Eugene Delacroix interesting facts from creativity. The most famous paintings

Delacroix made history French painting How chief representative a new romantic movement, which, from the mid-twenties of the nineteenth century, opposed itself to official academic art.

Enriching the art of painting with new means artistic expression, Delacroix rejected the frozen linear structures of “classical” compositions, returning color to its primacy, introducing bold dynamics and breadth of execution into his canvases, directly expressing intense inner life his heroes.

Baudelaire, in his poem “Beacons,” wrote that “Delacroix is a lake of blood, shaded by a forest of pines, ever green, where strange sounds of fanfares like Webor pass under the gloomy sky.” And this is how he deciphers this image: “The lake of blood is the red color of his paintings, the forest of pine trees is green color, complementary to red, the gloomy sky is the stormy background of his paintings, Vebor's fanfares are thoughts of romantic music that excite the harmony of his coloring.

In 1805, his father died, and Eugene went with his mother to Paris, where the boy was sent to the Paris Lyceum of Louis the Great. During his student years, he became interested in literature, music, and received his first drawing lessons. After graduating from the Lyceum in 1815, Eugene began studying with the portrait painter Henri François Riesener. A year later, Riesener introduced Eugene to his friend P. Guerin, and Delacroix became his student. However, staying in the workshop of a classicist - an adherent of the old academic canons - does not satisfy Eugene. He systematically visits the Louvre, studies the works of Rubens, Velazquez, Titian, and Veronese. Further big influence The young artist is influenced by the work of his classmate Gericault.

Independent professional activity Delacroix begins in his twenties. Exhibited in 1822 at the Louvre at the annual Salon exhibition, the painting “Dante and Virgil” gave the impression of “a meteorite falling into a stagnant swamp,” captivating with the passionate pathos of its images.

"The Massacre of Chios", exhibited at the Salon of 1824, is the second big job artist, who promoted him, gave him the position of head of the young romantic school.

The theme of human distress, human suffering runs through all of Delacroix’s work and is, as it were, its main leitmotif. When creating “The Massacre on Chios,” Delacroix felt that his feelings, his indignation were shared by thousands and tens of thousands of contemporaries from all walks of life. This helped him create a work of great social significance.

“Stops the realism of the image; everything was written from life; For most of the figures, preliminary sketches were made in full size; Delacroix managed to create a bright and vital type of faces; The picture is distinguished by the truthfulness of ethnographic moments, writes B.N. Ternovets. – The skill and truthfulness with which experiences are conveyed are amazing in such a young artist characters; and what restraint! No blood, no screams, no false pathetic movements; and only the kidnapping scene playing out on the right is covered with some kind of romantic reflection in the silhouette of the horseman, in beautiful body naked Greek woman thrown back.

And finally, it should be emphasized the extraordinary height of the pictorial execution...”

When “The Massacre at Chios” had already been exhibited at the Salon, Delacroix, a few days before its opening, rewrote the painting under the influence of the works he saw of the English landscape painter D. Constable.

“Just think,” Delacroix later recalled, “that the Chios Massacre, instead of what it is, almost remained a gray and dull picture. Oh, I worked these fifteen days, introducing the most bright colors and remembering my starting point - the drops of water in Dante and Virgil, which cost me so much searching. And later Delacroix will count the color the most important element painting.

“The Massacre on Chios” provoked sharp criticism from adherents of classicism, but the young people accepted it with delight, seeing in Delacroix a discoverer of new paths in art. The artist painted another painting dedicated to the Greek struggle for national independence - “Greece on the ruins of Missolunga” (1826).

Under the influence of Byron, the artist creates paintings based on the themes of his works - “Tasso in the Lunatic Asylum” (1825), “The Execution of Doge Marine Falieri” (1826), “The Death of Sardanapalus”. (1827).

After returning from London, the artist’s palette became noticeably lighter, probably under the influence of the paintings of D. Constable. The Salon of 1827 turned out to be especially important for the artist: he exhibited 12 paintings there, which earned Delacroix, against his will, the reputation of the head of the romantic school. Among them was “The Death of Sardanapalus”.

