Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix was a French painter and the leading figure of Romanticism in art. Born near Paris in 1798, he rebelled against the cool, controlled Neoclassical style with dramatic scenes full of movement, passion, and rich, glowing color. His famous painting Liberty Leading the People, showing a bare-breasted figure of Liberty carrying a flag over a barricade, became a lasting symbol of revolution.

He drew subjects from history, literature, and a formative trip to North Africa, which filled his later work with exotic color and light. His bold, expressive brushwork and daring use of color deeply influenced the Impressionists who followed. Delacroix kept a famous journal full of ideas about art and life, and he is remembered as one of the great imaginative forces of nineteenth century painting.