Eugène Delacroix (1898-1863)
France

"I confess that I have worked logically, I, who have no love for logical painting. I see now that my turbulent mind needs activity, that it must break out and try a hundred different ways before reaching the goal towards which I am always straining. There is an old leaven working in me, some black depth that must be appeased." - from Delacroix's journal, 7 May 1824

Eugène Delacroix is probably the main figure of romantic artists: he's often called the 'Prince of Romanticism in Art'. His influence has been very widespread. He not simply imitated the old masters, he literally trascended their art, finding inspirations over them, assimilating their lessons, and constructing his own originality. Delacroix's father was Charles Delacroix, foreign Minister, however many suspected that his real father was the diplomat Talleyrand. Delacroix was interested in art as a teenager, when he started to take art lessons. It was the end of the Rococo period and the young Eugène studied briefly with Piere-Narcisse Guérin, which was also a teacher of Théodore Géricault. In 1805 his father died and in 1814 his mother left Delacroix an orphan at the age of 16. However Delacroix didn't like much the systematic method suggested by Guérin, in fact he followed the new directions taken by Goya, Gros and Géricault. Delacroix's themes were chosen and inspired chiefly by his great love for literature and by historical events. His first success was painted in 1822, Dante and Virgil in Hell. His second work was purchased by the French government, Massacre at Chios: a painting about a genocide of more than ten thousands Greeks on the isle of Chios. They were exposed in the Paris Salon exhibition. Massacre at Chios recognized Delacroix among the Romanticists. His more important work was Liberty Leading the People (about a battle of the French Revolution in July 1830). The painting was bought by the new king Louis-Phillippe, that never exhibited it. In 1827 he painted The Death of Sardanapalus, which was inspired by a Lord Byron's poem. Delacroix really appreciated the art of English painter, John Constable, who served as an inspiration to Delacroix. Women of Algiers is an example of how England was not the only place that influenced him-- in the 1830s he traveled to North Africa. While in England he changed his approach on color, in Africa he absorbed the sense of exotic-- his paintings were infused with a new atmosphere, exotic and brightening. In 1833 he started to work under the government, painting walls of public buildings till his death.

Works

Liberty Leading the People, 1830, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The Massacre at Chios, detail, 1824, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827-28, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.