Eugene Delacroix Brief Biography
Eugene Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)
Eugene Ferdinand Victor Delacroix was born in Saint- Maurice-Charenton France in 1798 and became known as a leader of the French romantic movement. Originally studying music, Delacroix turned his attentions to painting under the tutelage of Pierre-Narcisse Guerin in Paris. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1816 and successfully exhibited his first major work at the Salon of 1822, Dante and Virgil in Hell.
Delacroix's subjects were often taken from literary works such as Shakespeare and Gothe, he painted from the poetry of Byron and created grand historical works. A visit to Morocco as part of an ambassadorial mission to the sultan inspired a leaning toward Orientalist themes. Further trips abroad to exotic places such as Spain and Tangiers furthered this passion. Toward the end of his lifetime, Delacroix was the target for much criticism and retired in seclusion though he remained greatly admired by the Impressionists of the day. Eugene Delacroix died in Paris in 1863.
Eugene Ferdinand Victor Delacroix was born in Saint- Maurice-Charenton France in 1798 and became known as a leader of the French romantic movement. Originally studying music, Delacroix turned his attentions to painting under the tutelage of Pierre-Narcisse Guerin in Paris. He enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1816 and successfully exhibited his first major work at the Salon of 1822, Dante and Virgil in Hell.
Delacroix's subjects were often taken from literary works such as Shakespeare and Gothe, he painted from the poetry of Byron and created grand historical works. A visit to Morocco as part of an ambassadorial mission to the sultan inspired a leaning toward Orientalist themes. Further trips abroad to exotic places such as Spain and Tangiers furthered this passion. Toward the end of his lifetime, Delacroix was the target for much criticism and retired in seclusion though he remained greatly admired by the Impressionists of the day. Eugene Delacroix died in Paris in 1863.
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Long Biography
Museums: Eugène Delacroix may be found at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, the Le Louvre, Paris the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina.Delacroix was born in Charenton, Val de Marne departement, in the Île de France area close to Paris, France. There's cause to think that his father, Charles Delacroix, was sterile when Eugene was conceived and that his actual father was Talleyrand. Talleyrand was an acquaintance of the family as well as heir of Charles Delacroix as minister of the foreign affairs As an adult Eugene resembled Talleyrand both in looks and personality. During his career as a artist, Delacroix was sheltered by Talleyrand, who assisted with the success of the Restoration and king Louis-Philippe.
Delacroix first training was at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand, where he immersed himself in the classics and gained honors for sketching. In 1815 he started his education with teacher Pierre-Narcisse Guerin who trained the young artist in the neoclassical style of the great artist Jacques-Louis David. A former church commission of Delacroix, The Virgin of the Harvest, shows an influence from Raphael, although a different commission of his, The Virgin of the Sacred Heart, displays a looser rendering. This work introduces added color and the full style of Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, as well as associate French painter Theodore Gericault, whose pieces are noted for being in a romanticism manner.
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Young Orphan in Cemetery
The affect of Gericault's Raft of the Medusa on Delacroix was an important one as it motivated the painter to create his initial major painting, The Barque of Dante. This piece had been exhibited at the Paris Salon in the year 1822. The painting created a stir, then was for the most part ridiculed by both public and critics, although even with the public's disdain, it was bought by the State for the Luxembourg Galleries. This occurrence set a pattern for Delacroix's artistic career. The formula of general resistance to his art, coupled with an energetic, learned patronage, would carry on during his lifetime. Two years following the initial Salon exhibit Delacroix attained favored success for the painting Massacre at Chios.
Delacroix's work of the Massacre at Chios, which is also called Massacre at Scio, depicts a line ill Greek civilians close to to be butchered by the Turks. Among numerous paintings he created relating to what wast then a current event, it carries the artist's understanding and sympathy for the Greek will in the war of independence against the Turks. Such was a common opinion in the time among French citizenry. Delacroix rapidly gained a reputation as a leading artist of this fresh Romantic design. The painting Massacre at Chios was purchased by the state. Delacroix portrayal of misery was criticized nevertheless, since his work lacked a magnificent outcome, there were no patriots lifting their swords in heroism, simply a tragedy. Numerous critics lamented the painting's hopeless feel; the painter Antoine-Jean Gros named it "a massacre of art". The deep sadness of Delacroix portrayal of an baby clinging to its dead mother's breast caused a particularly strong negative effect, with such a detail being declared as not fit for art by Delacroix critics. An exhibit of the work of John Constable would then inspire Delacroix to create wide, freely colored shifting of the sky and backdrop.
