Delacroix - social and historic context (using David for comparison)

Eugene Delacroix was a leader of the nineteenth century Romantic art movement, yet paradoxically he did not regard himself as a romantic artist. During the time when many artists chose a side between the Classicalists and the Romantics, Delacroix chose neither and yet respected both sides, and indeed all styles of art. Much of his art related to current events of the day, such as art based on the Greek War of Independence against the Turks, or of paintings of the French Revolution. He produced many great paintings such as his paintings of the death scene of Sardanapalus, or his painting of the personified figure of Liberty leading a crowd of French People in the Revolution of 1830. He based many paintings on what he saw during his visit to North Africa in 1832. This was his one trip outside Europe, and it had a great impact on his life and on what he painted, and he thought that the lifestyles of the local people of North Africa would be close to those of Ancient Greece and Rome, especially in their clothing. I will discuss Delacroix's art and compare it to Jacques Louis David, one of his contemporaries, though much older than Delacroix. The two artists had often works in the same Salon, and Delacroix was strongly influenced by David, who was regarded as one of the great artists of the time. David's work is much more in the Classical style than the Romantic paintings of Delacroix.

Delacroix did several paintings in support of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks. His painting of the Massacre at Chios, showed poor, sick Greek civilians about to be massacred by the Turks. He was painting a contemporary event, for a political purpose, to encourage people to support the Greeks in their war of independence against the Turks. At the front of the painting are the weak, starving people, looking helpless. Behind them is the almost silhouetted figure of a man holding a weapon and wearing a turban, menacingly approaching. To the right a Turkish horseman rears the horse on its hind legs while people below him appear to have been stricken, with their hands in gestures of helplessness and fear. In the background are a group of people in front of another horseman. The painting creates a mood of a great tragedy having occurred, with innocent people having being slaughtered. The reaction of the French people against the massacre lead to the French and other European powers' intervention in Greece in 1827, and to further plans for French imperialism. "[Delacroix's] depiction of fractured defeated Greek families paradoxically fulfilled a French colonial vision." (Fraser 2004: 27) This painting was a popular subject at the time for the French people, and by painting this picture, which was bought by the French government, Delacroix became increasingly well-liked. He was seen as a great painter in the new Romantic style. As he explained: “It was after the Massacre...that I became an object of antipathy and a sort of bugbear. They enrolled me willy-nilly in the romantic coterie." (newcriterion.com) The painting also shows a view of the suffering of people which was very new in art. There was no glorious event taking place, no picture of swordsmen raising their swords in valour as in David's Oath of the Horatii. This was a picture where
Delacroix painted the suffering of the people of the Greek island as the focus for the picture itself, which was relatively new in art. It made many critics unhappy that suffering was seen as a fit subject for an artwork. "In Delacroix's painting, suffering itself was the subject and this was more than the conventional critics could tolerate." (Davies 1994: 26) It also broke the rules for formal composition, being without unity or balance, and is arranged haphazardly. Critics again were not happy because he had "dared to break aesthetic rules in rendering this terrible subject.. without making its physical and emotional torments bearable." (Wright 1997: 152) While showing this horrible massacre, and sympathising with the Turks, Delacroix was fascinated at the same time in the violence of the Turks, such as a story he heard of Turks beheading the Greeks, although of course there was violence on both sides.

Delacroix painted a second powerful painting in support of the Greeks in their war of independence in 1827. His painting of Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi is a powerful picture, showing a woman in Greek costume with her arms raised in a fashion where she shows she is powerless and begs to the viewer to see the horrible events which occurred here, the suicide of the Greeks, who chose to kill themselves and destroy their city, rather than surrender to the Turks. A hand is seen at the bottom, the body obviously having being crushed by the rubble of the city. The whole picture serves as a monument to the people of Missolonghi and to the idea of freedom against tyrannical rule. "Delacroix has produced here not so much an image of catastrophe as a memorial to a city, a people, and a cause." (Trapp 1971: 69) This event interested Delacroix not only for his sympathies with the Greeks, but also because of the fact that the writer Byron had died there, a writer who he greatly admired.

