| Delacroix, Eugene (1798-1863) Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school
Born near Paris in 1798 into a distinguished artistic family, Eugene Delacroix had a classical education until age 17, when, he was apprenticed to the history painter Antoine-Jean Gros. Working mainly in Paris, Delacroix exhibited in 1822 in the Paris Salon to great critical acclaim, and in 1830 was appointed head of architectural decoration for the city of Paris. In 1832 Delacroix traveled in North Africa and Spain which influenced him to produce paintings that are exuberant and lush. In 1833 he received a commission to paint a group of murals at the Palais Bourbon and he spent the later part of his life painting large decorations in palaces, churches and government buildings.
Delacroix is the most important of the French Romantic painters in the tradition of Michelangelo and Rubens. He was celebrated in his lifetime for daring subjects that are often highly political and violent, and for the use of expressive color that influenced later painters, notably the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in the nineteenth century and Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso in the twentieth century. Delacroixs paintings and drawings do not literally describe the observed world, but rather, address emotional and sensory subjects. |
