With a vigor and themes unprecedented for his time, Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) faced criticism without ever altering his stylistic ideals, benefiting fro 40 years of a reputation solid enough to receive commissions from the French State. Mainly known for his iconic revolutionary masterpiece Liberty Lead the People, at the Louvre, Delacroix has marked the history of art in many ways .
1. Géricault had a major influence on his art
Delacroix met Théodore Géricault for the first time around 1815, while he was apprenticing with the neoclassical painter Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. Géricault, seven years his senior, impressed him strongly and would define the style of his beginnings. Delacroix borrowed his pronounced contrasts, strong reliefs and even some of his colors, such as Prussian blue, browns and whites.
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The Virgin of the Sacred Heart (1821), an altarpiece intended for Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Nantes, was originally an order placed by the Ministry of the Interior for Géricault. The latter, not very interested in the subject, subcontracted the altarpiece to Delacroix, who was in a difficult financial situation. The substitution was noted in 1842 in the Revue du XIXe siècle .
2. He painted impulsively
Technique was, at the time of Delacroix, largely underestimated in official teaching. Like most of his contemporaries, he painted on instinct, and some disasters soon followed. The colors and the subtle tonal ratios visible at first glance did not survive: cracks and crevices, due to impatience or failure to respect drying times, appeared and altered his canvases. The Death of Sardanapalus, from 1827, had to be completely restored in 1860. In his diary, Delacroix relates this crippling lack of knowledge.
3. He took a risk to make a name for himself
Eager to make a name for himself and put an end to his money worries, Delacroix decided to present a painting at the Salon of 1822. He was then 24 years old. Having defined his subject very late, in mid-January for an exhibition on April 24, he painted in a hurry and used varnishes that promoted the drying of the colors, but compromise the conservation of the canvas. He presented La Barque de Dante, a scene from the Inferno showing Dante crossing the River Styx with Virgil, which the State bought from him for 2,000 francs (he asked for 2,400 francs) and elicited strong criticism. A judge of the Salon, Étienne-Jean Delécluze, spoke of it as a "real daub", while another, Antoine-Jean Gros, saw a certain mastery in it and described the painter as a "Chastened Rubens." He also won praise from the young journalist Adolphe Thiers, who predicted a great future for him.
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The scene chosen by Delacroix was new for the time (his contemporaries always illustrated the same episodes of Dante's work,) and he dealt with it in a format usually reserved for religious or mythological subjects. This particular adaptation of a literary subject testifies to the novelty of Delacroix, who, from his beginnings, wanted to prove that he mastered drapery, anatomy and narration. In 1860 he obtained the authorization to restore La Barque de Dante himself because enormous cracks had appeared.
4. Liberty Leading the People was a work of redemption
In 1827, Delacroix suffered a bitter failure at the Salon by presenting The Death of Sardanapalus, a painting that critics unanimously rejected and which even aroused the embarrassment of his close friends (they did not intervene publicly to defend it). Declared "a painter's error", a "bizarre work", and a "scandal," the scathing comments were numerous, which the painter did not appreciate at all. The painting was made after a stay in England from May to August 1825.
It was therefore at the Salon of 1831, with Liberty Leading the People, that the painter hoped to erase his failure and to curry favor with the power in place by representing the liberal ideas of King Louis Philippe I. In a letter dated October 28, 1830 addressed to his brother Charles Delacroix, he wrote “My bad mood is vanishing thanks to hard work. I've embarked on a modern subject—a barricade. And if I haven't fought for my country at least I'll paint for her." Delacroix, who regretted not having been able to participate in the July Revolution, wished to glorify the people who fought to put an end to the reign of the monarch Charles X. King Louis Philippe I would buy the painting for 3,000 francs in order to exhibit it at the Palais du Luxembourg.
5. He illustrated literary works
After his trip to England in 1825, Delacroix made prints depicting Shakespearean scenes and characters. In 1827, the publisher Charles Motte persuaded him to illustrate the first French edition of Faust, the tragedy by Goethe. He produced a series of 17 lithographs depicting the various episodes of the work. The author himself testified to his enthusiasm for Delacroix's work in a letter to his friend Johan Peter Eckermann, stating that his scenes have been superbly translated into art by the artist.
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By the end of his career, Delacroix had produced a large quantity of works. In addition to his paintings, we know of over 6,000 drawings and watercolors, and according to Alfred Robaut, 24 engravings and 109 lithographs.
Delacroix, who abandoned himself neither to sentimentalism nor to excess, represented Romanticism in its individuality. As Baudelaire said, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible."
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