While Delacroix is acknowledged as one of the leaders of the Romantic movement, he did not regard himself as a Romantic painter. During the early nineteenth century there were two distinct "schools" of art in France, the one Romantics, the other Classicalists. The Classicalists believed in trying to paint in the style of the ancient Greeks and Romans, telling classical fables and tales. On the other hand, the Romantics painted exotic stories with vibrant colour and striking imagery. Delacroix admired the ancient classical art, yet he did not feel the same way about painting as did the followers of Jacques Louis David, who painted in the classical style. "Although Delacroix fully appreciated the formal perfections of Ancient art, he differed radically from the interpretation of Classicism posed by the school of David." (Mras 1966: 64) He did not even really like the terms 'Classical' and 'Romantic', preferring that artists were not subdivided into such categories. When asked if he was a Romantic painter, he responded, "I am a pure classicist" (Davies 1994: viii), yet he may have been trying to change the view that he was a romantic, and keeping the person open minded about his art, rather than to definitively state that he was a classicist. In any case he was still regarded, and is still regarded, as a great Romantic painter.

Delacroix's painting of the death scene of the Assyrian king Sardanapalus shows a romantic scene alive with beautiful colours, exotic costumes and tragic events. The Death of Sardanapalus is about a story of a king who was besieged, and who ordered his guards to kill his servants, wives and animals. His attitude in the painting was; If he was going to be killed, he was going to take them with him. The scene at the front with the nude woman about to get her throat cut is both extremely shocking and powerful. In the painting, the figure of Sardanapalus sits at the back watching the events taking place and he is somewhat distant from the rest of the figures. In this way he is seen to have a somewhat individualist nature as distinct from the rest of the group. In fact, there was an individualistic spirit amongst Romantic painters in this period in Europe. "The haughty and chill isolation of Sardanapalus in Delacroix's painting as in Byron's play is typical of the individualistic mood of Romanticism in the 1820s." (Spector 1974: 62) The painting, which was not exhibited again for many years later, has been regarded by critics almost as a sick gruesome fantasy involving death and lust. However the simple beauty and exotic colours of the piece take away some of this aspect, and make the picture appear pleasing and shocking at the same time. In a sense the exotic nature of the piece take away the violence of it. "The strange beauty of the composition, the sensuous paintings of the lovely fair-skinned girls and the allure of all the richness and luxury have effectively outshone the sadism and brutality." (Davies 1994: 40)

Many of Delacroix's paintings were based on what he saw during a visit to North Africa in 1832. As part of a diplomatic mission to Morocco shortly after the French conquered Algeria, Delacroix was entranced by the people and the costumes. He believed that the locals in North Africa dressed similar to how the people of Classic Rome and Greece would have dressed, and thought that the best way to study what would have been classic clothing would be to study the culture of the North African people. He had some trouble getting Moslem women to pose for him, who were supposed to be demure and reserved because of strict religious laws. He did manage to sketch some women secretly in Tangier, as shown in the painting of Women of Algiers in their apartment. While at Tangier he made many sketches of the people and the city around him, for paintings which he would paint sometimes much later. "While at Tangiers he filled notebooks with drawings of local details, amassing facts for the paintings with Oriental subjects he would introduce into French art." (discoverfrance.net/) Many of the paintings he used imagery based just from this one trip. In fact, he did over 100 paintings and drawings of scenes from or based from the life of the people of North Africa. He not only used imagery from scenes of people in these works, but also he saw animals, which he incorporated into the paintings. In Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable and The Lion Hunt in Morocco, he used images of horses and lions along with people in costume to portray the life in North Africa. In another painting with both animals and humans, Moroccan Saddling his horse, the man has a more important role. In the painting, Delacroix has painted the man's cloak in a light yellow, very warm colour, and the man's body seems to flow well, appearing to be moving. It is a very romantic, idealised image, of the wispy cloak in loose folds that move in the breeze, whereas the real image could possibly have been dirty or tired. While he did not find it too difficult to paint the men, he had more trouble with the women, because of the strict Moslem rules where women must be covered. Instead he painted some Jewish women living in North Africa, such as Jewish bride, because they did not have the same dress code and laws against women been depicted. Islamic art has traditionally been more designs and 'arabesques' than the human figure, where the depiction of people was often frowned on, or regarded as blasphemy. Delacroix sometimes had to hide what he was doing from the local people; "harassed by the insults of a population hostile to the representation of the human countenance, he had to work while concealing himself." (Roger-Marx 1971: 47) He regarded these scenes of Arabic people as superior to the figures being painted by other contemporary painters, such as David, who painted figures in similar costumes with light coloured skin, rather than the brown complexion of people in the desert. As he wrote in his journal, "The heroes of David and company with their pink limbs, would cut a sorry figure next to these children of the sun." (Trapp 1971: 119) As well as these paintings based on contemporary life of North Africa, he also painted the same thing for the French people.