“Success or failure - I will be to blame for this... it seems that I will be booed,” Delacroix wrote on the day when the public was supposed to see his masterpiece. And, indeed, he will never experience such a deafening failure. Among the many critical reviews, only Hugo, and only in private correspondence, supported the artist: “Sardanapalus by Delacroix is a magnificent thing and so gigantic that it is inaccessible to scanty vision.”

After the revolution of 1830, the artist creates his own famous painting“July 28, 1830” (“Freedom on the Barricades”, 1831) is the brightest work of revolutionary romanticism, in which one can hear a bold and open call for an uprising and confidence in its inevitable victory.

“This painting provides a brilliant example of what Romanticism can create, and at the same time makes clear what it cannot. He turns to the real, he makes his plot a scene that took place before the eyes of his contemporaries, but immediately transforms it into an abstract plane, giving it the features of an allegory. He is fascinated by bright human characters, but he gives them symbolic roles in which their living personal traits cannot fully manifest themselves. And finally, being unable to reconcile the colors real world and his own pictorial system, conventional for all its expressiveness, he involuntarily turns to the arsenal visual arts, created by his eternal enemy - classicism. Nowhere else does romanticism strive with such force to expand the sphere of its usual thoughts, images and techniques and creates a work that deservedly received the honorary name “Marseillaise of French Painting”” (E. Kozhina).

In 1832, Delacroix made a trip to Morocco, Algeria and Spain, which was crucial for the evolution of his work. Preserved in numerous drawings and watercolors vivid impressions, which he learned from his visit to the countries of the East. These impressions were expressed in paintings based on travel sketches: including “Wedding in Morocco” (1839–1841), “Sultan of Morocco” (1845), “Tiger Hunt” (1854), “Lion Hunt” (1861) and the famous "Algerian Women" (1833–1834).

Painted in broad, bold strokes, “Algerian Women” is a veritable feast of color. When E. Manet wrote “Olympia”, he recalled one of the figures of “Algerian Women”. Signac, in the Neo-Impressionist manifesto, will take "The Women of Algeria" as the main example to demonstrate further evolution French art. And P. Cezanne directly stated: “We all came out of this Delacroix.”

““Algerian women” is an image that has fabulously illuminated life, a kind of materialized utopia,” writes M.N. Prokofiev. – Let us note that the heroines of the picture are strangely identical: low forehead; oblong, kohl-rimmed eyes; eyebrows drawn to the temples; tiny baby mouth. A life reduced to physical sensuality made these women equally apathetic, unspiritual creatures. But such figurative and psychological monotony gives specific characters a generalized and even symbolic meaning. The pathos of hypertrophied passions, which previously captivated the artist, was replaced by an enthusiastic statement of the spiritual emptiness of existence, which is in the time of its most magnificent physical flowering. After all, it is “ignorance that gives them peace and happiness.”

Like all romantics, Delacroix shunned everything everyday and ordinary. He was attracted by great passions, exploits, and struggle. The tragic collision of man with the elements remained throughout his life one of the most exciting themes for the artist. These are his paintings on mythological, religious, historical topics- “The Battle of Poitiers” (1830), “The Battle of Nancy” (1831), “The Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders” (1841).

The artist's multifaceted talent manifested itself in various genres: he was, in particular, an excellent portrait painter. Delacroix was especially attracted to creative people. He painted portraits of Paganini (1831), Chopin (1838), George Sand, Berlioz, and a wonderful self-portrait (1832).

Delacroix was a master of still life, landscape, and painted interiors and animals. He is one of the last great masters wall painting. Thus, Delacroix created three monumental ensembles: the central ceiling in the Apollo Gallery in the Louvre (1850), the Peace Hall in the Paris Town Hall, two grandiose compositions in the Church of Saint-Sulpice (1861) - “The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple” and “The Battle of Jacob with the Angel” .