Delacroix created a following painting which endorse the Greeks in their war for independence. This painting concerned the seizure of Missolonghi by Turkish powers in 1825. Made with simple colors suitable for this particular allegory, Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi portrays a woman in Greek dress, her breast is bare and her arms are half-raised in an begging motion while she sits in front of an alarming view: the suicide of the Greeks, who preferred to kill themselves and ruin the city instead of yielding to the Turks. A hand can be viewed at the base of the painting, it is a body after having been broken by debris. The entire painting is a memorial to the citizenry of Missolonghi, as well as addresses the theme of freedom versus oppressive rein.
A journey to England in 1825 resulted in Delacroix meeting fellow artist Sir Thomas Lawrence and also Richard Bonington. Delacroix discovered the color as well as different style of English painting which allowed him the impulse of creating his sole full-length portraiture, the graceful Portrait of Louis-Auguste Schwiter. During this period Delacroix was also producing romantic pieces of multiple subjects, several of those topics would occupy him for across 30 years. By 1825 he was creating lithographs exemplifying Shakespeare, and before long lithographs and sketches from Goethe's Faust.
Delacroix's work of the Massacre at Chios, which is also called Massacre at Scio, depicts a line ill Greek civilians close to to be butchered by the Turks. Among numerous paintings he created relating to what wast then a current event, it carries the artist's understanding and sympathy for the Greek will in the war of independence against the Turks. Such was a common opinion in the time among French citizenry. Delacroix rapidly gained a reputation as a leading artist of this fresh Romantic design. The painting Massacre at Chios was purchased by the state. Delacroix portrayal of misery was criticized nevertheless, since his work lacked a magnificent outcome, there were no patriots lifting their swords in heroism, simply a tragedy. Numerous critics lamented the painting's hopeless feel; the painter Antoine-Jean Gros named it "a massacre of art". The deep sadness of Delacroix portrayal of an baby clinging to its dead mother's breast caused a particularly strong negative effect, with such a detail being declared as not fit for art by Delacroix critics. An exhibit of the work of John Constable would then inspire Delacroix to create wide, freely colored shifting of the sky and backdrop.
Delacroix created a following painting which endorse the Greeks in their war for independence. This painting concerned the seizure of Missolonghi by Turkish powers in 1825. Made with simple colors suitable for this particular allegory, Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi portrays a woman in Greek dress, her breast is bare and her arms are half-raised in an begging motion while she sits in front of an alarming view: the suicide of the Greeks, who preferred to kill themselves and ruin the city instead of yielding to the Turks. A hand can be viewed at the base of the painting, it is a body after having been broken by debris. The entire painting is a memorial to the citizenry of Missolonghi, as well as addresses the theme of freedom versus oppressive rein.
A journey to England in 1825 resulted in Delacroix meeting fellow artist Sir Thomas Lawrence and also Richard Bonington. Delacroix discovered the color as well as different style of English painting which allowed him the impulse of creating his sole full-length portraiture, the graceful Portrait of Louis-Auguste Schwiter. During this period Delacroix was also producing romantic pieces of multiple subjects, several of those topics would occupy him for across 30 years. By 1825 he was creating lithographs exemplifying Shakespeare, and before long lithographs and sketches from Goethe's Faust.
The Sultan of Morocco and his Entourage - Eugene Delacroix
These assorted romantic filaments closed in a Death of Sardanapalus. Delacroix's piece of the dying of the Assyrian ruler Sardanapalus displays an emotionally evoking panorama animated with beautiful colors, strange costumes and tragic consequences. The Death of Sardanapalus renders the surrounded king looking on impassively as guards execute his edicts to kill his servants, concubines as well as animals. The literature reference is a play of Byron's, even though the play does not specifically cite any slaughter of concubines.
Sardanapalus' posture of sedate separation is a common mannerism in Romantic imagery in this time in Europe. The piece, that was not displayed again for numerous years later, has been viewed by a few critics as a macabre fantasy regarding dying and lust. Particularly appalling is the struggle of a nude female whose throat is about to be slashed, an aspect set conspicuously in the front for greatest affect. Nevertheless, the aesthetic beauty and exotic colors of the piece allow the painting seem beautiful and appalling at the equivalent time.
