Analysis of Delacroix's painting "Liberty Leading the People" ("Freedom on the Barricades") as a symbol of the Great French Revolution. Delacroix

Only Soviet art of the 20th century can be compared with French art of the 19th century in terms of its gigantic influence on world art. It was in France that brilliant painters discovered the theme of revolution. In France, the method of critical realism developed
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It was there - in Paris - that for the first time in world art, revolutionaries with the banner of freedom in their hands boldly climbed the barricades and entered into battle with government troops.
It is difficult to understand how the theme of revolutionary art could be born in the head of a young remarkable artist who grew up on monarchical ideals under Napoleon I and the Bourbons. The name of this artist is Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863).
It turns out that in the art of each historical era one can find the seeds of a future artistic method (and direction) for displaying the class and political life of a person in the social environment of the society around him. The seeds sprout only when brilliant minds fertilize their intellectual and artistic era and create new images and fresh ideas for understanding the diverse and ever-objectively changing life of society.
The first seeds of bourgeois realism in European art were sown in Europe by the Great French Revolution. In French art of the first half of the 19th century, the July Revolution of 1830 created the conditions for the emergence of a new artistic method in art, which was called “socialist realism” only a hundred years later, in the 1930s in the USSR.
Bourgeois historians are looking for any reason to belittle the significance of Delacroix's contribution to world art and distort his great discoveries. They collected all the gossip and anecdotes invented by their brothers and critics over a century and a half. And instead of exploring the reasons for his special popularity in the progressive strata of society, they have to lie, get out and invent fables. And all on the orders of bourgeois governments.
How can bourgeois historians write the truth about this brave and courageous revolutionary?! The Culture channel bought, translated and showed the most disgusting BBC film about this painting by Delacroix. Could a liberal like M. Shvydkoy and his team have acted differently?

Eugene Delacroix: “Freedom on the barricades”

In 1831, the prominent French painter Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) exhibited his painting “Freedom on the Barricades” at the Salon. The original title of the painting was “Freedom Leading the People.” He dedicated it to the theme of the July Revolution, which blew up Paris at the end of July 1830 and overthrew the Bourbon monarchy. Bankers and bourgeoisie took advantage of the discontent of the working masses to replace one ignorant and tough king with a more liberal and flexible, but equally greedy and cruel Louis Philippe. He was later nicknamed the "King of Bankers"
The painting depicts a group of revolutionaries holding the Republican tricolor. The people united and entered into mortal combat with government troops. The large figure of a brave French woman with a national flag in her right hand rises above a detachment of revolutionaries. She calls on the rebellious Parisians to repel government troops who were defending a thoroughly rotten monarchy.
Encouraged by the successes of the Revolution of 1830, Delacroix began work on the painting on September 20 to glorify the Revolution. In March 1831 he received an award for it, and in April he exhibited the painting at the Salon. The painting, with its frantic power of glorifying folk heroes, repelled bourgeois visitors. They reproached the artist for showing only the “rabble” in this heroic action. In 1831, the French Ministry of the Interior purchased Liberty for the Luxembourg Museum. After 2 years, “Freedom”, the plot of which was considered too politicized, Louis Philippe, frightened by its revolutionary character, dangerous during the reign of the alliance of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, ordered the painting to be rolled up and returned to the author (1839). Aristocratic slackers and money aces were seriously frightened by her revolutionary pathos.

Two truths

“When barricades are erected, two truths always arise - on one side and the other. Only an idiot does not understand this,” - this idea was expressed by the outstanding Soviet Russian writer Valentin Pikul.
Two truths arise in culture, art and literature - one is bourgeois, the other is proletarian, popular. This second truth about two cultures in one nation, about the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat was expressed by K. Marx and F. Engels in the “Communist Manifesto” in 1848. And soon - in 1871 - the French proletariat will rise up in revolt and establish its power in Paris. The commune is the second truth. People's truth!
The French revolutions of 1789, 1830, 1848, 1871 will confirm the presence of a historical-revolutionary theme not only in art, but in life itself. And for this discovery we should be grateful to Delacroix.
That is why bourgeois art historians and art critics do not like this painting by Delacroix so much. After all, he not only portrayed fighters against the rotten and dying regime of the Bourbons, but glorified them as folk heroes, bravely going to their death, not afraid to die for a just cause in battles with police and troops.
The images he created turned out to be so typical and vivid that they were forever etched in the memory of mankind. The images he created were not just heroes of the July Revolution, but heroes of all revolutions: French and Russian; Chinese and Cuban. The thunder of that revolution still rings in the ears of the world bourgeoisie. Its heroes called the people to uprisings in 1848 in European countries. In 1871, the bourgeois power was smashed by the Communards of Paris. Revolutionaries raised the masses of workers to fight against the tsarist autocracy in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. These French heroes are still calling on the masses of all countries of the world to fight the exploiters.