After traveling through Morocco and Algeria, Delacroix lived and worked almost continuously in the capital. The only exception is a short trip to Belgium (1850). The artist worked with full effort until the end of his life. Delacroix died on August 13, 1863.

Delacroix's artistic heritage is enormous. Its beautiful literary works on issues of history, art, “Diary”, which the artist kept from 1822 to 1863.

The last entry in it reads: “The first advantage of a painting is to be a feast for the eye...”

Place of Birth: Date of death: A place of death: Genre: Style:

romanticism

Works on Wikimedia Commons

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix(fr. Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix ; -) - French painter and graphic artist. Leading representative of the romantic movement of French painting.

Childhood and adolescence

Eugene Delacroix was born in a suburb of Paris on April 26, 1798. Officially, his father was considered to be Charles Delacroix, a middle-ranking official, but there were persistent rumors that in reality Eugene was the illegitimate son of the all-powerful Charles Talleyrand, Napoleonic Foreign Minister, and subsequently the head of the French delegation at the historic Congress of Vienna - 1815. Be that as it may, but the boy grew up to be a real tomboy. The artist’s childhood friend, Alexandre Dumas, recalled that “by the age of three, Eugene had already hanged himself, burned, drowned and poisoned himself.” To this phrase we need to add: Eugene almost “hanged himself” by accidentally wrapping a bag around his neck from which he fed the horses oats; “on fire” when the mosquito net over his crib caught fire; “drowned” while swimming in Bordeaux; “he was poisoned” by swallowing verdigris paint.

The years of study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand were calmer, where the boy showed great abilities in literature and painting and even received prizes for drawing and knowledge classical literature. Eugene may have inherited his artistic inclinations from his mother, Victoria, who came from a family of famous cabinetmakers, but real passion his passion for painting arose in Normandy - there he usually accompanied his uncle when he went to paint from life.

Delacroix early had to think about his future fate. His parents died when he was very young: Charles in 1805, and Victoria in 1814. Eugene was then sent to his sister. But she soon found herself in a difficult financial situation. In 1815, the young man was left to his own devices; he had to decide how to live further. And he made a choice by entering the workshop of the famous classicist Pierre, Narcisse Guerin (1774-1833). In 1816 Delacroix became a student at the School fine arts, where Guerin taught. Academicism reigned here, and Eugene wrote tirelessly plaster casts and nude models. These lessons helped the artist to perfectly master the drawing technique. But the real universities for Delacroix were the Louvre and communication with young painters Theodore Gericault and in the Louvre he became fascinated by the works of old masters. At that time, one could see there many paintings captured during Napoleonic Wars and have not yet been returned to their owners. The aspiring artist was most attracted to the great colorists - Rubens, Veronese and Titian. Boningstone, in turn, introduced Delacroix to English watercolors and the works of Shakespeare and Byron. But Theodore Gericault had the greatest influence on Delacroix.

In 1818, Géricault worked on the painting The Raft of the Medusa, which laid the foundation for French romanticism. Delacroix, posing for his friend, witnessed the birth of a composition that breaks all the usual ideas about painting. Delacroix later recalled that when he saw the finished painting, he “in delight started running like crazy and couldn’t stop all the way home.”

Delacroix and painting

Delacroix’s first painting was “Dante’s Boat” (), which he exhibited at the Salon. However, it did not cause much noise (at least similar to the furor that Gericault’s “The Raft” created). Real success came to Delacroix two years later, when he showed at the Salon his “Massacre at Chios,” which describes the horrors of Greece’s recent war for independence. Baudelaire called this painting “a terrible hymn to doom and suffering.” Many critics also accused Delacroix of being overly naturalistic. Nevertheless, the main goal was achieved: the young artist declared himself.

