Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix

Delacroix began painting at a young age. He distance himself from the influences of old paradigms and emulated Renaissance paintings where he avoided classical art and appreciated the use of full colors and movements in his paintings while disregarding line perfections. Liberty leading the people is a perfect example of his unique style commemorating the French Revolution. The revolution was against the autocratic and despotic French monarchs who plunged France into a state of despair and chaos. There was unemployment, mismanagement and hunger and through the representation of the woman in the painting, there is a portrayal of liberty. The painting was never a representation of real events, but rather an allegory of freedom. It is not likely that a barefooted half-naked woman could take lead of an appraisal, but through the painting, she holds the banner for fraternity, equality and liberty.

He uses exotic costumes, beautiful colors and tragic events to display romanticism effects. These create a romantic imagery creating a combination of anguish and fantasy in the manner of displaying a half-naked woman as the leader of a revolutionary process. The presentation of the struggles of those who joined the revolution, the murdered and those ones fighting in the war get consumed in the allure of the beauty of the woman with her exotic colors, sensuous beauty and the twist in her dress. This display draws attention to her in a composition that helps the viewers of the painting to forget the rage of the murders from the kings troops. This romantic feel makes the picture shocking and pleasing (Gardner & Kleiner, 2010).

This painter did much in the presentation of the revolutionary moods in France. He did paintings, which depicted the French rebellions and the upheavals of political desires for the overthrowing the monarch reigns. Delacroix uses the female figure to display romanticism in his paintings. His paining if full of emotions showing instances of anger, heroism and despair centralizing his portrayal of French Romanticism characteristics. He carefully creates interactions of dark shadows and bright reflections creating vivid contrasts, which give the effects of rapid fireworks showing a sense of energy and movement.  The spinning of her drapery by the wind through her hips, the exposure of her breasts, shows that the painting is not human but a representation of something significant to the society affecting the presentation of people. She represents democracy and its representation through partial nudity. The painting also shows the dysfunctions of class and the manner in, which democracy unites people of all classes aristocratically. It also creates pure propaganda of the atrocities done through the high handedness of the kings’ troops, where they killed people mindlessly (Fallon & Williams, 2008).

The tricolor presentation of liberty, fraternity and equality is through contemporary invocation of romantic event images and the determination for liberation. The soldiers on the foreground are a poignant counterpoint of the female figure symbolizing determination of the illumination of triumphant emergence of the French Revolution. The painting of Liberty represented the spirit the people had and the character instilled in them through the need for rebellion against the atrocities of the monarchs. Instead of glorification of the revolution event, Liberty Leading the People invokes a mockery of the actual events, which took place and the character of the people who led to the provocation for the revolution.

References

Fallon, S., & Williams, N. (2008). Paris city guide. Footscray, Vic., Australia: Lonely Planet   Publications.

Gardner, H., & Kleiner, F. S. (2010). Gardner’s art through the ages: The Western perspective.     Boston, Mass.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.