"Freedom on the Barricades"

Soviet Russian art critics wrote with admiration about this painting by Delacroix. The most vivid and complete description of it was given by one of the wonderful Soviet authors I.V. Dolgopolov in the first volume of essays on art “Masters and Masterpieces”: “The last assault. A dazzling afternoon, bathed in the hot rays of the sun. The alarm bell rings. The guns roar. Clouds of gunpowder swirl. smoke. The free wind flutters the tricolor republican banner. It was raised high by a majestic woman in a Phrygian cap. She calls the rebels to attack. She is unfamiliar with fear. This is France itself, calling its sons to the right battle. Bullets whistle. Buckshot bursts. The wounded groan. But the fighters of the “three glorious days” are adamant. A Parisian gamen, a daring, young man, angrily shouting something in the face of the enemy, wearing a dashing beret, with two huge pistols in his hands. A worker in a blouse, with a battle-scorched, courageous face. A young man in top hat and black pair - a student who took a weapon.
Death is near. The merciless rays of the sun slid across the gold of the knocked down shako. We noted the hollows of the eyes and the half-open mouth of the dead soldier. They flashed on a white epaulette. They outlined the sinewy bare legs and the torn shirt of the lying soldier covered in blood. They sparkled brightly on the red sash of the wounded man, on his pink scarf, enthusiastically looking at the living Freedom leading his brothers to Victory.
“The bells are singing. The battle rumbles. The voices of the combatants sound furious. The Great Symphony of the Revolution roars joyfully in Delacroix's canvas. All the exultation of unfettered power. People's anger and love. All holy hatred for the enslavers! The painter put his soul, the young heat of his heart into this canvas.
"Scarlet, crimson, crimson, purple, red colors sound, and blue, blue, azure colors echo them, combined with bright strokes of white. Blue, white, red - the colors of the banner of new France - are the key to the color of the picture. The sculpting of the canvas is powerful, energetic The figures of the heroes are full of expression and dynamics. The unforgettable image of Freedom.

Delacroix created a masterpiece!

“The painter combined the seemingly impossible - the protocol reality of reportage with the sublime fabric of a romantic, poetic allegory.
“The artist’s witchcraft brush makes us believe in the reality of a miracle - after all, Freedom itself stood shoulder to shoulder with the rebels. This painting is truly a symphonic poem glorifying the Revolution.”
The hired scribes of the “king of bankers” Louis Phillipe described this picture quite differently. Dolgopolov continues: “The volleys rang out. The fighting has died down. "La Marseillaise" is sung. The hated Bourbons were expelled. Weekdays have arrived. And passions flared up again on picturesque Olympus. And again we read words full of rudeness and hatred. Particularly shameful are the assessments of the figure of Liberty herself: “This girl,” “the scoundrel who escaped from the Saint-Lazare prison.”
“Was it really possible that in those glorious days there were only rabble on the streets?” - asks another esthete from the camp of salon actors. And this pathos of denial of Delacroix’s masterpiece, this rage of the “academicists” will last for a long time. By the way, let us remember the venerable Signol from the School of Fine Arts.
Maxim Dean, having lost all restraint, wrote: “Oh, if Freedom is like that, if it’s a girl with bare feet and a bare chest who runs, screaming and waving a gun, we don’t need her, we have nothing to do with this shameful vixen!”
This is approximately how its content is characterized by bourgeois art historians and art critics today. Watch the BBC film in the archives of the Culture channel in your spare time to see if I’m right.
“After two and a half decades, the Parisian public again saw the barricades of 1830. “La Marseillaise” sounded in the luxurious halls of the exhibition and the alarm sounded.” – this is what I. V. Dolgopolov wrote about the painting exhibited in the salon in 1855.

"I am a rebel, not a revolutionary."