Delacroix's painted some pictures of contemporary events in France, such as the Revolution of 1830 in his painting Liberty Leading the People. This powerful work is probably his best known painting, an unforgettable image of people gallantly marching forward under the banner of the tricolour representing liberty and freedom. He has used a blend of contemporary events, with a romantic image of the spirit of liberty, rather than many paintings which were either one or the other. The soldiers lying dead at the front right contrast with the figures fighting for liberty at the top. It seems liberty is winning, and it is as though she is bringing the forces together for the final battle. The image is extremely powerful, showing Liberty with the French Tricolour flag in one hand, and a rifle fixed with a bayonet, in the other. It shows people from different classes and backgrounds all uniting under the banner of liberty; the man in the suit to the left; the male and female workers on the left and the message boy on the right. He seems to have been trying to represent the spirit and the character of the people, rather than glorify the actual event, a revolution against King Charles X which did little other than bringing a different king, Louis Philippe, to power. "Delacroix's intention was not to represent a heroic action from the July days, but to imply both its motivation and its enduring importance." (Wright 1997: 163) In any case, it is a very romantic depiction of the battle.

Delacroix's paintings are usually more of the romantic style, compared to David, who was a painter in the Neoclassical style. David's work such as Oath of the Horatii, shows three Roman soldiers swearing on their swords, with classical poses and strong muscular men beside dainty weeping women. Delacroix's painting of a classical legend, Apollo slays Python, in contrast, shows that he regarded colour and lighting as more important than classical form. The picture's main focus is the strong contrast between the bright areas at the top and the dark at the bottom, with figures form not as strongly brought out. In David's work the figures have pride of place, right at the front, with strong lighting and angular features that really brings them out. Similarly, in David's political works, based on the French Revolution, such as The Oath of the Tennis Court and The Coronation of Napoleon he shows a very large group of people, with many figures, and a central focus, such as the man in the middle standing on the table raising his arm in The Oath of the Tennis Court while all the people raise their arms taking the oath, pointing at him. In The Coronation of Napoleon, the poses are very idealised and classical, with fine costumes, and a central focus around Napoleon crowning his wife Josephine. They are very formally arranged compositions, when compared to the energetic and romantic Liberty Leading the People, Delacroix's revolutionary painting. While this was of a later revolution of 1830, it shows that the mood, the energy of the piece, is more important than formal poses. All the figures march forward, with the image of Liberty's arm holding the French Tricolour leading them on. The middle class man holds his gun with an air of someone who is ready for a fight, the other characters similarly have poses with their weapons of bravery and a willingness to fight. Generally David in his classical poses, shows the human body as the central focus, with muscular tones and formal poses, while Delacroix in his paintings derived from his visit to Africa, uses colour and lighting with exotic costumes to create a romantic effect. "Whereas David isolates the body as an expressive structure to accentuate its contours and gesture, making personality visible, Delacroix intermeshes objects, slaves, odalisques: figure and ground collapse in a unifying surface." (Fraser 2004: 126) Delacroix's painting of the Death of Sardanapalus illustrates the way in which Delacroix broke away from classical depictions with a new style where the clothes, the movement, the energy and the lighting of the piece were all very important, and it lied less on formal poses. While the story has come somewhat from Byron's poem Sardanapalus, there is no actual point in the play where the king orders the death of his servants. Delacroix has possibly missed the point of the end of the play, where the king makes a death pact with one of his slaves who he is in love with, and gives all his wealth to another servant. The painting shows some of the other people who had an influence on him; he changed the painting somewhat after seeing an early viewing of Constable's work at the Salon; and it also shows his love for English Literature and writers, in basing the painting on a play of Byron's. In fact, he loved English writing very much, when he went to England in 1825, he saw many English plays, and painted other subjects such as the Gravedigger in Hamlet. "In the 1820s.. above all his love of English Literature which [was] paramount as an influence on his art." (Wilson-Smith 1992: 78) He loved reading very much and he also loved writing, his many journals which included much writing on the art of his time, such as commentary on the works of David.