A mixture of Romantic pursuits were once again blended in The Murder of the Bishop of Liege. It likewise adopted from a literature reference, this time Scott, which pictures a scene out of the Middle Ages, that of the execution of Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liege among an orgy held by his capturer, William de la Marck. Placed in an huge domed interior which Delacroix founded on drawings of the Palais de Justice in Rouen as well as Westminster Hall, the dramatic event maneuvers in chiaroscuro, orchestrated around a brightly lit length of tablecloth. In 1855 a critic reported the painting's spirited treatment as "Less finished than a painting, more finished than a sketch, The Murder of the Bishop of Liege was left by the painter at that supreme moment when one more stroke of the brush would have ruined everything".
Delacroix's most prestigious art occurred in 1830 with the piece Liberty Leading the People, that for selection of theme and method accents the departures from the romantic technique and the neoclassical genre. Plausibly Delacroix's most known piece, it is an lingering image of Parisians, after taken up arms, marching forth beneath the banner of tricolor symbolizing liberty as well as freedom; Delacroix was prompted by modern issues to conjure up the romantic picture of the spirit of liberty. The soldiers lying lifeless in the front provide affecting contrast to the representative female form, who is lighted triumphantly, as if in a spotlight.
The French authorities purchased the painting however officials viewed its idealization of liberty overly inflammatory and withdrew it from public sight. Nevertheless, Delacroix continued to accepted several government commissions for wall and ceiling paintings. He appears to have been attempting to exemplify the spirit and the fiber of the people, instead of exalt the genuine event, a revolution against King Charles X that did no more than earn another king, Louis-Philippe, power. After the Revolution of 1848 which assured the conclusion of the rule of King Louis Philippe, Delacroix piece, Liberty Leading the People, was at long last put on exhibit by the recently appointed President, Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III.) Presently, it is available in the Louvre museum.
In 1832, he went to Spain as well as North Africa, as a function of a diplomatic delegacy to Morocco not long following the French seized Algeria. He went not principally to examine art, as well as to get away from the culture of Paris, in hopes of encountering a more crude culture. He at length created over 100 artworks and sketches of scenes from or founded on the life of the citizenry of North Africa, and brought a novel and individualized chapter to the pastime in Orientalism. Delacroix was enamored by the people and the dress, and the journey proved to provide the content of a great deal of his succeeding paintings. He thought that the North Africans, in their garb as well as their attitudes, allowed for a visual equal to the populate of classic Rome and Greece.
Sardanapalus' posture of sedate separation is a common mannerism in Romantic imagery in this time in Europe. The piece, that was not displayed again for numerous years later, has been viewed by a few critics as a macabre fantasy regarding dying and lust. Particularly appalling is the struggle of a nude female whose throat is about to be slashed, an aspect set conspicuously in the front for greatest affect. Nevertheless, the aesthetic beauty and exotic colors of the piece allow the painting seem beautiful and appalling at the equivalent time.
A mixture of Romantic pursuits were once again blended in The Murder of the Bishop of Liege. It likewise adopted from a literature reference, this time Scott, which pictures a scene out of the Middle Ages, that of the execution of Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liege among an orgy held by his capturer, William de la Marck. Placed in an huge domed interior which Delacroix founded on drawings of the Palais de Justice in Rouen as well as Westminster Hall, the dramatic event maneuvers in chiaroscuro, orchestrated around a brightly lit length of tablecloth. In 1855 a critic reported the painting's spirited treatment as "Less finished than a painting, more finished than a sketch, The Murder of the Bishop of Liege was left by the painter at that supreme moment when one more stroke of the brush would have ruined everything".
Delacroix's most prestigious art occurred in 1830 with the piece Liberty Leading the People, that for selection of theme and method accents the departures from the romantic technique and the neoclassical genre. Plausibly Delacroix's most known piece, it is an lingering image of Parisians, after taken up arms, marching forth beneath the banner of tricolor symbolizing liberty as well as freedom; Delacroix was prompted by modern issues to conjure up the romantic picture of the spirit of liberty. The soldiers lying lifeless in the front provide affecting contrast to the representative female form, who is lighted triumphantly, as if in a spotlight.
The French authorities purchased the painting however officials viewed its idealization of liberty overly inflammatory and withdrew it from public sight. Nevertheless, Delacroix continued to accepted several government commissions for wall and ceiling paintings. He appears to have been attempting to exemplify the spirit and the fiber of the people, instead of exalt the genuine event, a revolution against King Charles X that did no more than earn another king, Louis-Philippe, power. After the Revolution of 1848 which assured the conclusion of the rule of King Louis Philippe, Delacroix piece, Liberty Leading the People, was at long last put on exhibit by the recently appointed President, Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III.) Presently, it is available in the Louvre museum.
