Eugene Delacroix. Freedom leading the people to the barricades

The plot of the painting "Freedom on the Barricades", exhibited at the Salon in 1831, is directed to the events of the bourgeois revolution of 1830. The artist created a kind of allegory of the alliance between the bourgeoisie, represented in the picture by a young man in a top hat, and the people who surround him. True, by the time the painting was created, the alliance of the people with the bourgeoisie had already disintegrated, and for many years it was hidden from the viewer. The painting was bought (commissioned) by Louis-Philippe, who financed the revolution, but the classic pyramidal compositional construction of this canvas emphasizes its romantic revolutionary symbolism, and energetic blue and red strokes make the plot excitedly dynamic. A clear silhouette against the background of the bright sky rises a young woman personifying Freedom in a Phrygian cap; her breasts are bared. She holds the French national flag high above her head. The heroine's gaze is fixed on a man in a top hat with a rifle, personifying the bourgeoisie; to her right, a boy waving pistols, Gavroche, is a folk hero of the streets of Paris.

The painting was donated to the Louvre by Carlos Beistegui in 1942; included in the Louvre collection in 1953.

“I chose a modern plot, a scene on the barricades .. If I didn’t fight for the freedom of the fatherland, then at least I should glorify this freedom,” Delacroix told his brother, referring to the painting “Freedom Leading the People” (at it is also known to us as "Freedom on the Barricades"). The call to fight against tyranny contained in it was heard and enthusiastically received by his contemporaries.
Over the corpses of the fallen revolutionaries, Freedom walks barefoot, bare-chested, calling for the rebels. In her raised hand, she holds the tricolor republican flag, and its colors - red, white and blue - echo across the canvas. In his masterpiece, Delacroix combined the seemingly incompatible - the protocol realism of reporting with the sublime fabric of poetic allegory. He gave a small episode of street fighting a timeless, epic sound. The central character of the canvas is Freedom, combining the stately posture of Aphrodite of Milo with the features that Auguste Barbier endowed Freedom with: “This is a strong woman with a powerful chest, with a hoarse voice, with fire in her eyes, fast, with a wide step”.

Encouraged by the successes of the 1830 Revolution, Delacroix began work on the painting on September 20 to glorify the Revolution. In March 1831 he received an award for it, and in April he exhibited the painting at the Salon. The painting with its violent force repelled the bourgeois visitors, who also reproached the artist for showing only the "rabble" in this heroic act. At the salon, in 1831, the French Ministry of the Interior buys Liberty for the Luxembourg Museum. Two years later, Svoboda, whose plot was considered too politicized, was removed from the museum and returned to the author. The king bought the painting, but, frightened by its dangerous character during the reign of the bourgeoisie, ordered it to be hidden, rolled up, then returned to the author (1839). In 1848 the Louvre claimed the painting. In 1852 - the Second Empire. The picture is again considered subversive and sent to the storeroom. In the final months of the Second Empire, Freedom was again regarded as a great symbol, and the engravings from this composition served the cause of republican propaganda. After 3 years, it is removed from there and demonstrated at the world exhibition. At this time, Delacroix rewrites it again. Perhaps he darkens the bright red tone of the cap to soften its revolutionary look. In 1863, Delacroix dies at home. And after 11 years "Freedom" again exhibited at the Louvre.

Delacroix himself did not take part in the "three glorious days", watching what was happening from the windows of his workshop, but after the fall of the Bourbon monarchy he decided to perpetuate the image of the Revolution.

Delacroix. "Freedom leading the people." 1831 Paris. Louvre.

An avalanche of insurgents swiftly and menacingly moves across the ruins of the barricade that has just been recaptured from the government troops, right over the bodies of the killed. Ahead, a beautiful woman in her impulse is climbing the barricade with a banner in her hand. This is Freedom leading the people. To create this image, Delacroix was inspired by the poems of Auguste Barbier. In his poem "Yamba", he found an allegorical image of the goddess of Freedom, shown in the form of a powerful woman from the people:
“This strong woman with a mighty breast,
With a hoarse voice and fire in his eyes
Fast, with a wide stride,
Enjoying the cries of the people
With bloody fights, with a long rumble of drums,
The smell of gunpowder, coming from afar,
With the echo of bells and deafening cannons.
The artist boldly introduced a symbolic image into the crowd of real Parisians. This is both an allegory and a living woman (it is known that many Parisian women took part in the July battles). She has a classic antique profile, a powerful sculptural torso, a dress-chiton, on her head - a Phrygian cap - an ancient symbol of liberation from slavery

Reviews

I always had the impression that something unhealthy emanated from this picture. Some strange symbol of patriotism and freedom. This power
Naya lady could, rather, symbolize freedom of morals, leading the people to a brothel, and not to revolution. True, the "goddess of freedom" is
a formidable and stern expression on his face, which, perhaps, not everyone dares
gaze at her mighty breasts, so you can think in two ways ...
Sorry if I "froze" something wrong, just expressed my opinion.

