Everything about Liberty Leading The People totally explained
Liberty Leading the People is a painting by
Eugène Delacroix commemorating the
July Revolution of 1830, which toppled
Charles X. A woman personifying
Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the
tricolore flag of the
French Revolution in one hand and brandishing a
bayonetted musket with the other.
Painting
Delacroix painted his work in the autumn of 1830. In a letter to his brother dated 12 October, he wrote: "My bad mood is vanishing thanks to hard work. I’ve embarked on a modern subject – a
barricade. And if I haven’t fought for my country at least I’ll paint for her." The painting was first exhibited at the official
Salon of May 1831. Delacroix rejected the norms of
Academicism in favor of
Romanticism.
He depicted Liberty, personified by
Marianne, symbol of the nation, as both an
allegorical goddess-figure and a robust woman of the people, an approach that contemporary critics denounced as "ignoble". The mound of corpses acts as a kind of
pedestal from which Liberty strides, barefoot and bare-breasted, out of the canvas and into the space of the viewer. The
Phrygian cap she wears had come to symbolise liberty during the
French Revolution of 1789.
The fighters are from a mixture of a classes, ranging from the
bourgeoisie, represented by the young man in a
top hat, who is said to be
Delacroix himself, to the lower classes, as exemplified by the boy holding pistols (believed to be the inspiration for the character
Gavroche in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables). What they've in common is the fierceness and determination in their eyes. Aside from the flag held by Liberty, a second, minute
tricolore can be discerned in the distance flying from the towers of
Notre Dame.
The identity of the man in the top hat has been widely debated. The suggestion that it was a self-portrait by Delacroix has been discounted by modern art historians . In the late 19th century, it was suggested the model was the theatre director
Etienne Arago, but there's no firm consensus on this point.
Political use
The French government bought the painting for 3,000
francs with the intention of displaying it in the throne room of the
Palais du Luxembourg as a reminder to the "citizen-king"
Louis-Philippe of the July Revolution, through which he'd come to power. This plan didn't come to fruition and the canvas was hung in the Palace museum for a few months before being taken down for its inflammatory political message. Delacroix was permitted to send the painting to his aunt Felicité for safekeeping. It was exhibited briefly in 1848 and then in the
Salon of
1855. In 1874, the painting entered the
Louvre.
Legacy
The posture (though not the attire) of the figure in the painting suggests that of the
Statue of Liberty, designed by French sculptor
Frédéric Bartholdi in the 1880s.
An engraved version of this painting, along with a depiction of Delacroix himself, was featured on the 100-franc note in the early
1990s.
The British rock group
Coldplay used Delacroix's painting as part of the artwork for their fourth album,
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Liberty Leading The People'.
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