The next work exhibited at the Salon was called “The Death of Sardanapalus”; it was as if he was deliberately angering his detractors, almost relishing cruelty and not shying away from a certain sexuality. Delacroix borrowed the plot of the painting from Byron. “The movement is conveyed beautifully,” one critic wrote about his other, similar work, “but this picture literally screams, threatens and blasphemes.”

The last one big picture, which can be attributed to the first period of Delacroix’s work, the artist dedicated to modernity.

At the end of life

The artist was very enthusiastic about working on the frescoes. “My heart,” he wrote, “always begins to beat faster when I am left face to face with a huge wall awaiting the touch of my brush.” Delacroix's productivity decreased with age. IN

Eugene Delacroix (Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix; 1798-1863) - French painter and graphic artist, leader of the romantic movement in European painting.

Biography of Eugene Delacroix

Eugene Delacroix was born near Paris in 1798 on April 26th. It is still unknown who Eugene Delacroix’s father was. Either Charles Delacroix, a famous official, or the child was illegitimate, and the father was considered to be Charles Talleyrand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in France.

Eugene grew up as a very eccentric boy. His childhood friend was Alexandre Dumas, who wrote about Delacroix that by the age of three, he had already hanged himself, poisoned himself and burned. All this happened to Eugene Delacroix by chance, but not without his help.

I’m already studying at the Lyceum, and, having demonstrated my artistic talent, Delacroix became calmer. He even received certificates for his work, as well as for his knowledge of classical literature.

Eugene Delacroix adopted his penchant for drawing from his mother, whose name was Victoria. But it was Delacroix’s passion for painting that arose in the heart of Normandy. His uncle was an artist and often went there to paint landscapes.

The parents of the future artist died early, and Eugene at first lived with his sister until she found herself in a difficult financial situation. Here Delacroix faced a problem: how to live further? His choice was painting. He entered the workshop of Pierre Narcisse Guerin.

In 1816, Delacroix entered the School of Fine Arts, where Guerin taught. There he gained a lot of knowledge, but the real lessons for him were his visit to the Louvre, where he met Theodore Gericault and Richard Bonington, talented young painters.

Communication with young artists was beneficial for Delacroix. He developed, became more well-read, became acquainted with the works of Shakespeare, the paintings of Rubens and Titian.

Creativity of Delacroix

In 1818, Delacroix posed for Theodore Géricault while he was painting The Raft of the Medusa. It was extraordinary picture, which marked the beginning of French romanticism, and this event was witnessed by Eugene Delacroix.

In 1832, Delacroix and a group went to Morocco on a diplomatic mission. This trip played a huge role in changing the artist’s drawing style. He saw Africa, which he imagined completely differently. Having made a huge number of sketches there, they resulted in wonderful paintings upon arrival in France.

By this time, Delacroix had already begun to receive personal orders, including painting ceilings in the Louvre. For 12 years he worked for the Church of Saint-Sulpice, painting frescoes.

First great work Delacroix was presented at the Salon in 1822 (“The Bark of Dante”, Louvre). The work was purchased by the government.

In 1824 Delacroix painted "Massacre at Chios" (Louvre). The compulsion of the thematic significance as well as the colors of his work " The Death of Sardanapalus" (1827, Louvre) were heavily condemned by some critics.

His influence on art as a colorist is enormous and invaluable.

The artist was very enthusiastic about working on the frescoes.

“My heart,” he wrote, “always begins to beat faster when I am left face to face with a huge wall awaiting the touch of my brush.”

Delacroix's productivity decreased with age. In 1835 he was found to have serious illness throat, which, now subsiding, now worsening, ultimately brought him to the grave. Delacroix did not shy away public life, constantly attending various meetings, receptions and famous salons in Paris. His appearance was expected - the artist invariably shone sharp mind and was distinguished by the elegance of his costume and manners. At the same time, his private life remained hidden from prying eyes. Long years The relationship with Baroness Josephine de Forgets continued, but their romance did not culminate in a wedding.

In the 1850s, his recognition became undeniable.

