Was in demand under all regimes. Eugène Delacroix and his impressive paintings

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) — French painter, recognized by many art critics as the most influential representative of Romanticism.

Delacroix made a real revolution in painting, he began to write scenes from modern life, not fixated on the strict genre canons of classicism. Incarnated on the canvas and literary subjects, not only Greek myths and scenes from the Bible. Yes, and paintings were painted with visible strokes, they were more saturated in color than it was customary in classicism, and strokes and color palette were important elements of the canvas, determine its meaning and mood, like composition, gestures and plot.

The Massacre at Chios (1824)

Delacroix always painted in a very hot heated art studio, and wrapped a scarf around his neck. At one time in his youth, he thoroughly caught a cold and now he often had a sore throat. However, during the work he forgot about everything, the brush flew over the stretched canvas, on it gradually appeared the outlines of the next masterpiece, and outside, despite the cold chilly winter weather - even in Paris in winter at that time it was cool, two young men watched him through the window with delight. His work instilled in them delight and admiration, they carefully scrutinize every gesture of the great artist and even specially rented for decent money a shabby room next to his studio to be able to follow the work of Eugène Delacroix. The young men are ambitious, they dream of conquering Paris, exhibiting their paintings at the Paris Salon, and their names are Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir.

Self-portrait, 1837.

Eugène Delacroix came from an influential and wealthy family, his father once served as French Foreign Minister, then Ambassador. His position as minister was taken by Talleyrand, and this deft politician and diplomat, who managed to keep his enviable position in three political regimes, often visited Delacroix. But not only for the sake of socializing with the former minister and the opportunity to have a good dinner. There is an opinion that Eugène was the illegitimate son of Talleyrand, but Eugène himself never gave reason to believe so, and never mentioned it. He sincerely loved his father - a man of integrity, honest, open, intelligent and incorruptible, almost the opposite of Talleyrand. It is a pity only that he died early - when the son was 7 years old.

Eugene was a boy nervous and emotional, often got into various troubles, and he also liked to deeply thoughtful look to inform adults alphabetical truths, which they already knew perfectly well. He was like the teacher Ippolit Ippolitovich from Anton Chekhov's story, who told everyone that “the Volga flows into the Caspian Sea.

When he grew up, he began to study at the Imperial Lyceum on full board, as his mother could pay for such education. There he began every morning with news about the next victories of Napoleon Bonaparte, studied Latin and Greek, the basics of mathematics. But most of all loved Delacroix to draw, although then and did not think to become an artist, unlike many other painters, already from childhood and adolescence determined his life path, such as, for example, Vasily Tropinin. And also Delacroix there learned to value above all his own honor and friendship, which were considered the highest value.

Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable, 1860

In 1814 in France, the Allied army captured Paris, Napoleon was forced to abdicate the throne and the entire former French elite, to which Eugène Delacroix's father belonged, was in disgrace. If he were alive, he would probably be exiled, or even executed, but Charles Delacroix had long since died, and therefore the family Eugène simply impoverished and lost most of his fortune and influence. Eugène's mother died a few months later after such a thing, and at the age of 15 he was left a complete orphan.

Eugène began to live with his married older sister and there he learned to carefully calculate his meager finances, always look elegant even in an old suit, climbing at night into the bedroom of the maid, drawing cartoons for French newspapers to earn a little money. He began to learn from the French artist Guerin and often traveled from his sister to his studio. From such trips made regardless of the weather outside, he constantly caught a cold and eventually thoroughly chilled his throat.

Life Delacroix was not easy, multifaceted and rich. He had many victories, but there were also failures. Already the first presented by him at the Paris Salon painting “The Barque of Dante” was awarded a gold medal, although even then some critics scornfully wrote: “a weak imitation of Rubens, written as if drunken broom".

The Barque of Dante (1822)

However, dissatisfied with the creativity Delacroix had always - he became an innovator, the destroyer of stereotypes, and any innovation some conservatives are always perceived in the bayonet. But along with the gold medal Delacroix was awarded and 2 thousand francs and the need was over.

But when he took it upon himself to present the painting “The Death of Sardanapalus", the art critics were very dissatisfied - how could you write in the foreground of a naked girl, desperately trying to save her life in the hands of a cruel killer?

The Death of Sardanapalus (1827)

For that time it was nonsense, unprecedented scandal, Delacroix was accused of admiration for shameless naked bodies and cruelty. Although he achieved his goal - his paintings attracted attention, and any artist will say that it is better scandalous fame than no fame at all and complete indifference.

In 1830 in France there was a July revolution, and much has changed. For Delacroix, the changes were for the better, the former disgrace fell, and he, inspired by the new revolutionary sentiment writes the famous painting “Liberty Leading the People”.

Liberty Leading the People (1830)

It is by this painting that many people know this artist, although he has many outstanding paintings, but due to its revolutionary orientation in the Soviet Union it was very popular despite the naked female breasts. Liberty itself is an allegorical image, Delacroix wrote it in the form of a young and beautiful woman in a Jacobin cap, leading the people through the barricades.

And then there was a trip to Morocco, from where he brought unforgettable impressions of a completely different country and another culture - unusual, exotic, tantalizing for the artist. Bright colors, interesting images, in Morocco Delacroix makes a lot of sketches, and already back in France, continued to work on them, creating on their motives and his memories of amazing paintings, which for 10 years exhibited at the Paris Salon.

The Women of Algiers, 1834

His fame grew, and Delacroix was invited to paint the famous French palaces - the Louvre, Luxembourg and Bourbon. He painted many walls and ceilings, but this work was not for him a torment, as for Michelangelo during the painting of the Sistine Chapel, it brought joy and satisfaction. More than painting walls and ceilings Delacroix loved talking and socializing with friends. He had a lot of them, with an interesting interlocutor he could go all night long, leading a leisurely conversation, and then resting, again climbed on the scaffolding, to paint another wall or ceiling.

Odalisque

During the Second French Republic, Delacroix, fatally tired of social upheaval and having lost all his revolutionary fervor, will leave Paris. Will grow grapes in his small estate, make wine and quietly live out his age. And for good reason - few artists have not destroyed more paintings during the next regime change than Eugène Delacroix.

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