Wong Wai Kwan talks on Eugéne Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People, 1830

Eugéne Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People, 1830, Oil on canvas(combined by 3 parts of canvas); 8ft. 6in. x 10ft. 7in. ;Louvre, Paris.

• an explanation of how the work fits into a broader style or movement (eg Realism) and the specific historical context (eg the mid 19^th century in France)

In the “Liberty Leading the People”, we can see there are thick brushstrokes, unobvious background, and the contemporary content(refers to the revolution of July 1830, France people uprising against the Bourbon king Charles X). Here we cannot found the order, smooth and clarity that emphasizes by the Neo-classicism, and there seems not to have any classical virtues meanings to express here. Nevertheless, we can still found dense individuality here, it exaggerating the emotion by the movement, color and facial expression; the postures of the figures are rich in motion, that likes communicating to the viewers, they like march directly towards us. Therefore we can considering this painting as a Romanticism work.

• A description of the work

The key figure of “Liberty Leading the People” of course is the “Liberty Goddess” in the centre. She bared the foots and breasts, taking a gun by the left hand, and carrying the tricolor flag (the red, white and blue French flag, which means Liberty, equality, fraternity). She step on the dead bodies, stand at the front and leads the rebels forward. The hat that she wears was the Phrygian hat, which symbolizes the liberty during first French revolution. The Liberty and the bodies under her forms a pyramidal composition, and the flag held by the Liberty forms the apex. As the painting named the woman here as “Liberty”, Delacroix was seems willing to represent the goddess as a new style. We can still found some classic goddess features on her, like the bare breast, smooth and white body. However, in this painting she was not too match as a classical goddess, more likely as a village woman with untied hair, dirty face. Nevertheless, the Liberty still interpret the passion of the peoples within the revolution very well.

And the characters surrounding the Liberty are the representative of the different social class. The three men at the left, there are some categories of worker: the factory worker (the man with the saber); higher up in the social hierarchy (the man with the gun, we often considered as a middle class or a student) ; and the worker from the country (the man kneeling at Liberty’s feet). We can still found that almost those people’s weapon and equipments are from the king’s guards, like the saber the man carries, and the bag that the child carries.

The color tone used here was exactly white, blue and red. The white smoke appear almost full of the background, and it symbolized as the political emergence from the shackles of tyranny; and blue was repeating on the sky, clothes of the peoples; red is the sharpest color on the flag, Liberty’s belt and some accessories of other peoples. As I mention before, those colors represents Liberty, equality, fraternity. It appears since Napoleon’s period, it was the core thinks of the France republic, but it disappears after Napoleon’s government falls, it was not the national flag at that time. Now it carry out again by Delacroix, that reflects he really wants Liberty, and hopes there is a people like Liberty goddess can lead them towards the real liberty by a right way.

• one key quote about the work in question

“In the case of Liberty Leading the People, the question is reduced to fundamentals: the canvas is obviously symbolic and clearly charged with meaning; how then does it reflect the political opinions of Delacroix?”

Jobert, B. (1998). Delacroix. Newjersy: Princeton University Press.P.128

• why this work interests you/ your own opinion of the work

This work was the most deep impression artwork for me. Since I was a secondary school student, I have seen it on the history text book. I was totally impressed by the dense Warfield atmosphere and the passion of the peoples. Delacroix really did a great job that interprets the brave heart of the peoples during the revolution, they are not afraid of death, and to be the frontline, even the woman. Moreover, I really appreciate of the reaction it made to the viewers, it make us have an illusion like a dead body was lying in front of me, and the peoples are marching towards me. It really influence the viewers, make them feel what Delacroix feels (according to Alexandre Dumas ‘s word, Delacroix was terribly afraid). I guess that Delacroix didn’t agree this revolution at all, he depicts the French people as a “Mob”, we cannot imagine that they use their hammer, knife, and hoe to fight against the solders. They fight against the king through robbing the army, even take the pants of the dead body on the bottom of the painting. It may reflect Delacroix do not totally agree the way of revolution, at least he was partly mocking the citizens. However, It was still one of the representative artwork of Romanticism with no doubt.

• names of authors, titles of articles, books or websites (and publication information) that are especially relevant to this work

1.           Jobert, B. (1998). Delacroix. Newjersy: Princeton University Press.

2.           BBC – The Private Life of a Masterpiece – Part 3: Masterpieces 1800-1850 (2004)

3.           Laurie Schneider-Adams, Art Across Time, Vol II, 2^nd edition (Boston: McGraw Hill College, 2002)

• a thought-provoking question about the work for the class

Does, Delacroix misrepresent the Liberty goddess to be a dirty village woman, or he really made a success of creating a contemporary goddess image? Why?