Art e Dossier

With this painting, exhibited at the 1822 Salon, Delacroix made his mark on the Parisian public and expressed a great intensity and sense of movement. One very important influence was the Raft of the Medusa, completed shortly beforehand by his friend Géricault and characterised by sharp shafts of light and a complex tension-packed composition. Delacroix added some touches that indicated a particular attention towards the work of Michelangelo, as can be seen in the vigorous shaping of the bodies of the damned, while the maelstrom colour effects are reminiscent of Rubens. Although the critical response was sceptical and Delécluze described the work as “a daub”, artists grasped the innovative nature of the style and Antoine Gros even talked of a “castigated Rubens”. The painting was purchased for the Musée du Luxembourg and the artist’s reputation was definitively established.

This work was one of a number of preparatory studies for the composition of Massacres at Chios, and they were exhibited together at the Salon in 1824. Following his success at the Salon two years previously, Delacroix wanted to paint a very expressive work. The war between the Turks and Greeks in 1820, and the terrible massacres that ensued on the island of Chios, provided him with his theme. This orphan girl, who then became the subject of an autonomous work, was the origin of the young figure pleading for help on the left-hand side of Massacres. Delacroix carefully researched the features and dress of the inhabitants of Chios, reproducing the distinctive colouring of their complexion. The natural expressions reveal the artist’s desire to involve the viewer emotionally.

As had happened with Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, the impact of a real event provided the background for the execution of a work whose dramatic content made a big impression on the public. Delacroix carefully studied accounts of this massacre carried out by the Turks, at the end of which there were just nine hundred Greek survivors on the island of Chios. Once again it was his friend Géricault who inspired the charged atmosphere and the sense of pain of the figures – from the lifeless figures in the foreground to the desperate bodily gestures in the upper register and the restive horse of the Turkish slaughterer.

In 1826 Delacroix began to frequent the coterie of Romantic artists dominated by Victor Hugo, but rather than concentrating on an introspective and melancholic vision of the world, he continued to focus on historic events and closely followed the Greek struggle for independence. In the same year Missolonghi fell once again under the Turkish yoke and an exhibition was organised at the Galerie Lebrun in Paris in support of the Greeks. Delacroix contributed a number of canvases, although only the Combat of the Giaour and the Pasha was related to the events. In August he substituted some of the paintings with Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, a large-scale allegory narrating how the inhabitants of the city sacrificed themselves under cannon fire in 1825 rather than surrender to the Turks.

Delacroix exhibited thirteen paintings of various genres at the 1827 Salon, demonstrating his mastery of portraiture, landscapes and still lifes in addition to his religious, literary and of course historical subjects. The highpoint is this canvas dedicated to an event from ancient history, The Death of Sardanapalus. Narrative sources indicate it was an act of incredible cruelty: the king decided his whole court had to die together with him and so he ordered his slaves to kill the women, pages and even the horses, while the palace and all its riches were to burn together with him. From the dark background of the shadows there emerge the luminous bodies of the victims in a dramatic vortex of violence and suffering. What the artist defined as “massacre number two” was received coldly by the critics, who detected suggestions of scandalous orgiastic practices in the poses.

Delacroix was not involved in French politics and sustained that refined, civilised individuals did not speak of such matters. However, the events in 1830 forced him to assume a stance. The suspension of constitutional liberty by Charles X in July of that year led to a popular insurrection. Delacroix did not take up arms as Daumier and other artists did, but walked around Paris observing the revolt. Based on the three colours of the French flag – white, red, and blue –, this composition combines realistic elements, for instance the bodies in the foreground and the combatants (including the artist himself in a top hat), and the classical allegorical figure of Liberty in an attempt to create a kind of manifesto of the ideals of the revolt. Once again the viewing public at the Salon (1831) were shocked by the violence of the clashes and the ‘undignified’ crudeness of the dead.

The Orient exercised a powerful fascination in the Romantic period, stimulating new fantasies in the sphere of culture. In 1831 King Louis-Philippe sent a delegation to meet the Sultan of Morocco, and as often occurred on these occasions, a painter was asked to accompany the group to document the trip. Delacroix was chosen and in January 1832 he arrived in Tangiers. In the course of the 3-month journey, he filled seven sketch books and a large album, the so-called Moroccan Notebooks, with eighteen watercolours, from which these pages are drawn. He was struck by all aspects of the life there and tried to depict as much as possible of this mysterious and “ancient” people, as he defined them. However, in his notes he complained of people’s diffidence and reluctance about being sketched or painted.

Delacroix returned to Paris from his journey to North Africa in July 1832 with a wealth of memorable images. He started work straightaway on trying to recreate the atmosphere of the Orient in his studio. One of the most surprising results is this picture of the Women of Algiers, the highlight of the Salon in 1834. Critics such as Théophile Gautier and Etienne Délecluze were fascinated by the refined shades of the colourful fabrics and the matching tones. Years later Charles Baudelaire defined the painting as a “small poem of interiors” because of the sense of intimate quiet it emanates and the olfactory perception of this location of ill repute.

Commissioned by Louis-Philippe and exhibited at the Salon in 1841, this work came with an explanatory caption: “Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders. 1204. Balwin VI of Flanders was in command of the French, who attacked from the land, while the elderly Doge Dandolo, commander of the Venetians, attacked the port. The first commanders ran through the quarters of the city, and families in tears came towards them pleading for clemency”. The historical theme had suggested to Delacroix the use of certain formal solutions adopted by the Venetian Masters, in particular Veronese, whose work is recalled in the brilliant use of colour. The breadth of the expressive range of the figures once again creates a great sense of immediacy, capable of moving the viewer like a theatrical scene.

Presented at the Salon in 1845, the painting depicts Muley-abd-err-Rahmann, the Sultan of Morocco, leaving the Palace of Meknès with his retinue, including the ministers Muchtar and Amin-Bias, who are on the right. Here Delacroix recreates an audience ceremony, which he had witnessed in 1832 when he had been sent to North Africa as part of a diplomatic mission. Against the imposing background of the walls the artist stages the scene of the ceremony, the solemnity of which suggests it was static and silent. There is a prevalence of ochre and red tones suggestive of the hot African light and there is a broad and luminous sky

The many sketches Delacroix made in his notebooks during his journey along the North African coastline formed the basis for works like this one, which were reconstructed from memory many years after his return to France. Besides the Oriental aspects of the work, the artist included a genre observation in his depiction of an instance of local life, a “tranche de vie”, in which the characters are captured in their natural, everyday poses. The dark background is broken by a beam of light shining on the exhausted woman resting her head on her arm. There is none of the atmosphere and detail that had characterised works like the Women of Algiers, as if the raw emotions of these places were now rather distant.

The lion hunting theme was not new for Delacroix. He had already executed a work on this subject – a recurrent theme in his artistic maturity – in 1855, which had drawn a certain amount of criticism in that year’s Salon due to the extraordinary convulsion of forms and colours. Here the action occupies a broader space in which a large horse (reminiscent of works by Géricault) is brought down by the ferocity of the lion, who in turn is struck by the lance of the Moor. The violent movements, dark colours and deep red lightning generate seething forms and lights. The landscape in the background is very gloomy, an indication of Delacroix’s tendency, having achieved artistic glory, to isolate himself from Parisian social circles in order to find in painting the meaning of life.