He wrote obscene letters and considered Dominique Engrès his sworn enemy. What was Eugène Delacroix like in life?

French artist Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) was a personality quite peculiar, versatile and contradictory, not by chance his friends said that he resembles a volcano, the vent of which is masked by trees. And it is unknown when Delacroix will run out of patience and he will give vent to his anger or violent passion. About what was Delacroix in ordinary life, and we will talk in this article.

Self-portrait in green vest

Delacroix loved going to the zoo and did it almost daily. He would stop near the cages with lions and tigers and stare at them for long periods of time, bewildering other visitors and employees of the menagerie.

Atiger attacks a young woman

And they did not even think that it is necessary for him to work - animals artists then wrote as God would put on his soul from plaster casts, in the most general features, and about the scientific accuracy could not be out of the question, so that such an obsession Delacroix predators no one in anyone's head did not fit. But Delacroix treated his work somewhat differently, and with predators he felt some connection, as Indians honor their totem animals.

A lion eating a rabbit

And he also jealously followed every arrival of a new animal in the menagerie, and if in the menagerie ever died a lion or a tiger, Delacroix thanked heaven, threw all the cases and went there as quickly as possible to capture the moment when the predator will begin to remove the skin. Then it was possible to see the open muscles of the predator and to write an ecorchet - their preliminary sketch, which later became the basis for numerous paintings of tigers tormenting horses and lions hunting.

Hunting for lions

But the children Delacroix did not like, as if he did not have the mental strength to communicate with them. He sincerely believed that children are completely uncontrollable, can spoil all his paintings and leave without means of subsistence.

Medea

By the way, Delacroix in general quite peculiar attitude to the various pleasures and gradually their list of all time reduced - first disappeared booze and cigarettes, and after long nights out with friends Delacroix barked at himself for aimlessly wasted time, which can be spent more rationally - exclusively on painting.

Mademoiselle Rose

Gradually he gave up even novels with models and "decent" ladies, although he himself was a man passionate and in love. Remained only work and not too burdensome communication with friends, which Delacroix had a lot, good conversationalist he was wonderful.

But at the same time Delacroix preferred to communicate with fierce opponents to be able to argue enough and express their views on art, philosophy and generally on life. However, in disputes, unlike the furious Caravaggio, did not go too far, if the case could end up with a square swearing, he took a short break, collected his thoughts and gave irrefutable arguments, against which it was simply stupid to object.

Freedom leading the people.

Delacroix fell madly in love with a lady truly unremarkable - Josephine de Forge. She once helped her father General de La Valette, who had imprudently joined Napoleon during his hundred-day return to power and was sentenced to death. Twelve-year-old Josephine and her mother managed to organize an escape worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. They came to say goodbye to their loved one for the last time, and when the guards left them alone, thinking that no meanness should be expected from women, de Valette changed into a woman's dress and walked out of the prison with his daughter in his arms.

Orphan in the cemetery

So it is not surprising that already at a ripe age Josephine was a lady independent, courageous, independent, wealthy, adored painting and fell madly in love with Delacroix. Their romance was then passionate and furious, then tender and balanced, as in lived many years of spouses. And Delacroix often wrote letters to Josephine, even the most decent excerpts of which can give a hundred points forehand any erotic literature.

The Death of Sardanapalus

Delacroix also openly hated the classicist painter Dominique Engr and considered his enemy. However, Engr himself treated him no better. They were two geniuses who simply became crowded in Paris. One day Engr at a major dinner party could not stand it and approached Delacroix. "In an orderly drawing - the essence of painting, and you sow chaos" and added chaos himself, splashing coffee on Delacroix's shirt. Good thing it didn't turn into a duel.

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