While Delacroix was sometimes very critical of David, he admired and respected him nonetheless. In his extensive journals, Delacroix often criticised David and the school of painters who had learned from David. He said that David was perhaps too formal in the way that he did drawings; he thought that he was "insensitive to the charms of color, as well as too rigid in his interpretation of 'drawing'." (Trapp 1971: 316). However, at the same time he respected David in the way that he acknowledged the realistically painted views and the Classical idealistic figures which David painted. In Delacroix's words, "David's work is an extraordinary mixture of realism and the ideal." (Wellington 1951: 398) The great works of Delacroix compared to David have light and colour providing a more prominent role. By contrasting his works with David's, it is seen how much more alive they are with imagery, emotion and romantic feeling, rather than the stiff, formal poses of David's work.

Many people, places and factors influenced Delacroix's art. English literature, other artists' work such as David, and contemporary events all had an impact on his work. Making the most out of an opportunity to travel, his one trip to North Africa provided the inspiration for many works there and for years afterwards. He looked at these people as though he was looking at a world of myths and legends, a very romantic notion. He also took contemporary events and painted them in such a way to look beyond the actual event, to make the image into an idealistic version of what happened, or of what he saw. When contrasted with David's classical paintings, Delacroix's appear more vibrant and interestingly arranged. Regardless of what he thought of himself about not being romantic, Delacroix's paintings, with fantastic imagery and beautiful colours, show Romanticism at its finest.




Bibliography

Davies, E. (1994) Portrait of Delacroix, Pentland Press, Durham, UK
Fraser, E. (2004) Delacroix, Art and Patrimony in Post- Revolutionary France, Cambridge University Press, UK
Glaubinger, J. (1980) The Etchings of Eugene Delacroix, University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Longstreet, S. (1973) More drawings of Delacroix, Borden Publishing Co., Alhambra, California
Mras, G. (1966) Eugene Delacroix's Theory of Art, Princeton university press, Princeton, New Jersey
Pach, W. (translator) (1980) The Journal of Eugene Delacroix, Hacker Art Books, New York
Spector, J. (1974) The Death of Sardanapalus, Penguin, London
Roger-Marx, C. and Cotte, S. (1971) Delacroix The Great Draughtsmen, George Brazillier Inc., New York
Trapp, F. (1971) The Attainment of Delacroix, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland
Wellington, H. (1951) The Journal of Eugene Delacroix, Phaidon Press, London
Wilson-Smith, T. (1992) Delacroix: A life, Constable & Co., London


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