Romanticism in France:
Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, oil on canvas, oil on canvas, 1830
(Musée du Louvre, Paris)

Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker, Dr. Beth Harris

 

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (French, born April 26, 1798, died August 13, 1863, pronounced: Del-ah-qua) Some of the issues already discussed in relation to the work of Ingres (namely, Orientalism) and Goya (his almost physical emotionalism) are in play in Delacroix's art as well. Nevertheless, let's focus on an image of particular importance, Liberty Leading the People of 1830 (Louvre).

The painting was made in response to the political upheaval that eventually resulted in the overthrow of the reigning monarch Charles X (the brother of the beheaded Louis XVI, who had re-established the Bourbon throne after the fall of Napoleon, for the restricted constitutional rule of Louis-Phillipe, the "citizen-king."

Delacroix 's is a complex painting, full of historical reference, yet also full of the spectrum of human emotion--from grand heroism to angry despair that is a central characteristic of French Romanticism. Please note the complex interaction between areas that are brightly reflective and adjacent areas of dark shadow. The results are vivid contrasts which, like the rapid-fire brushwork, activates the surface and augments the painting's sense of movement and energy. Delacroix also breaks with the tradition of relying upon the careful and painstakingly subtle modulation of color, instead, he applies brilliant and shocking traces of pure pigment. See, for example, the notes of sharp primary colors, the blues, yellows and the especially powerful reds. Again, the effect is vivid and electrifying and this fits well with the subject. Liberty rushes forward over the piled debris of the barricades, by then a traditional signifier of Parisian rebellion.

Prior to the late 19th century, the streets of this largely medieval city were the chaotic result of organic unplanned growth. Paris was a warren of tangled streets, some little more than narrow alleys that slowed travel, trade and troops, and could be easily blockaded allowing revolutionaries to fortify entire sections of the city. It is upon these very barricades that Liberty, the personification of freedom (who the French call Marianne) stands. She holds the tri-color aloft. This is the flag of democracy. The wind spins the almost classical drapery that she wears around her hips alluding to the spiraling costume of the great Hellenistic (late ancient Greek) sculpture The Nike (victory) of Samothrace that remains on view in the Musee de Louvre even today. Does it strike you as odd that this woman is joining the battle semi-nude? For what possible reason has Delacroix exposed Marianne's breasts? The answer lies in the figure not being an actual person but rather the embodying of an idea in a human figure. Marianne is, of course, democracy (that rare and imperfectly realized ideal). Democracy was born in Ancient Greece as Delacroix reminds us by his reference to Nike and his use of partial nudity reiterates. But there is a second reference here. During France's first revolution, the one that began in 1789, political cartoonists often symbolized the newly created democratic state as an infant suckled by freedom/Marianne, its mother. Thus the exposed torso is meant to draw on these powerful ideas.

Beside Marianne we see a crowd that dissolves into the smoke and the menacing confusion of the scene. But in the left middleground, Delacroix depicts two figures with greater clarity. They stand together but represent very different social and economic positions. The man in the top hat, waistcoat and jacket is not a member of the ruling class (in spite of everything you've learned playing monopoly). In fact, this costume represents nothing more than the middle class. The second figure is less well off. He wears a white shirt and cap and is meant to represent a laborer, a member of the working or lower class. Delacroix's message is clear. The revolution will succeed only if these classes unite against the ruling aristocracy.

In the foreground lay two dead bodies. The figure on the left is intended to enrage the viewer. To set the viewer firmly against the excesses of the king's troops. In this sense the painting is propaganda. The dead figure on the left is dressed in a long nightshirt that has been push up as his body was dragged into the street from his bedroom where he had been shot. Delacroix is alluding to the despised practice of the royal troops who spread terror by murdering suspected revolutionary sympathizers in their beds and then dragging the bodies into the streets as a warning. The dead uniformed figure on the right is a royalist soldier. Here, Delacroix attempt's to show the enemy as vulnerable. If you look carefully at the buildings at the right you will see the battle joined and in the distance, the great Gothic cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, a symbol of the King's power but which is now triumphantly flying the tricolor.