In 1832, he went to Spain as well as North Africa, as a function of a diplomatic delegacy to Morocco not long following the French seized Algeria. He went not principally to examine art, as well as to get away from the culture of Paris, in hopes of encountering a more crude culture. He at length created over 100 artworks and sketches of scenes from or founded on the life of the citizenry of North Africa, and brought a novel and individualized chapter to the pastime in Orientalism. Delacroix was enamored by the people and the dress, and the journey proved to provide the content of a great deal of his succeeding paintings. He thought that the North Africans, in their garb as well as their attitudes, allowed for a visual equal to the populate of classic Rome and Greece.
Women of Algiers in their Apartment - Eugene Delacroix
Delacroix carried off the difficult task of drawing a few adult females while in Algiers,a task which he was required to do in secret. These women can be seen in the art work Women of Algiers in their Apartment, however normally he had difficulty when attempting to find Muslim women to sit for him as a result of of Muslim decrees demanding women be shrouded. Fewer problems were encountered with the painting of Jewish women of North Africa.
When in Tangier he created numerous drawings of the residents as well as the city, studies that he would come back to until the last of his lifetime. Animals, which were the incarnation of romantic passions, have been integrated into work such as Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable, The Lion Hunt.
During the 1838 Paris Salon, Delacroix exhibited the painting Medea about to Kill Her Children. The work instantly caused a sensation. This had been the artist's initial large sized handling of a theme out of Greek mythology, and the painting portrays Medea clinging to her children, dagger pulled out to kill them in retribution for her desertion of Jason. The three unclothed figures create a living pyramid, in a creased lighting that infiltrates the darker nook where Medea is concealed. Although the painting had been promptly bought by the State, Delacroix had been frustrated once it was transported to the Lille Musee des Beaux-Arts; he had thought for it to be displayed in the Luxembourg, a place it might have been brought together with his other work, the painting The Barque of Dante and Scenes from the Massacres of Chios.
By 1833 Delacroix obtained several commissions for art work in public buildings of Paris. During this year he started work at the Salon du Roi in the Chambre des Deputes that was not finished until 1837. Over the succeeding decade he worked in both the Library at the Palais Bourbon as well as the Library at the Palais du Luxembourg. Such commissions provided him the chance to paint on a large scale in an architectural background, in the manner of the masters he looked up to, Paolo Veronese, Tintoretto as well as Rubens.
The large scale mural work had been tiring, and so throughout these years he endured a progressively frail constitution. Delacroix kept a house in Parisas well as a little cottage in Champrosay, a place he could enjoy the reprieve of the countryside. From 1834 until the point of his death, Delacroix had been loyally cared for by his housekeeper, Jeanne-Marie le Guillou. The housekeeper sternly defended the artist's privacy, and her devotedness extended Delacroix lifespan as well as his power to go forward with his work in final years. Eugene Delacroix died in Paris, France and has been buried in the Paris Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
When in Tangier he created numerous drawings of the residents as well as the city, studies that he would come back to until the last of his lifetime. Animals, which were the incarnation of romantic passions, have been integrated into work such as Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable, The Lion Hunt.
During the 1838 Paris Salon, Delacroix exhibited the painting Medea about to Kill Her Children. The work instantly caused a sensation. This had been the artist's initial large sized handling of a theme out of Greek mythology, and the painting portrays Medea clinging to her children, dagger pulled out to kill them in retribution for her desertion of Jason. The three unclothed figures create a living pyramid, in a creased lighting that infiltrates the darker nook where Medea is concealed. Although the painting had been promptly bought by the State, Delacroix had been frustrated once it was transported to the Lille Musee des Beaux-Arts; he had thought for it to be displayed in the Luxembourg, a place it might have been brought together with his other work, the painting The Barque of Dante and Scenes from the Massacres of Chios.
By 1833 Delacroix obtained several commissions for art work in public buildings of Paris. During this year he started work at the Salon du Roi in the Chambre des Deputes that was not finished until 1837. Over the succeeding decade he worked in both the Library at the Palais Bourbon as well as the Library at the Palais du Luxembourg. Such commissions provided him the chance to paint on a large scale in an architectural background, in the manner of the masters he looked up to, Paolo Veronese, Tintoretto as well as Rubens.
