Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix led French Romantic painting against the neoclassical establishment. Born near Paris in 1798, he was officially the son of a diplomat, though Talleyrand was widely believed to have been his father and supported his career. He was orphaned at sixteen and trained under Guérin. The Barque of Dante in 1822 and the Massacre at Chios in 1824 established him. The second, on the Ottoman killing of Greek islanders, was attacked as a massacre of painting; Delacroix repainted parts of its sky after seeing Constable's landscapes at the Salon, which loosened his handling permanently. His argument with Ingres, who led the classicists, was about whether drawing or colour is the foundation of painting. Delacroix built form from colour, used visible broken strokes, and placed complementary tones side by side so that they intensify — practice the Impressionists and Signac took directly from him. Liberty Leading the People, painted in 1830 after the July Revolution, puts an allegorical figure among recognisable Parisians over a barricade of bodies. The government bought it and kept it out of sight for years. He travelled to Morocco and Algeria in 1832 with a diplomatic mission, filled seven sketchbooks, and drew on them for the rest of his life; he wrote that he had found antiquity living in the streets. He painted large decorative schemes at the Palais Bourbon, the Luxembourg and Saint-Sulpice. His journal, kept for most of his adult life, is among the most valuable documents by any painter. He was elected to the Académie only at the eighth attempt, in 1857, and died in 1863.

• Lived: 1798 CE – 1863 CE
• Nationality: French
• Roles: painter