Dear Princess! Your opinion once again shows that men and women look at many things differently. An erotic moment in such an inappropriate situation? But he is undoubtedly present, and even very akin to him! A revolution is the scrapping of everything old. Foundations are crumbling. The impossible becomes possible. So, this rapture of freedom is erotic through and through. Delacroix felt it. Barbier felt it. Pasternak (in a completely different revolutionary period) felt this (read "My sister is my life"). I’m even sure that if a man had undertaken to write a novel about the end of the world, he would have portrayed a lot differently. (Armageddon - isn't this the revolution of all revolutions?) With a smile.

If the end of the world is a revolution, then death is also a revolution))))
True, for some reason the majority are trying to arrange a counter-revolution for her, yes
and depict her very unerotically, you know, a skeleton with a scythe and
in a black cloak. However ... I will not argue, maybe, in fact
men see it all differently.

The daily audience of the Proza.ru portal is about 100 thousand visitors, who in total view more than half a million pages according to the traffic counter, which is located to the right of this text. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors.

"I chose a modern plot, a scene on the barricades ... If I did not fight for the freedom of the fatherland, then at least I should write for him," Delacroix told his brother, referring to the painting "Freedom Leading the People" ( here it is also known as "Freedom on the Barricades").
On the corpses of the fallen, Freedom is walking barefoot, with a bare chest, calling for the rebels. In her raised hand, she holds the tricolor republican flag, and its colors - red, white and blue - echo across the canvas.
This work by Delacroix should be called a romantic allegory rather than a documentary account of the events of the July Revolution of 1830. Delacroix himself did not take part in the "glorious days", watching what was happening from the windows of his workshop, but after the fall of the Bourbon monarchy he decided to perpetuate the image of the Revolution.
In the era of the Restoration, it seemed to many French people that all the sacrifices of the Great French Revolution and the Empire were in vain. In July 1830, dissatisfaction with the Bourbon regime peaked. The Parisians revolted and took possession of the capital. In France, the so-called July Monarchy was established. King Louis Philippe came to power. “Holy days of Paris July!” Exclaimed Heinrich Heine. “You will always bear witness to the innate nobility of man, which will never be eradicated. The one who has outlived you no longer weeps over the old graves, but is full of joyful faith in the resurrection of nations. Sacred days. July! How beautiful the sun was, how great the people of Paris were! "
In his masterpiece, Delacroix combined the seemingly incompatible - the protocol reality of the reportage with the sublime fabric of poetic allegory. He gave a small episode of street fighting a timeless, epic sound. The central character of the canvas is Freedom, which combines the stately posture of Aphrodite of Milos with the features that Auguste Barbier endowed Freedom with: "This is a strong woman with a powerful chest, with a hoarse voice, with fire in her eyes, fast, with a wide step."

Eugene Delacroix. Freedom leading the people to the barricades

In his diary, young Eugene Delacroix wrote on May 9, 1824: "I felt the desire to write on modern subjects." This was not an accidental phrase, a month earlier he wrote down a similar phrase: "I would like to write about the plots of the revolution." The artist has repeatedly spoken about his desire to write on contemporary themes before, but he very rarely realized his Desires. This happened because Delacroix believed: "... everything should be sacrificed for the sake of harmony and real rendering of the plot. We must do without models in paintings. A living model never corresponds exactly to the image that we want to convey: the model is either vulgar or inferior. , or her beauty is so different and more perfect that everything has to be changed. "

The artist preferred plots from novels to the beauty of a life model. "What should be done to find a plot? - he asks himself one day. - Open a book that can inspire, and trust your mood!". And he piously follows his own advice: every year the book becomes more and more a source of themes and plots for him.

This is how the wall gradually grew and strengthened, separating Delacroix and his art from reality. The revolution of 1830 found him so withdrawn in his solitude. Everything that a few days ago constituted the meaning of the life of the romantic generation was instantly thrown far back, began to "look small" and unnecessary in the face of the grandeur of the events that had taken place.