The large scale mural work had been tiring, and so throughout these years he endured a progressively frail constitution. Delacroix kept a house in Parisas well as a little cottage in Champrosay, a place he could enjoy the reprieve of the countryside. From 1834 until the point of his death, Delacroix had been loyally cared for by his housekeeper, Jeanne-Marie le Guillou. The housekeeper sternly defended the artist's privacy, and her devotedness extended Delacroix lifespan as well as his power to go forward with his work in final years. Eugene Delacroix died in Paris, France and has been buried in the Paris Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
The Bride of Abydos - Eugene Delacroix
Eugene Delacroix Selected Paintings
- A Mad Woman c. 1822- A Mortally Wounded Brigand Quenches his Thirst c. 1825
- A Vase of Flowers on a Console 1848-50
- A Young Tiger Playing with its Mother 1830
- Algerian Women in Their Apartments 1834
- Andromeda c. 1852
- Apollo Slays Python 1850-51
- Arab Horseman Attacked by a Lion 1849-50
- Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable 1860
- Arab Saddling his Horse 1855
- Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains 1863
- Aspasia c. 1824
- Attila and his Hordes Overrun Italy and the Arts 1843-47
- Christ on the Cross (sketch) 1845
- Christ on the Lake of Gennezaret 1854
- Cleopatra and the Peasant 1838
- Combat of Giaour and Hassan 1826
- Combat of the Giaour and the Pasha 1835
- Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople on 12 April 1204 1840
- Fanatics of Tangier 1837-38
- Female Nude Reclining on a Divan 1825-26
- Frederic Chopin 1838
- George Sand 1838
- Girl Seated in a Cemetery 1824
- Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi 1826
- Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard 1839
- Heliodoros Driven from the Temple 1854-61
1854-61
- Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (detail) 1854-61
- Justice (detail) 1833-37
- Justice (detail) 1833-37
- Liberty Leading the People (28th July 1830) 1830
- Lion Hunt 1854
- Louis d'Orleans Showing his Mistress 1825-26
- Louis-Auguste Schwiter 1826-27
- Marocan and his Horse
- Medea about to Kill her Children 1838
- Michelangelo in his Studio 1849-50
- Mlle Rose 1817-20
- Odalisque 1857
- Odalisque Reclining on a Divan 1827-28
- Ovid Among the Scythians
- Pieta c. 1850
- Self-Portrait c. 1837
- Self-Portrait as Ravenswood 1821
- Shipwreck of Don Juan 1840
- Sketch for Peace Descends to Earth 1852
- St Michael defeats the Devil 1854-61
- Still Life with Lobsters 1826-27
- Still-Life with Lobster 1826-27
- Tasso in the Madhouse 1839
- The Abduction of Rebecca 1858
- The Abduction of Rebecca 1846
- The Barque of Dante 1822
- The Battle of Taillebourg 1834-35
- The Bride of Abydos 1857
- The Death of Sardanapalus 1827
- The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople 1840
- The Execution of Doge Marino Faliero 1825-26
- The Fanatics of Tangier 1837-38
- The Massacre at Chios 1824
- The Natchez 1823-35
- The Sea from the Heights of Dieppe 1852
- The Sea of Galilee
- The Sultan of Morocco and his Entourage 1845
- The Women of Algiers (detail) 1834
- The Women of Algiers 1834
- War 1833-37
- Woman with a Parrot 1827
Pieta - Eugene Delacroix
Odalisque - Eugene Delacroix
Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard - Eugene Delacroix
Cleopatra and the Peasant - Eugene Delacroix
Christ on the Lake of Gennezare - Eugene Delacroix
Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable - Eugene Delacroix
A Moroccan Saddling A Horse - Eugene Delacroix
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- julcal julcal Mar 19, 2009 @ 4:55 pm
- This is fabulous art - thank you so much for this lens! 5*
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- Tracey_M Tracey_M Jan 28, 2009 @ 3:31 am
- Amazingly well put together lens. 5* for a great read.
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- rydigga rydigga Jan 24, 2009 @ 9:45 pm
- Hi, Excellent lens with beautiful imagery. Thanks for sharing.
Ryan
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- papawu papawu Jan 16, 2009 @ 1:15 pm
- Although I have visited the Getty Museum on a number of occasions over the years, I can't say that I know anything about Delacroix or his work. My parents are the fine art aficionados of the family, but not I. However, I must say that something about the "Young orphan in cemetery" moved me. I can almost feel her fear and curiosity. It's like she senses something and can't quite place it. Well done and very informative.
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- Spook Spook Nov 17, 2008 @ 8:50 am
- Very interesting lens, well done.
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- d-artist d-artist Nov 15, 2008 @ 7:08 am
- I love Delacroix's paintings, I have several books on him...5*
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