Published 31 May 2017
by
Eugène Delacroix 1830
Background
On the death of Louis XVIII of France
Charles X
His popularity waned as he introduced measures to try
to win back powers the monarchy had lost at the time of the Revolution. In March 1830, when liberals in the
Chamber of Deputies objected to increasingly
repressive measures, Charles dissolved the Chamber. The May elections to the
Chamber returned a majority unfavourable to the king. On July 26 he
issued four ordinances which, through their repressive measures, provoked
revolution by the Paris Versailles
Presentation of the Canvas
The painting depicts the second of the three days
remembered as 'Les Trois Glorieuses, (The Three Glorious Days) 28 July, the day
when the tricolour flag was hoisted on the summit of Notre Dame de Paris.
Construction of the Canvas
It is organised in the shape of a pyramid, whose base
is formed by the line of dead bodies. The flag is at the summit of this pyramid.
The layout of some elements, such as the leg of the
dead man, the left arm of the youth, the rifle of the young bourgeois, or the
beggar's bag of the youth, together with the sightline of the kneeling man with
the red bandoleer, indicate angles all converging on the woman. Her right arm
and the flagpole form the summit of the pyramid.
Two horizontal
lines divide the work into three tiers, each divided into three parts. The
upper of the two horizontal lines directs the eye to the figures surrounding
the woman and isolates the symbol of Liberty
The bottom tier
is the most sombre part, where the barricade and the dead are depicted.
The two vertical
lines frame the figure of the woman, the sole figure in the centre of the
canvas.
The entire
spectacle is pictured as if seen from a low viewpoint, which accentuates the
effect of the pyramid construction.
The organization
of the image heightens the effect of the pyramid. It positions the spectator
below the scene shown and forces him to look up, which tends to accentuate, or even deform, the perspective. The
spectator is thus in a low position in respect to the drama being performed
before him. The angle of view also causes the characters to appear more dynamic
and heroic, while apparently pushing them closer to the spectator and rendering
them even more impressive.
The light comes
from the left of the painting, allowing the presentation of forms by means of
stark contrasts between light and shade.
The woman is in
the centre, the brightest part of the painting, the yellow of her dress bathed
in the light from the side. The contours of her body, notably her bosom and the
folds of her clothing seem to reflect this illumination, which in turn is
reflected in the white shirt of the corpse beneath her. Behind, clouds,
illuminated probably by a setting sun, create a halo, a "celestial
aureole" around her profile and the flag she carries.
By scrupulous
use of light, Delacroix renders his composition especially dynamic. His
feminine effigy, surrounded by a halo of light, is resplendent in the centre of
the scene. She seems to brighten the figures surrounding her, and especially the
corpses stretched beneath her feet. She appears in all her luminosity like a
glorious divinity descended to the street to guide the people.
At the bottom of
the tableau, the colours are much more sombre, in accordance with the morbid
theme.
In the whole of
the painting the pallet of colours used is uniform: a single colour, used in
different tones quite lightly, like brown or beige, or more candid colours.
Blue/white/red appear several times like recurring themes, in the flag, for
example, or the scarf and belt of the man with the sabre on the left, or the
tricolour clothing of the kneeling man, or the costume of the recumbent figure
on the right, or the sky: blue and white with a tint of red in the white.
The Figures in the Painting
The work is conceived on three successive
levels:
The bottom level is that of the dead.
The middle level
is that of the combatants and the wounded. It is the link between the dead and
the living.
The top level is that of life and liberty.
The bottom level presents
(and represents) a heap of victims' bodies. On the left, a body robbed of its
trousers, its right arm stretched upon the cobblestones and its shirt bunched
up, recalls subjects of other paintings:
For comparison: Deshays: 'Hector exposed on
the banks of the Scamander', 1759
For comparison: Théodore
Géricault: ‘The Raft of the Medusa' ,1819
On the right are
two soldiers in the service of Charles X: an officer of the royal police
force, recognisable by his long blue jacket with white epaulettes, and a
rifleman of the royal guard recognisable by his breastplate, his dark blue
jacket and by his shako.
