Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)

French painter Eugene Delacroix was the leader of the French Romanticism art movement. His passionate brushstrokes went on to influence Impressionism, and his experimentation with exotic subject matter inspired painters of the Symbolist movement. Influenced early in his career by the English landscapists and portraitists, in particular by William Hogarth, his most notable works include Liberty Leading her People, 1830 (Louvre, Paris).

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-Périgord, 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.

Liberty Leading the People (Close-up)

Delacroix was educated at the Lycée 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. In 1815 he entered the studio of artist Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, who painted in the neoclassical 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, another leading member of the Romantic movement, whose painting the Raft of the Medusa 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.

The Death of Sardanapalus (1827)
(Detail)

In 1825 he made a trip to England to study other artists, and used his skill as an accomplished lithographer to illustrate works by Sir Walter Scott, Shakespeare and Lord Byron. In 1827 he painted his great romantic work, 'Sardanapalus', 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 Liège, 1829 and Liberty Leading the People. 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.

Girl Seated In A Cemetery (1824)
(Detail)

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 (Musée des Augustins, Toulouse), The Lion Hunt in Morocco, 1854 (The Hermitage, St Petersburg), Arab Saddling His Horse, 1855 (The 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.

For a list of the highest prices paid
for works of art by famous painters:
Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings and
Top 20 Most Expensive Paintings.

For details of auction records set
by artists in Ireland, see:
Most Expensive Irish Paintings.

Other beautiful works include Self-Portrait, 1837 (Louvre), The Shipwreck of Don Juan, 1840, 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'Orléans Showing His Mistress, 1825 (Collection Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid), Frédéric Chopin (unfinished), 1838 (Louvre), The Abduction of Rebecca, 1846 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Michelangelo in His Studio, 1849 (Musée Fabre, Montpellier), Lion Devouring a Rabbit (Louvre) and Still Life with Lobsters, 1826.

He 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 Théophile Gautier, a longtime friend of Delacroix, chaired it and the painter Aimé Millet became deputy chairman. Soon after, his health deteriorated and his devoted housekeeper cared him for. He died in August 1863 when he was 65 years old. 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 pastels and watercolours, nearly 7,000 drawings and over 100 lithographs. He once said 'colour always occupies me, but drawing preoccupies me'.

A key figure in the history of art of the nineteenth century, 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.

• For more biographies of great painters, see Old Masters and Famous Artists.
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