“I chose a modern plot, a scene on the barricades. .. If I did not fight for the freedom of the fatherland, then at least I must glorify this freedom,” Delacroix informed his brother, referring to the painting “Freedom Leading the People.”
Meanwhile, Delacroix cannot be called a revolutionary in the Soviet sense of the word. He was born, raised and lived his life in a monarchical society. He painted his paintings on traditional historical and literary themes in monarchical and republican times. They stemmed from the aesthetics of romanticism and realism of the first half of the 19th century.
Did Delacroix himself understand what he had “done” in art, introducing the spirit of revolution and creating the image of revolution and revolutionaries into world art?! Bourgeois historians answer: no, I didn’t understand. Indeed, how could he know in 1831 how Europe would develop in the next century? He will not live to see the Paris Commune.
Soviet art historians wrote that “Delacroix... never ceased to be an ardent opponent of the bourgeois order with its spirit of self-interest and profit, hostile to human freedom. He felt a deep disgust both for the bourgeois well-being and for that polished emptiness of the secular aristocracy, with which he often came into contact...” However, “not recognizing the ideas of socialism, he did not approve of the revolutionary method of action.” (History of Art, Volume 5; these volumes of Soviet history of world art are also available on the Internet).
Throughout his creative life, Delacroix was looking for pieces of life that before him were in the shadows and to which no one had thought to pay attention. Think about why these important pieces of life play such a huge role in modern society? Why do they require the attention of a creative person no less than portraits of kings and Napoleons? No less than the half-naked and dressed up beauties that the neoclassicists, neo-Greeks, and Pompeians loved to paint.
And Delacroix answered, because “painting is life itself. In it, nature appears before the soul without intermediaries, without covers, without conventions.”
According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, Delacroix was a monarchist by conviction. Utopian socialism and anarchist ideas did not interest him. Scientific socialism would not appear until 1848.
At the Salon of 1831, he showed a painting that - albeit for a short time - made his fame official. He was even given an award - a ribbon of the Legion of Honor in his buttonhole. He was paid well. Other canvases also sold:
“Cardinal Richelieu Listens to Mass at the Palais Royal” and “The Murder of the Archbishop of Liege”, and several large watercolors, sepia and a drawing of “Raphael in his studio”. There was money and there was success. Eugene had reason to be pleased with the new monarchy: there was money, success and fame.
In 1832 he was invited to go on a diplomatic mission to Algeria. He enjoyed going on a creative business trip.
Although some critics admired the artist’s talent and expected new discoveries from him, the government of Louis Philippe preferred to keep “Freedom on the Barricades” in storage.
After Thiers entrusted him with painting the salon in 1833, orders of this kind followed closely, one after another. Not a single French artist in the nineteenth century managed to paint so many walls.

The Birth of Orientalism in French Art

Delacroix used the trip to create a new series of paintings from the life of Arab society - exotic costumes, harems, Arabian horses, oriental exotica. In Morocco he made a couple of hundred sketches. I poured some of them into my paintings. In 1834, Eugene Delacroix exhibited the painting “Algerian Women in a Harem” at the Salon. The opening of the noisy and unusual world of the East amazed the Europeans. This new romantic discovery of the new exoticism of the East turned out to be infectious.
Other painters flocked to the East, and almost everyone brought a story with unconventional characters set in an exotic setting. Thus, in European art, in France, with the light hand of the brilliant Delacroix, a new independent romantic genre was born - ORIENTALISM. This was his second contribution to the history of world art.
His fame grew. He received many commissions to paint ceilings in the Louvre in 1850-51; The throne room and library of the Chamber of Deputies, the dome of the peer library, the ceiling of the Apollo gallery, the hall at the Hotel de Ville; created frescoes for the Parisian church of Saint-Sulpice in 1849-61; decorated the Luxembourg Palace in 1840-47. With these creations he forever inscribed his name in the history of French and world art.
This work paid well, and he, recognized as one of the greatest artists in France, did not remember that “Liberty” was safely hidden in storage. However, in the revolutionary year of 1848, the progressive public remembered her. She turned to the artist with a proposal to paint a new similar picture about the new revolution.

