| Ferdinand-Victor-Eugene
Delacroix (1798-1863) is regarded as the greatest French Romantic painter.
His use of color was influential in the development of both Impressionist
and Postimpressionist painters. His inspiration came chiefly from historical
or contemporary events or literature, and a visit to Morocco. In 1815 he
became the pupil of the French painter Pierre-Narcisse Guerin and began
a career that would produce more than 850 works. In 1822 Delacroix submitted
his first picture to the important Paris Salon exhibition: Dante and
Virgil in Hell. His next Salon entry was in 1824: Massacre at Chios.
With great vividness of color and strong emotion, it pictured an incident
in which 20,000 Greeks were killed by Turks on the island of Chios. The
French revolution of 1830 inspired the famous Liberty Guiding the People,
which was the last of Delacroix's paintings that truly embodied the romantic
ideal. |
