liberty Leading the People In 1825 he made a trip to England to study other artists, and used his skill in lithography to illustrate works by Sir Walter Scott, Shakespeare and Lord Byron. In 1827 he painted his great romantic work, Sardanapalus (1827), depicting the defeated Assyrian King who watches impassively as his servants, concubines and animals are slaughtered on his order. The painting is both gruesome and beautiful, it is graphic in its scenes of death but beautiful in its sensuous use of colour. Around this time be also painted The Murder of the Bishop of Liege (1829) and Liberty Leading the People (1830). The latter is probably Delacroix's best known painting, and depicts Parisians taking up arms and the Tricolour flag, representing liberty and freedom. The Government bought the painting but soon removed it from public view, deeming it too inflammatory. |
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Orientalism - Morocco In 1832 he spent 6 months in Morocco. The colours, life and customs of the locals fascinated him, and went on to inspire his paintings The Fanatics of Tangier (1837, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts), The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage (1845, Musee des Augustins, Toulouse), The Lion Hunt in Morocco (1854, Hermitage, St Petersburg), Arab Saddling His Horse (1855, Hermitage) and Frescoes on the West Wall (1833, Palais Bourbon). These colourful works were a huge success at the 1834 Salon Exhibition. Delacroix became renowned for his ability to raise the ordinary out of drabness by infusing his painting with vivid drama. He received a number of other public commissions including decorating the Church of St. Denis du Saint Sacrament with a large Pieta, decorating the ceiling in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre, and the Chapelle des Agnes at St. Sulpice. These commissions allowed him to paint on a large scale, reminiscent of the masters he admired, Rubens and Tintoretto. His love of Renaissance art led him to paint subjects which had been popular at that time including musicians, religious figures, animals and large murals. |
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Other beautiful works include Self-Portrait (1837, Louvre), The Shipwreck of Don Juan (1840, Louvre), Medea about to Kill Her Children (1838, Louvre), The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople (1840, Louvre), Girl Seated in a Cemetery (1824, Louvre), A Mortally Wounded Brigand Quenches His Thirst (c.1825, Kunstmuseum, Basle), Louis d'Orleans Showing His Mistress (1825, Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), Frederic Chopin (unfinished) (1838, Louvre), The Abduction of Rebecca (1846, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and Michelangelo in His Studio (1849, Musee Fabre, Montpellier). Member of the French Academy A highly influential figure in modern French painting, Delacroix exhibited 48 paintings at the World Expo in Paris in 1855, and on his 8th attempt was finally made a full member of the Academy. In 1862 he helped to establish the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts, where two societies combined to organise group exhibitions. The writer Theophile Gautier, a longtime friend of Delacroix, chaired it and the painter Aimé Millet became deputy chairman. Soon after, his health deteriorated and he died in August 1863 at the age of 65 years. The Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts held a retrospective of his works later that year, exhibiting over 248 paintings and lithographs. He was hugely prolific during his lifetime, creating over 800 oil paintings, 1500 pastel drawings and watercolours, nearly 7,000 other drawings and more than 100 lithographs. He once said 'colour always occupies me, but drawing preoccupies me'. A key in nineteenth century French painting, his works influenced a wide variety of artists, including the Impressionists Pierre Renoir and Edouard Manet. Edgar Degas even purchased a painting for his private collection. Paintings by Delacroix hang in the best art museums throughout the world. |
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