The middle level features
the insurgents wielding their weapons in full assault: a working man, a craftsman,
a man of the middle-class, a street urchin - they represent the different
social classes of the people alongside the symbol of Liberty
Just behind him stands a worker wearing a beret, likely a
blacksmith or a mill-hand, identified by his trousers and his overall. His
weapon is a Napoleonic infantry sabre. He wears a pistol stuck in his belt and
a scarf, red and blue and striped with white, recalling the tricolour flag.
At his feet, an adolescent gripping a paving stone wears
the hat of a light infantryman of the National Guard, a body hostile to Charles
X.
To the right and behind the man with the top hat, a
polytechnic student is visible, recognisable by his Bonapartist, or
two-cornered hat.
At
the extreme right, at the bottom of the buildings, a detachment of grenadiers
is visible.
It is possible to locate the events of the painting at Paris
The top level is dominated by the tricolour flag and the
face of the women who represents Liberty
Fiery, rebellious and
victorious, she embodies Liberty
A central figure of the tableau, she is represented full
length from the head to the feet right in the centre of the work, and is bathed
in light. Her draped but partly unclad body recalls certain divinities of
Antiquity. In painting her armed with a rifle and bayonet, patterned on a model
of 1816, and her arm raised, revealing the hair of her armpit, Delacroix
fashions his allegory to look very real. He creates her in the image of a
simple girl of the people, rooted in the reality of the second day of the 1830
revolt. Before Delacroix's painting, the allegory of Liberty Bridge of Arcole'
To her left, a youth, gripping a pistol in each hand, and
wearing the black velvet beret of a Parisian student, parades a cartridge pouch
robbed from a soldier of Charles X slung over his shoulder. He advances
forward, right foot first, his mouth open, screaming to attack. He is the
future "Gavroche" of Victor Hugo, described in "Les
Misérables" some thirty years later.
At Liberty
Analysis
Completed in December, the painting was exhibited in the
Salon of May, 1831. It seemed born of a single impetus, and represents the
final assault. The crowd converges toward the spectator in a cloud of dust,
brandishing their weapons. They cross the barriers and burst onto the other
side. At its head, four standing figures, in the centre a woman. A mythical
goddess, she leads them to Liberty
Influences
1. Classical Sculpture:
The Venus of Arles, for example. Note the folds of the
clothing.
2. Géricault:
Théodore Géricault was the first to produce a romantic
painting with ‘The Raft of the Medusa’, 1818-1819. Delacroix was heavily
influenced by this work when he painted ‘Victory Leading the People’. In his
painting, Géricault records a drama with strong political overtones. He depicts
the fate of the few survivors of a ship that sank in 1816 because of the
incompetence of the royal government.
Théodore Géricault: ‘The Raft of the Medusa’,
1818-1819
Delacroix honours Géricault’s painting by means of
several pictorial references. First, he uses the same triangle construction
with dead bodies at its base and a billowing flag at its summit
In both paintings there is a dead body lying on the
right, in both there is a nude body wearing a shirt. In both again, there is a
sock remaining on the foot of a dead man.
On the horizon in
both works, the hope of being saved is represented. The boat which it is hopped
will save the castaways is replaced in ‘Liberty Leading the People’ by the hope
represented by the flag fluttering on the heights of Notre Dame.
Both paintings have the same sideways source of light,
and the same strong contrast between light and shade.
3. Constable
In 1825, a short visit to England
John
Constable, 'Flatford Mill', 1816-1817
4. Shakespeare
The same visit allowed Delacroix to experience the
delights of the English Theatre, and especially performances of Shakespeare, which
made an enormous impression on him, and which he later celebrated in his own art.
Eugène Delacroix, 'The Death of Ophelia',
1838
5. North
Africa
In 1832, Delacroix took part in a diplomatic mission to Morocco North Africa .
Eugène
Delacroix, 'Fanatics of Tangier', 1837-1838
A painter of History
The painting is a historical and
political document of the ‘Trois Glorieuse’.
The days of the popular rising against Charles X, the 27th,
28th and 29th of July, 1830, similarly inspired at the
time other works witnessing this historic episode, for example, those of Hippolyte
Lecomte and Jean-Victor Schnetz.
The July revolution brought back the tricolour flag,
adopted first during the revolution of 1789, but then repressed on the exile of
Napoleon in 1815. The symbol of this revolution has now become the French Marianne,
emblem of the republic.
---------------------------------------------
"If
I haven't fought for my country at least I'll paint for it."
1798 - 1863
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