1848

“I am a rebel, not a revolutionary,” answered Delacroix. In other words, he stated that he was a rebel in art, but not a revolutionary in politics. In that year, when there were battles throughout Europe for the proletariat, not supported by the peasantry, blood flowed like a river through the streets of European cities, he was not engaged in revolutionary affairs, did not take part in street battles with the people, but rebelled in art - he was engaged in the reorganization of the Academy and reform Salon. It seemed to him that it did not matter who would win: monarchists, republicans or proletarians.
And yet, he responded to the public’s call and asked officials to exhibit his “Freedom” at the Salon. The painting was brought from storage, but they did not dare to exhibit it: the intensity of the struggle was too high. Yes, the author did not particularly insist, realizing that the revolutionary potential of the masses was immense. Pessimism and disappointment overwhelmed him. He never imagined that the revolution could repeat itself in such terrible scenes that he witnessed in the early 1830s and in those days in Paris.
In 1848, the Louvre demanded the painting. In 1852 - Second Empire. In the final months of the Second Empire, "Liberty" was again seen as a great symbol, and engravings of this composition served the cause of Republican propaganda. In the first years of Napoleon III's reign, the painting was again recognized as dangerous to society and sent to storage. After 3 years - in 1855 - it was removed from there and will be displayed at an international art exhibition.
At this time, Delacroix rewrites some details in the painting. Perhaps he darkens the bright red tone of the cap to soften its revolutionary look. In 1863, Delacroix dies at home. And after 11 years, “Freedom” settles in the Louvre forever...
Salon art and only academic art have always been central to Delacroix’s work. He considered only serving the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie his duty. Politics did not bother his soul.
In that revolutionary year of 1848 and in the following years, he became interested in Shakespeare. New masterpieces were born: “Othello and Desdemona”, “Lady Macbeth”, “Samson and Delila”. He painted another painting, “Women of Algeria.” These paintings were not hidden from the public. On the contrary, they praised him in every way, like his paintings in the Louvre, as well as the canvases of his Algerian and Moroccan series.
The revolutionary theme will never die
Some people think that the historical-revolutionary theme has died forever today. The lackeys of the bourgeoisie really want her to die. But no one will be able to stop the movement from the old decaying and convulsing bourgeois civilization to the new non-capitalist or, as it is called, socialist, or more precisely, to the communist multinational civilization, because this is an objective process. Just as the bourgeois revolution fought for more than half a century with the aristocratic classes, so the socialist revolution is making its way to victory in the most difficult historical conditions.
The theme of the interconnectedness of art and politics has long been established in art, and artists raised it and tried to express it in mythological content, familiar to classical academic art. But before Delacroix, it never occurred to anyone to try to create an image of the people and revolutionaries in painting and to show the common people who rebelled against the king. The theme of nationality, the theme of revolution, the theme of the heroine in the image of Freedom already wandered like ghosts across Europe with particular force from 1830 to 1848. Delacroix was not the only one who thought about them. Other artists also tried to reveal them in their work. They tried to poeticize both the revolution and its heroes, the rebellious spirit in man. One can list many paintings that appeared in France during that period of time. Daumier and Messonnier painted barricades and people, but none of them depicted revolutionary heroes from the people so vividly, so figuratively, so beautifully as Delacroix. Of course, no one could even dream of any kind of socialist realism in those years, much less talk about it. Even Marx and Engels did not see the “ghost of communism” wandering around Europe until 1848. What can we say about artists!? However, from our 21st century it is clear and visible that all Soviet revolutionary art of socialist realism came out of the “Barricades” of Delacroix and Messonnier. It doesn’t matter whether the artists themselves and Soviet art historians understood this or not; knew whether they had seen this painting by Delacroix or not. The times have changed dramatically: capitalism reached the highest stage of imperialism and began to rot at the beginning of the twentieth century. The degradation of bourgeois society took on cruel forms of relations between labor and capital. The latter tried to find salvation in world wars and fascism.

In Russia


The weakest link in the capitalist system turned out to be noble-bourgeois Russia. The discontent of the masses began to boil in 1905, but tsarism survived and turned out to be a tough nut to crack. But the rehearsal for the revolution turned out to be useful. In 1917, the Russian proletariat won a victory, carried out the world's first victorious socialist revolution and established its dictatorship.
Artists did not stand aside and painted revolutionary events in Russia both in a romantic vein, like Delacroix, and in a realistic one. They developed a new method in world art, called "socialist realism."
You can give as many examples as possible. Kustodiev B.I. in his painting “Bolshevik” (1920) depicted the proletarian as a giant, Giliver, walking over the Lilliputians, over the city, over the crowd. He holds a red flag in his hands. In G. M. Korzhev’s painting “Raising the Banner” (1957-1960), a worker raises a red banner, which was just dropped by a revolutionary killed by the police.

Didn’t these artists know Delacroix’s work? Didn’t you know that since 1831, the French proletarians went out to revolutions with three calories, and the Parisian communards with a red banner in their hands? They knew. They also knew the sculpture “La Marseillaise” by Francois Rude (1784-1855), which adorns the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Paris.
I found an idea about the enormous influence of the paintings of Delacroix and Messonnier on Soviet revolutionary painting in the books of the English art historian T. J. Clark. In them, he collected a lot of interesting materials and illustrations from the history of French art related to the 1948 revolution, and showed paintings in which the themes I outlined above sounded. He reproduced illustrations of these paintings by other artists and described the ideological struggle in France at that time, which was very active in art and criticism. By the way, no other bourgeois art historian was interested in the revolutionary themes of European painting after 1973. That was when Clark’s works first came out of print. They were then reissued in 1982 and 1999.
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The Absolute Bourgeois. Artists and Politics in France. 1848-1851. L., 1999. (3d ed.)
Image of the People. Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution. L., 1999. (3d ed.)
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Barricades and modernism


