“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.”
-Eugène Delacroix
Liberty Leading the People
Liberty Leading the People (French: La Liberté guidant le peuple [la libɛʁte ɡidɑ̃ lə pœpl]) is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X. A woman of the people with a Phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads a varied group of people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding aloft the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolour, which again became France's national flag after these events – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne. The painting is sometimes wrongly thought to depict the French Revolution of 1789.
Liberty Leading the People is exhibited in the Louvre in Paris.
Delacroix Was Commissioned for Important Work, Including the Rooms at the Palace of Versailles
Perhaps due to his subject matter, Delacroix was often commissioned by important clients and many of his paintings were bought by the French government itself.
Liberty Leading the People was purchased by the government but was hidden from public view until after the Revolution. This seemed to be the launching point for more commissioned work in high places.
Medea about to Kill Her Children was also bought by the state and in 1833 he was commissioned to decorate the Salon du Roi in the Chambre des Deputes at Palais Bourbon. Over the next decade, Delacroix would earn commissions to paint the Library at the Palais Bourbon, the Library at the Palais de Luxembourg, and the Church of St. Denis du Saint Sacrement.
The Collection
