The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5 Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World

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TJ123-8-2009 LK VWD0011 Tradition Humanistic 6th Edition W:220mm x H:292mm 175L 115 Stora Enso M/A Magenta (V)

CHAPTER 29 The Romantic Style in Art and Music 53

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Delacroix and Revolutionary Heroism

While Goya and Géricault democratized the image of
the hero, Géricault’s pupil and follower Eugène Delacroix
(1798–1863) raised that image to Byronic proportions.
A melancholic and an intellectual, Delacroix shared
Byron’s hatred of tyranny, his sense of alienation, and his
self-glorifying egotism—features readily discernible in the
pages of his journal. Delacroix prized the imagination as
“paramount” in the life of the artist. “Strange as it may seem,”
he observed,“the great majority of people are devoid of imag-
ination. Not only do they lack the keen, penetrating imagi-
nation which would allow them to see objects in a vivid
way—which would lead them, as it were, to the very root of
things—but they are equally incapable of any clear under-
standing of works in which imagination predominates.”
Delacroix loved dramatic narrative. He drew sensuous
and violent subjects from contemporary life, popular litera-
ture, and ancient and medieval history. A six-month visit
in 1831 to Morocco, neighbor of France’s newly conquered
colony of Algeria, provoked a lifelong interest in exotic

subjects and a love of light and color. He depicted the

harem women of Islamic Africa, recorded the poignant and

shocking results of the Turkish massacres in Greece,

brought to life Dante’sInferno, and made memorable illus-

trations for Goethe’sFaust(see Figure 28.5). His paintings

of human and animal combat, such asArabs Skirmishing in

the Mountains(Figure 29.5), are filled with fierce vitality.

Such works are faithful to his declaration, “I have no love

for reasonable painting.” In his journal, Delacroix defend-

ed the artist’s freedom to Romanticize form and content:

“The most sublime effects of every master,” he wrote, “are

often the result ofpictorial licence; for example, the lack of

finish in Rembrandt’s work, the exaggeration in Rubens.

Mediocre painters never have sufficient daring, they never

get beyond themselves.”

Delacroix’s landmark work, Liberty Leading the People,

transformed a contemporary event (the revolution of

1830) into a heroic allegory of the struggle for human free-

dom (see Figure 29.6). When King Charles X (1757–1836)

dissolved the French legislature and took measures to

Figure 29.5 EUGÈNE DELACROIX,
Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains,

1863. Oil on linen, 36^3 ⁄ 8  293 ⁄ 8 in. The
      composition is built on a series of
      diagonals that lead the eye from
      foreground to background so as to take
      in each aspect of the skirmish. Note
      how Delacroix has used the color red
      to reinforce dramatic movement.