The fight continues

The struggle for Eugene Delacroix has been ongoing in the history of art for a century and a half. Bourgeois and socialist art theorists have been waging a long struggle over his creative heritage. Bourgeois theorists do not want to remember his famous painting "Freedom on the Barricades on July 28, 1830." In their opinion, it is enough for him to be called the “Great Romantic.” And indeed, the artist fit into both the romantic and realistic movements. His brush painted both heroic and tragic events in the history of France during the years of struggle between the republic and the monarchy. The brush also painted beautiful Arab women in the countries of the East. With his light hand, Orientalism began in world art of the 19th century. He was invited to paint the Throne Room and the library of the Chamber of Deputies, the dome of the peer library, the ceiling of the Apollo Gallery, and the hall at the Hotel de Ville. He created frescoes for the Parisian church of Saint-Sulpice (1849-61). He worked on decorating the Luxembourg Palace (1840-47) and painting ceilings in the Louvre (1850-51). No one except Delacroix in 19th-century France came close in talent to the classics of the Renaissance. With his creations, he forever inscribed his name in the history of French and world art. He made many discoveries in the field of colorful writing technology. He abandoned classical linear compositions and established the dominant role of color in 19th-century painting. Therefore, bourgeois historians like to write about him as an innovator, a forerunner of impressionism and other movements in modernism. They pull him into the realm of decadent art of the late 19th century. - beginning of the 20th century This is what the exhibition mentioned above was dedicated to.

Recently I came across a painting by Eugene Delacroix “Liberty Leading the People” or “Liberty on the Barricades”. The painting was painted based on the popular revolt of 1830 against the last of the Bourbon dynasty, Charles X. But this painting is considered a symbol and image of the Great French Revolution.

Let us consider this “symbol” of the Great French Revolution in detail, taking into account the facts about this Revolution.

So from right to left: 1) - a fair-haired European with noble features.

2) with protruding ears, very similar to a gypsy, with two pistols, screams and runs forward. Well, teenagers always want to assert themselves in something. At least in a game, at least in a fight, at least in a riot. But he is wearing a white officer's ribbon with a leather bag and a coat of arms. So it's possible that this is a personal trophy. Which means this teenage boy has already killed.

3) and With amazingly calm face, with a French flag in his hand and a Phrygian cap on his head (like, I’m French) and a bare chest. Here one involuntarily recalls the participation of Parisian women (possibly prostitutes) in the storming of the Bastille. Inflamed by permissiveness and the fall of law and order (i.e., intoxicated by the air of freedom), women in the crowd of rioters got into an altercation with the soldiers on the walls of the Bastille fortress. They began to expose their private parts and offer themselves to the soldiers - “Why shoot at us? Better drop your weapons, come down to us and “love” us! We give you our love in exchange for your going over to the side of the rebel people!” The soldiers chose free "love" and the Bastille fell. About the fact that the naked asses and pussies with tits of Parisian women took the Bastille, and not the storming revolutionary crowd, they are now silent about this, so as not to spoil the mythologized “picture” of the “revolution”. (I almost said “Revolution of Dignity”, because I remembered the Kyiv maydauns with outskirts flags.). It turns out that “Liberty Leading the People” is a cold-blooded Semitic woman of easy character (bare breasts) disguised as a Frenchwoman.

4) looking at the bare chest of "Freedom". Breasts are beautiful, and it is possible that this is the last beautiful thing he sees in his life.

5) - took off their jacket, boots and pants. “Freedom” sees its causal place, but from us it is hidden by the foot of the murdered man. Riots, oh, revolutions, they are always not without robbery and stripping.

6) . The face is slightly detached. The hair is black and curly, the eyes are slightly protruding, the wings of the nose are raised. (Whoever is in the know, understands.) How come the top hat on his head didn’t fall off during the battle and even sits perfectly on his head? In general, this young “Frenchman” dreams of redistributing public wealth in his favor. Or for the benefit of your family. He probably doesn’t want to stand in a shop, but wants to be like Rothschild.

7) Behind the right shoulder of a bourgeois in a top hat, there is a saber in his hand and a pistol in his belt, and a wide white ribbon over his shoulder (it looks like it was taken from a killed officer), the face is clearly a southerner.