In 1851, the artist was elected to the Paris city council, and in 1855 he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

In the same year it was organized personal exhibition Delacroix - as part of the Paris World Exhibition.

The artist himself was quite upset, seeing that the public knew him from his old works, and only they aroused their constant interest.

Delacroix's last painting, exhibited at the Salon of 1859, and the frescoes completed in 1861 for the Church of Saint-Sulpice went virtually unnoticed.

Delacroix entered the history of French painting as the main representative of the new romantic movement, which, from the mid-twenties of the nineteenth century, opposed itself to official academic art.
Enriching the art of painting with new means of artistic expression, Delacroix rejected the frozen linear structures of “classical” compositions, returning color to its primacy, introducing into his canvases bold dynamics and breadth of execution, directly expressing the intense inner life of his heroes.
Baudelaire, in his poem “Beacons,” wrote that “Delacroix is a lake of blood, shaded by a forest of pines, ever green, where strange sounds of fanfares like Webor pass under the gloomy sky.” And this is how he deciphers this image: “The lake of blood is the red color of his paintings, the pine forest is a green color complementary to red, the gloomy sky is the stormy background of his paintings, Vebor’s fanfare is the thoughts of romantic music that are excited by the harmony of his coloring.” .

Title: Self-portrait in Hamlet costume.
Date: 1821
Material: Canvas, oil.

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix was born on April 26, 1798 in Charenton, two miles from Paris. He was the fourth child of Victoria Delacroix, née Eben, from her marriage to Charles Delacroix, diplomat and minister plenipotentiary in the Batavian Republic. There he was at the time of the birth of his son. After returning to France, Charles Delacroix was first appointed prefect of Marseille, and then prefect of the Gironde, and he settled in Bordeaux. The whole family moved there in 1802.
In 1805, his father died, and Eugene went with his mother to Paris, where the boy was sent to the Paris Lyceum of Louis the Great. During his student years, he became interested in literature, music, and received his first drawing lessons. After graduating from the Lyceum in 1815, Eugene began studying with the portrait painter Henri François Riseneur. A year later, Riseneur introduced Eugene to his friend Guerin, and Delacroix became his student. However, staying in the workshop of a classicist - an adherent of the old academic canons - does not satisfy Eugene. He systematically visits the Louvre, studies the works of Rubens, Velazquez, Titian, and Veronese. Subsequently, the work of his classmate Gericault had a great influence on the young artist.

Title: Dante and Virgil in Hell.
Date: 1822
Painting size: 189x242 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Paris. Louvre.

Delacroix's independent professional activity began in his twenties. Exhibited in 1822 at the Louvre at the annual Salon exhibition, the painting “Dante and Virgil” gave the impression of “a meteorite falling into a stagnant swamp,” captivating with the passionate pathos of its images.

Title: Massacre on Chios.
Date: 1824
Painting size: 419x354 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Paris. Louvre.

“The Massacre at Chios,” exhibited at the Salon of 1824, is the artist’s second major work, which brought him to prominence and gave him the position of head of the young romantic school. The theme of human distress, human suffering runs through all of Delacroix’s work and is, as it were, its main leitmotif. When creating “The Massacre on Chios,” Delacroix felt that his feelings, his indignation were shared by thousands and tens of thousands of contemporaries from all walks of life. This helped him create a work of great social significance.

Name: Greece
on the ruins of Missolonghi.
Date: 1827
Painting size: 208x147 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Bordeaux. Museum of Fine Arts.

Title: Death of Sardanapalus.
Date: 1827
Painting size: 392x496 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Paris. Louvre.

At the beginning of 1825, Delacroix went to London, where he studied the works of Gainsborough and Turner. In the theater he was shocked by Shakespeare, and throughout his life he turned to the works of the great playwright: “Hamlet” (1839), “The Death of Ophelia” (1844), “Desdemona Cursed by Her Father” (1852).
Under the influence of Byron, the artist creates paintings based on the themes of his works - “Tasso in the Lunatic Asylum” (1825), “The Execution of Doge Marine Falieri” (1826), “The Death of Sardanapalus”. (1827th).
After returning from London, the artist’s palette became noticeably lighter, probably under the influence of the paintings of John Constable. The Salon of 1827 turned out to be especially important for the artist: he exhibited 12 paintings there, which earned Delacroix, against his will, the reputation of the head of the romantic school. Among them was “The Death of Sardanapalus”.

