Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix [ø.ʒɛn də.la.kʁwa] (b. April 26, 1798 in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, Paris; † August 13, 1863 in Paris) was a French painter. He is considered a pioneer of Impressionism because of the vividness of his imagination and because of his generous use of color, and he exhibited paintings annually at the Paris Salon whose passionate subjects caused a sensation and not infrequently shocked.
Although Delacroix's works are classified as part of the French late Romantic movement, he refused to be included in the popular current of the Romantic school. He became the model for many Impressionists, who resolutely distinguished themselves from the Romantic school and Classicism.
Eugène Delacroix's Life
Delacroix's mother Victoire Œben (1758-1814) came from the Oeben family of cabinetmakers, and his father Charles-François Delacroix was a member of the revolutionary government and foreign minister until 1797. He then worked as an ambassador to Holland.
It was during this period that Delacroix was born. However, there is strong evidence that his father was in fact Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. This thesis is represented among others by Franz Blei, Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, and Orieux.
These authors refer to the physiognomic similarity of Talleyrand and Delacroix, the impossibility of the biological paternity of Delacroix's nominal father, who was not capable of procreation at the time of conception due to a venereal ailment - which was not cured until several months after conception - and the sponsorship of the young Delacroix by an anonymous but powerful and financially strong benefactor.
A few months after Charles-François Delacroix became prefect of the Gironde department, the family moved to Bordeaux. His childhood was eventful, as Alexandre Dumas, a later friend, let posterity know. At school, his musical talent stood out.
After Charles-François Delacroix died in 1805, the family moved back to Paris a few months later. Here Eugène Delacroix attended the Lycée Impérial, where he developed a taste for literature. He spent his vacations in a Gothic monastery in Normandy that belonged to a cousin.
The ruins impressed him so much that he began painting. Encouraged to do so by his uncle Jean-Henri Riesener, the two occasionally visited the studio of Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. His mother died in 1814 and Eugène moved in with his sister. A year later, he began studying in Guérin's studio. In 1816, he enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris.
Two years later, Delacroix observed Théodore Géricault at work on the painting The Raft of the Medusa. Stirred by this experience, he painted Dante's Barque, which refers to a scene from Dante Alighieri's magnum opus Divine Comedy. He gave this work to the Salon in 1822 for the annual art exhibition - it was unconventional and attracted widespread attention.
The French state acquired the painting and had it hung in the Palais du Luxembourg. At the age of 24, Delacroix left the École des Beaux-Arts. He began keeping a diary and analyzing himself and his surroundings, and participated in discussions about art.
He was attracted to the Romantics. Their ideas, thoughts and ideas are reflected in his second painting The Massacre of Chios, which met with divided criticism. With this painting, his importance in the younger generation of painters was undeniable. He was considered the leading painter of Romanticism, even though he himself repeatedly denied this leading role.
Delacroix now read poetry by Lord Byron and became interested in the theater. He particularly appreciated the plays of William Shakespeare and Goethe's Faust. He made 17 lithographs of Faust in 1827.
That same year he exhibited his painting The Death of Sardanapal, which horrified critics. Many urged him not to waste his talent in such excesses. These voices fell silent in 1831, when he exhibited The Liberty Leads the People to Glory and Commemorate the July Revolution at the Salon. With this painting he consolidated his leading role among painters.
Influential friends enabled Delacroix to travel to Morocco and visit the Sultan there. He was now able to see with his own eyes things that the Romantics had imagined in their fantasies. Delacroix was struck by the radiant light, the lush colors, and the simple dignity of Islam.
The notes and sketches he made by the hundreds during this period remained a constant source of inspiration for him. Studies of animals and especially his paintings of lion hunts are also expressions of this creative period.
Returning to France, the government commissioned him to create several paintings. This task occupied him until the end of his life. He had little free time because he worked non-stop for months, making sketches and sketches and directing his collaborators.
He found distraction in the mornings in the salons, where his wit and intelligence were in demand. He had few real friends, among them George Sand and Frédéric Chopin.
In his old age, Delacroix, who became more and more reclusive, was given great honors. A retrospective was dedicated to him at the 1855 World's Fair. He was also awarded the Grand Médaille d'Honneur, became a Commander of the Legion of Honor, and in 1857 became a member of the École des Beaux-Arts, to which he sent his last painting in 1859. Four years later he died of a chronic throat disease.
Eugène Delacroix's Pioneer of Impressionism
Delacroix opposed the practice of the classicists that prevailed in his time, who, for the sake of the plastic ideal, gave priority to brightness values in painting and considered the chromatic values of color to be of secondary importance. Delacroix was of the opinion, along with other Romantics such as Turner, that painting was thus cheating itself of its very own means, the color values themselves.
With their help, he determined the overall effect of the painting. In accordance with the respective theme, he first arranged the colors on the palette in order to influence the character of the work from the outset. In this way, Delacroix achieved an enormous richness in color differentiation.
Delacroix's painting style also heralds Impressionism through the use of optical mixing and reflective colors, based on the precise observation of changing light conditions.
Eugène Delacroix Works (selection)
- Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel:
- Wounded Bandit, Quenching His Thirst (c. 1825)
- Bordeaux, Musée des beaux-arts:
- La Grèce sur les ruines de Missolonghi (Greece dying on the ruins of Missolonghi) (1826)
- Budapest, Hungarian National Gallery:
- Horse startled by the storm (1824)
- Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle:
- Lion and alligator (1863, oil on oak 28.5 × 36 cm)
- Tiger and snake (1858, oil on paper on wood 32.4 × 40.3 cm)
- London, Wallace Collection:
- The Execution of Doge Marino Faliero (1826).
- Luxembourg, Villa Vauban
- Young Turk embracing his horse (c. 1825, oil on canvas, Jean-Pierre Pescatore Collection, inv. no. 90)
- Munich, Alte Pinakothek:
- The Death of Ophelia (1838).
- Paris, Musée National du Louvre:
- The Dante Barque (1822)
- The Massacre of Chios (1824)
- Young Orphan in the Cemetery (1824)
- Still Life with Lobster (1827)
- The Death of Sardanapal (1827)
- Freedom leads the people (1830)
- Young tiger playing with his mother (1830)
- The women of Algiers (1834)
- Jewish wedding in Morocco (1837-41)
- The capture of Constantinople (1840)
- The barque of Don Juan (1840)
- Prague, Národní galerie
- Horseman attacked by a jaguar (1855)
- Saint Petersburg, Hermitage:
- Lion Hunt in Morocco (1854)
- Stuttgart, Neue Staatsgalerie Stuttgart:
- Indian woman torn by a tiger (1856)
- Washington, Phillips Collection:
- Horses, coming out of the sea (1860)
- Vienna, Belvedere:
- Still Life of Flowers (c. 1834)
Famous students (selection)
- Pierre Andrieu
- Alexandre Bida
- Léon Bonnat
- Alphonse de Neuville
Later honors
The National Bank of France issued 100-franc banknotes with his portrait from 1978 to 1995.