Now the question is - where are the French, who are like Europeans(Caucasians) and who somehow made the Great French Revolution??? Or even then, 220 years ago, the French were all dark “southerners”? This despite the fact that Paris is not in the South, but in the North of France. Or are they not French? Or are these those who are called “eternal revolutionaries” in any country???

1830
260x325 cm Louvre, Paris

“I chose a modern plot, a scene on the barricades. .. Even if I did not fight for the freedom of the fatherland, then at least I must glorify this freedom,” Delacroix informed his brother, referring to the painting “Freedom Leading the People” (in our country it is also known as “Freedom on barricades"). The call contained in it to fight against tyranny was heard and enthusiastically accepted by contemporaries.

Freedom walks barefoot and bare-chested over the corpses of fallen revolutionaries, calling the rebels to follow them. In her raised hand she holds the tricolor republican flag, and its colors - red, white and blue - echo throughout the canvas. In his masterpiece, Delacroix combined what seemed incompatible - the protocol realism of reportage with the sublime fabric of poetic allegory. He gave a small episode of street fighting a timeless, epic sound. The central character of the canvas is Liberty, who combines the majestic posture of Aphrodite de Milo with the features that Auguste Barbier endowed with Liberty: “This is a strong woman with a powerful chest, with a hoarse voice, with fire in her eyes, fast, with long strides.”

Encouraged by the successes of the Revolution of 1830, Delacroix began work on the painting on September 20 to glorify the Revolution. In March 1831 he received an award for it, and in April he exhibited the painting at the Salon. The painting, with its frantic power, repelled bourgeois visitors, who also reproached the artist for showing only the “rabble” in this heroic action. At the salon in 1831, the French Ministry of the Interior bought "Liberty" for the Luxembourg Museum. After 2 years, “Freedom”, the plot of which was considered too politicized, was removed from the museum and returned to the author. The king bought the painting, but, frightened by its nature, dangerous during the reign of the bourgeoisie, he ordered it to be hidden, rolled up, and then returned to the author (1839). In 1848, the Louvre requested the painting. In 1852 - Second Empire. The picture is again considered subversive and sent to the storage room. In the final months of the Second Empire, "Liberty" was again seen as a great symbol, and engravings of this composition served the cause of Republican propaganda. After 3 years, it is removed from there and demonstrated at the world exhibition. At this time, Delacroix rewrote it again. Perhaps he is darkening the bright red tone of the cap to soften its revolutionary look. In 1863, Delacroix dies at home. And after 11 years, “Freedom” is again exhibited at the Louvre.

Delacroix himself did not take part in the “three glorious days”, observing what was happening from the windows of his workshop, but after the fall of the Bourbon monarchy he decided to perpetuate the image of the Revolution.

The story of a masterpiece

Eugene Delacroix. "Freedom on the Barricades"

In 1831, at the Paris Salon, the French first saw Eugene Delacroix’s painting “Freedom on the Barricades,” dedicated to the “three glorious days” of the July Revolution of 1830. The painting made a stunning impression on its contemporaries with its power, democracy and boldness of artistic design. According to legend, one respectable bourgeois exclaimed:

“You say - the head of the school? Better say - the head of the rebellion!

After the salon closed, the government, frightened by the formidable and inspiring appeal emanating from the painting, hastened to return it to the author. During the revolution of 1848, it was again put on public display at the Luxembourg Palace. And again they returned it to the artist. Only after the painting was exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855 did it end up in the Louvre. One of the best creations of French romanticism is kept here to this day - an inspired eyewitness account and an eternal monument to the people’s struggle for their freedom.

What artistic language did the young French romantic find to merge these two seemingly opposite principles - a broad, all-encompassing generalization and a concrete reality cruel in its nakedness?

Paris of the famous days of July 1830. The air is saturated with blue smoke and dust. A beautiful and majestic city, disappearing in a haze of gunpowder. In the distance, barely noticeable, but proudly towering towers of Notre Dame Cathedral -symbol history, culture, spirit of the French people.

From there, from the smoke-filled city, over the ruins of the barricades, over the dead bodies of their fallen comrades, the rebels stubbornly and decisively step forward. Each of them may die, but the step of the rebels is unshakable - they are inspired by the will to victory, to freedom.

This inspiring power is embodied in the image of a beautiful young woman, passionately calling for her. With her inexhaustible energy, free and youthful swiftness of movement, she is similar to the Greek goddess of victory Nike. Her strong figure is dressed in a chiton dress, her face with ideal features, with burning eyes, is turned towards the rebels. In one hand she holds the tricolor flag of France, in the other - a gun. On the head there is a Phrygian cap - an ancient symbolliberation from slavery. Her step is swift and light - the way goddesses walk. At the same time, the image of the woman is real - she is the daughter of the French people. She is the guiding force behind the group's movement on the barricades. From it, as from a source of light and a center of energy, rays emanate, charging with thirst and the will to win. Those in close proximity to her, each in their own way, express their participation in this encouraging and inspiring call.

