Eugene Delacroix (in Pere Lachaise Cemetery)
N 48° 51.758 E 002° 23.604
31U E 455509 N 5412362
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (April 26, 1798 – August 13, 1863) was the most important of the French Romantic painters.
Waymark Code: WMTZA
Location: France
Date Posted: 10/12/2006
Views: 126
Delacroix' 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.
Delacroix was born at Saint-Maurice-en-Chalencon, Ardèche département, in the Rhône-Alpes région of southern France. There is reason to believe that his father, Charles Delacroix, was infertile at the time of Eugène's conception and that his real father was Talleyrand, who was a friend of the family, and whom the adult Eugène resembled in appearance and character. His early education was at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he steeped himself in the classics and won awards for drawing. In 1815 he began his training with Pierre-Narcisse Guérin in the neoclassical style of Jacques-Louis David, but he was strongly influenced by the more colorful and rich style of the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and fellow French artist Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) whose works marked an introduction to romanticism in art.
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 of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Probably Delacroix's best known painting, it is an unforgettable image of Parisians, having taken up arms, marching forward under the banner of the tricolour 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 French government bought the painting but officials deemed its glorification of liberty too inflammatory and removed it from public view. Nonetheless, Delacroix still received many government commissions for murals and ceiling paintings. He seems to have been trying to represent the spirit and the character of the people, rather than glorify the actual event, a revolution against King Charles X which did little other than bringing a different king, Louis-Philippe, to power.
Following the Revolution of 1848 that saw the end of the reign of King Louis Philippe, Delacroix' painting, Liberty Leading the People, was finally put on display by the newly elected President, Napoleon III. Today, it is visible in the Louvre museum.
The boy holding a gun up on the right is sometimes thought to be an inspiration of the Gavroche character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, Les Misérables.
Eugène Delacroix also illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, and the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He is also well known for his Journals, in which he expressed his views on art as well as a variety of topics.
Throughout his life Delacroix painted portraits, religious subjects, scenes from history and scenes from literature. Despite the centrality of the figure in his work, his occasional flower pieces and landscapes are outstanding. He painted the famous portrait of the composer Frédéric Chopin.
Eugène Delacroix died in Paris, France and was interred there in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Delacroix' paintings can be viewed in Paris in the Louvre and in the Musée national Eugène Delacroix (Metro : Saint Germain des Prés)
Description:
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (April 26, 1798 – August 13, 1863) was the most important of the French Romantic painters.
Date of birth: 04/26/1798
Date of death: 08/13/1863
Area of notoriety: Art
Marker Type: Tomb (above ground)
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 09:00 - 17:30
Fee required?: No
Web site: Not listed
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