“Success or failure - it will be my fault... it seems that I will be booed,” Delacroix wrote on the day when the public was supposed to see his masterpiece. And, indeed, he will never experience such a deafening failure. Among the many critical reviews, only Hugo, and even then in private correspondence, supported the artist: “Sardanapalus by Delacroix is a magnificent thing and so gigantic that it is inaccessible to scanty vision.”

Title: Freedom on the barricades.
(Freedom leading the people)
Date: 1830
Painting size: 360x225 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Paris. Louvre.

After the revolution of 1830, the artist created his famous painting “Freedom on the Barricades”, 1831 - the brightest work of revolutionary romanticism, in which one can hear a bold and open call for an uprising, confidence in its inevitable victory.

“This painting provides a brilliant example of what Romanticism can create, and at the same time makes clear what it cannot. He turns to the real, he makes his plot a scene that took place before the eyes of his contemporaries, but immediately transforms it into an abstract plane, giving it the features of an allegory. He is fascinated by bright human characters, but he gives them symbolic roles in which their living personal traits cannot fully manifest themselves. And finally, unable to reconcile the colors of the real world and his own pictorial system, conventional for all its expressiveness, he involuntarily turns to the arsenal of visual means created by his eternal enemy - classicism. Nowhere else does romanticism strive with such force to expand the sphere of its usual thoughts, images and techniques and creates a work that deservedly received the honorary name “Marseillaise of French Painting,” writes art critic Kozhina.

Title: Algerian women.
Date: 1834
Painting size: 180x229 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Paris. Louvre.

In 1832, Delacroix made a trip to Morocco, Algeria and Spain, which was crucial for the evolution of his work. Numerous drawings and watercolors preserved the vivid impressions he gained from visiting the countries of the East. These impressions were expressed in paintings based on travel sketches: including “Wedding in Morocco” (1839-1841), “Sultan of Morocco” (1845), “Tiger Hunt” (1854- th), “The Lion Hunt” (1861) and the famous “Algerian Women” (1833-1834).
Painted in broad, bold strokes, Algerian Women is a veritable feast of color. When Edouard Manet wrote Olympia, he recalled one of the figures from Algerian Women. Signac, in his Neo-Impressionist manifesto, will take Les Femmes de Algiers as the main example to demonstrate the further evolution of French art. And Paul Cézanne directly stated: “We all came out of this Delacroix.”

Title: Capture of Constantinople
Crusaders.
Date: 1840
Painting size: 81x99 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Paris. Louvre.

Like all romantics, Delacroix shunned everything everyday and ordinary. He was attracted by great passions, exploits, and struggle. The tragic collision of man with the elements remained throughout his life one of the most exciting themes for the artist. These are his paintings on mythological, religious, historical themes - “The Battle of Poitiers” (1830), “The Battle of Nancy” (1831), “The Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders” (1841).

Title: Portrait of Frederic Chopin.
Date: 1838
Painting size: 46x38 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Paris. Louvre.

Title: Self-portrait.
Date: 1860
Painting size: 65x55 cm.
Material: Canvas, oil.
Museum: Paris. Louvre.