On the right is a boy, a Parisian gamen, waving pistols. He is closest to Freedom and, as it were, ignited by its enthusiasm and joy of free impulse. In his swift, boyishly impatient movement, he is even slightly ahead of his inspiration. This is the predecessor of the legendary Gavroche, portrayed twenty years later by Victor Hugo in the novel Les Misérables:

“Gavroche, full of inspiration, radiant, took upon himself the task of putting the whole thing into motion. He scurried back and forth, rose up, sank down, rose again, made noise, sparkled with joy. It would seem that he came here to encourage everyone. Did he have any motive for this? Yes, of course, his poverty. Did he have wings? Yes, of course, his gaiety. It was some kind of whirlwind. It seemed to fill the air, being present everywhere at the same time... Huge barricades felt it on their ridges.”

Gavroche in Delacroix’s painting is the personification of youth, “beautiful impulse,” joyful acceptance of the bright idea of ​​Freedom. Two images - Gavroche and Freedom - seem to complement each other: one is fire, the other is a torch lit from it. Heinrich Heine told how the figure of Gavroche evoked a lively response among Parisians.

"Damn it! - exclaimed some grocery merchant. “These boys fought like giants!”

On the left is a student with a gun. Previously they saw himself-portrait artist. This rebel is not as swift as Gavroche. His movement is more restrained, more concentrated, more meaningful. The hands confidently grip the barrel of the gun, the face expresses courage, a firm determination to stand to the end. This is a deeply tragic image. The student is aware of the inevitability of losses that the rebels will suffer, but the victims do not frighten him - the will to freedom is stronger. Behind him stands an equally courageous and determined worker with a saber.

His figure is transitional. The viewer's gaze, still fascinated and carried away by the revolutionary determination of the rebels, falls down to the foot of the barricade, covered with the bodies of the glorious dead soldiers. Death is presented by the artist in all the bareness and obviousness of the fact. We see the blue faces of the dead, their naked bodies: the struggle is merciless, and death is as inevitable a companion of the rebels as the beautiful inspirer Freedom.

But not quite the same! From the terrible sight at the bottom edge of the picture, we again raise our gaze and see a young beautiful figure - no! life wins! The idea of ​​freedom, embodied so visibly and tangibly, is so focused on the future that death in its name is not scary.

The painting was painted by a 32-year-old artist who was full of strength, energy, and a thirst to live and create. The young painter, who studied in the studio of Guerin, a student of the famous David, sought his own path in art. Gradually he becomes the head of a new direction - romanticism, which replaced the old one - classicism. Unlike his predecessors, who built painting on rational principles, Delacroix sought to appeal primarily to the heart. In his opinion, painting should shock a person’s feelings, completely captivating him with the passion that possesses the artist. On this path, Delacroix develops his creative credo. He copies Rubens, is fond of Turner, is close to Géricault, the favorite colorist of the Frenchmasters becomes Tintoretto. The English theater that came to France fascinated him with productions of Shakespeare's tragedies. Byron became one of his favorite poets. These hobbies and affections formed the figurative world of Delacroix’s paintings. He addressed historical topics,stories , drawn from the works of Shakespeare and Byron. His imagination was excited by the East.

But then a phrase appears in the diary:

“I felt a desire to write about modern subjects.”

Delacroix states more definitely:

“I want to write about revolution stories.”

However, the dull and sluggish reality surrounding the romantically minded artist did not provide worthy material.

And suddenly a revolution bursts into this gray routine like a whirlwind, like a hurricane. All of Paris was covered with barricades and within three days the Bourbon dynasty was swept away forever. “Holy days of July! - exclaimed Heinrich Heine. - How wonderful The sun was red, how great were the people of Paris!”

On October 5, 1830, Delacroix, an eyewitness to the revolution, writes to his brother:

“I started painting on a modern subject - “Barricades”. If I didn’t fight for my fatherland, then at least I will paint in its honor.”

This is how the idea arose. At first, Delacroix decided to depict a specific episode of the revolution, for example, “The Death of d'Arcole,” the hero who died during the capture of the town hall. But the artist very soon abandoned this decision. He is looking for a generalizingimage , which would embody the highest meaning of what is happening. In Auguste Barbier's poem he findsallegory Freedom in the form of “...a strong woman with a powerful chest, with a hoarse voice, with fire in her eyes...”. But it was not only Barbier’s poem that prompted the artist to create the image of Freedom. He knew how fiercely and selflessly the French women fought on the barricades. Contemporaries recalled:

“And women, especially women from the common people - heated, excited - inspired, encouraged, embittered their brothers, husbands and children. They helped the wounded under bullets and grapeshot or rushed at their enemies like lionesses.”

Delacroix probably also knew about the brave girl who captured one of the enemy’s cannons. Then she, crowned with a laurel wreath, was carried in triumph in a chair through the streets of Paris to the cheers of the people. So reality itself provided ready-made symbols.

Delacroix could only interpret them artistically. After a lengthy search, the plot of the picture finally crystallized: a majestic figure leads an unstoppable stream of people. The artist depicts only a small group of rebels, living and dead. But the defenders of the barricade seem unusually numerous.Composition is built in such a way that the group of fighters is not limited, not closed in on itself. She is just part of an endless avalanche of people. The artist gives, as it were, a fragment of the group: the picture frame cuts off the figures on the left, right, and below.

Typically, color in Delacroix's works acquires a highly emotional sound and plays a dominant role in creating a dramatic effect. The colors, now raging, now fading, muted, create a tense atmosphere. In "Freedom on the Barricades" Delacroix departs from this principle. Very precisely, carefully choosing paint and applying it with broad strokes, the artist conveys the atmosphere of the battle.

Being one of the best creations and products of French romanticism, Delacroix's canvas remains unique in its artistic content. “Freedom on the Barricades” is the only work in which romanticism, with its eternal craving for the majestic and heroic, with its distrust of reality, turned to this reality, was inspired by it and found the highest artistic meaning in it. But, responding to the call of a specific event that suddenly changed the usual course of life of an entire generation, Delacroix goes beyond it. In the process of working on a painting, he gives free rein to his imagination, sweeps away everything concrete, transient, and individual that reality can give, and transforms it with creative energy.

This canvas brings to us the hot breath of the July days of 1830, the rapid revolutionary rise of the French nation and is the perfect artistic embodiment of the wonderful idea of ​​​​the people’s struggle for their freedom.

E. VARLAMOVA

Delacroix. "Freedom leading the people." 1831 Paris. Louvre.

Through the ruins of the barricade, which had just been recaptured from government troops, an avalanche of rebels was moving swiftly and menacingly right over the bodies of the dead. Ahead, a beautiful woman with a banner in her hand rises to the barricade. This is Freedom leading the people. Delacroix was inspired to create this image by the poems of Auguste Barbier. In his poem "Iambas" he found an allegorical image of the goddess of Liberty, shown as a powerful woman from the people:
"This strong woman with powerful breasts,
With a hoarse voice and fire in his eyes,
Fast, with a wide stride,
Enjoying the cries of the people,
Bloody fights, long roar of drums,
The smell of gunpowder wafting from afar,
With the echoes of bells and deafening guns."
The artist boldly introduced a symbolic image into the crowd of real Parisians. This is both an allegory and a living woman (it is known that many Parisian women took part in the July battles). She has a classic antique profile, a powerful sculpted torso, a chiton dress, and a Phrygian cap on her head - an ancient symbol of liberation from slavery.

Reviews

I always had the impression that there was something unhealthy about this picture. A strange symbol of patriotism and freedom. This power
This lady could rather symbolize freedom of morals, leading the people into a brothel, and not into revolution. True, the “goddess of freedom” has this
a menacing and stern facial expression that, perhaps, not everyone dares to
stare at her mighty breasts, so you can think in two ways here...
Sorry if I said something wrong, I was just expressing my opinion.

Dear princess! The opinion you expressed once again shows that men and women look at many things differently. An erotic moment in such an inappropriate situation? But it is undoubtedly present, and even very similar to it! Revolution is the destruction of everything old. Foundations are crumbling. The impossible becomes possible. So, this rapture of freedom is thoroughly erotic. Delacroix felt it. Barbier felt it. Pasternak (in a completely different revolutionary time) felt this (read “My Sister is My Life”). I’m even sure that if a man had undertaken to write a novel about the end of the world, he would have depicted many things differently. (Armageddon - isn't this the revolution of all revolutions?) With a smile.

If the end of the world is a revolution, then death is also a revolution))))
True, for some reason the majority are trying to organize a counter-revolution, yes
and they depict her in a very unerotic way, you know, a skeleton with a scythe and
in a black cloak. However... I won’t argue, maybe, in fact
men see it all somehow differently.

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