Delacroix was a master of still life, landscape, and painted interiors and animals. He is one of the last great masters of wall painting. Thus, Delacroix created three monumental ensembles: the central ceiling in the Apollo Gallery in the Louvre (1850), the Peace Hall in the Paris City Hall, two grandiose compositions in the Church of Saint Sulpice (1861) - “The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple” and “The Battle of Jacob” with an angel."
After traveling through Morocco and Algeria, Delacroix lived and worked almost continuously in the capital. The only exception is a short trip to Belgium in 1850. The artist worked with full effort until the end of his life. Delacroix died on August 13, 1863.
Delacroix's artistic heritage is enormous. His literary works on issues of history, art, and the “Diary”, which the artist kept from 1822 to 1863, are excellent.
The last entry in it reads: “The first advantage of the picture is to be a feast for the eye...”. Delacroix's paintings fully justified this thesis, becoming a genuine event in the history of world art.

Eugene Delacroix

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix - French painter, graphic artist, representative of French romanticism in the fine arts.

The artist was born on April 26, 1798 near Paris in the family of a French diplomat. The son of wealthy parents, Eugene received an excellent education - he graduated from the Lyceum of Louis the Great in Paris.

In 1816 - 1822 Delacroix studies in the workshop of classicist P.N. Guerin, where he became close to the founder of romanticism T. Gericault, who had a strong influence on Delacroix. In Paris, Eugene visits the Louvre, where he studies the works of old masters; he showed particular interest in the paintings of Rubens.

From the first steps of his creativity, Delacroix embarked on the path of romanticism, and soon he was already considered the recognized head of the romantic school. In 1822, the artist exhibited the composition “Dante and Virgil” (“Dante’s Boat”) at the Salon. The painting received mixed reactions from critics, but was acquired by the government. In 1824, Delacroix presented to the public the composition “The Massacre on Chios” - a grandiose canvas depicting a tragic episode from the history of Greece, which was at that time under Turkish rule.

Imbued with drama and sympathy for the plight of the people, this work sounded like a protest against cruelty and violence. The artist returned to the theme of the fight against violence and oppression in the painting “Greece on the Ruins of Missolunga.”

E. Delacroix's civic position, the vitality of his images and the unusual freshness of his painting provoked attacks from reactionary criticism. Delacroix's emerging painting system was distinguished by its novelty of techniques, richness of color, expressive brushwork, and bright contrasts of light and shadow. The artist chose subjects for his paintings, often filled with allegorical meaning.

Delacroix was a great connoisseur of the art of English landscape painters: J. Constable, J. Turner and R. Bonington. Following the example of T. Gericault, in 1825 he went to London to study paintings by old masters. There the artist attended productions of Shakespeare's plays, which was later reflected in his work (Hamlet, 1839; The Death of Ophelia, 1844).

Having listened to an opera based on Goethe’s “Faust,” Delacroix a few years later created a series of lithographic illustrations for the poem (“Mephistopheles over Wittenberg”; “Faust seducing Margaret”), which deserves praise from the author himself. In his work, the artist also turns to the works of other writers and poets: W. Scott (“The Rape of Rebecca”), J. Byron (“The Death of Sardanapalus”, “Selim and Zuleika”), etc.

In 1830, under the direct impression of the July Revolution, Delacroix created large composition“Freedom Leading the People” (“Freedom on the Barricades”). Delacroix - author of works on the themes of the Great french revolution, battle compositions on historical subjects (“Battle of Taibur”, “Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders”), religious (“Pieta”) and mythological compositions (“Medea”).

In 1832 Delacroix travels to Algeria and Morocco. Upon returning to France, based on sketches and diary entries made during this trip, he creates whole line romantically colored works reflecting the originality of eastern life, customs and characters (“Algerian women”, “Jewish bride from Tangier”, “Moroccan saddling a horse”, “Tangier fanatics”). Delacroix is the author of a number of portraits (“Self-Portrait”, “Portrait of Chopin”).

A significant place in the artist’s work occupies monumental painting. He created murals at the Bourbon Palace in Paris (1833-1847), the Peace Hall at the Paris City Hall (1851-1853), the Luxembourg Palace (1845-1847), and the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris (1849-1861). He was very enthusiastic about working on frescoes. “My heart,” Delacroix wrote, “always begins to beat faster when I remain face to face with a huge wall awaiting the touch of my brush.”