The amazement and enthusiasm experienced these days invade Delacroix's secluded life. For him, reality loses its repulsive shell of vulgarity and ordinariness, revealing a real greatness that he had never seen in it and which he had previously sought in Byron's poems, historical chronicles, ancient mythology and in the East.

The July days echoed in the soul of Eugene Delacroix with the idea of ​​a new picture. Barricade battles on July 27, 28 and 29 in French history decided the outcome of a political coup. These days, King Charles X, the last representative of the hated Bourbon dynasty, was overthrown. For the first time for Delacroix it was not a historical, literary or oriental plot, but a real life. However, before this idea was realized, he had to go through a long and difficult path of change.

R. Escolier, the artist's biographer, wrote: "At the very beginning, under the first impression of what he saw, Delacroix did not intend to depict Liberty among its adherents ... He just wanted to reproduce one of the July episodes, such as the death of d" Arcola ". Yes Then there were many feats and sacrifices made. The heroic death of d "Arcola is associated with the capture of the Paris City Hall by the rebels. On the day when the royal troops were holding the suspension bridge of Greve under fire, a young man appeared and rushed to the town hall. He exclaimed: “If I die, remember that my name is d“ Arkol. ”He was really killed, but he managed to carry the people along with him and the town hall was taken.

Eugene Delacroix made a sketch with a pen, which, perhaps, became the first sketch for a future painting. The fact that it was not an ordinary drawing is evidenced by the precise choice of the moment, and the completeness of the composition, and thoughtful accents on individual figures, and the architectural background, organically merged with the action, and other details. This drawing could indeed serve as a sketch for a future painting, but art critic E. Kozhina believed that it remained just a sketch that had nothing to do with the canvas that Delacroix wrote later.

For the artist, the figure of Arcola alone, rushing forward and carrying the rebels with his heroic impulse, is no longer enough for the figure. Eugene Delacroix transfers this central role to Freedom herself.

The artist was not a revolutionary and admitted it himself: "I am a rebel, but not a revolutionary." Politics was of little interest to him, so he wanted to portray not a separate fleeting episode (even the heroic death of d "Arcola), not even a separate historical fact, but the nature of the whole event. So, about the place of action, Paris, can only be judged by a piece, painted in the background of the picture on the right side (in the depths you can barely see the banner raised on the tower of Notre Dame Cathedral), but on city houses. a private episode, even a majestic one.

The composition of the painting is very dynamic. In the center of the picture is a group of armed men in simple clothes, moving in the direction of the foreground of the picture and to the right.

Because of the gunpowder smoke, the area is not visible, and how large this group itself is not visible. The pressure of the crowd, filling the depth of the picture, creates an ever-growing internal pressure that must inevitably break through. And so, ahead of the crowd, a beautiful woman with a three-color republican banner in her right hand and a gun with a bayonet in her left stepped broadly from a cloud of smoke to the top of the taken barricade.

On her head is the red Phrygian cap of the Jacobins, her clothes flutter, exposing her breasts, the profile of her face resembles the classic features of Venus de Milo. It is full of strength and inspiration Freedom, which shows the way to the fighters with a decisive and courageous movement. Leading people through the barricades, Freedom does not give orders or commands - it encourages and leads the rebels.

When working on the picture, two opposing principles collided in Delacroix's worldview - inspiration inspired by reality, and on the other hand, distrust of this reality, which had long been rooted in his mind. Distrust that life can be beautiful in itself, that human images and purely pictorial means can convey in its entirety the idea of ​​a picture. It was this mistrust that dictated Delacroix the symbolic figure of Liberty and some other allegorical refinements.

The artist transfers the entire event to the world of allegory, reflecting the idea in the same way as Rubens, adored by him, did (Delacroix told the young Edouard Manet: "You need to see Rubens, you need to be imbued with Rubens, you need to copy Rubens, because Rubens is a god") in his compositions that personify abstract concepts. But Delacroix still does not follow his idol in everything: Freedom for him is symbolized not by an ancient deity, but by the simplest woman, who, however, becomes regally majestic.

Allegorical Freedom is full of vital truth, in a swift impulse it goes ahead of the column of revolutionaries, dragging them along and expressing the highest meaning of the struggle - the power of the idea and the possibility of victory. If we did not know that Nika of Samothrace was dug out of the ground after the death of Delacroix, it could be assumed that the artist was inspired by this masterpiece.

Many art critics noted and reproached Delacroix for the fact that all the greatness of his painting cannot overshadow the impression that at first turns out to be only barely noticeable. We are talking about the collision in the artist's consciousness of opposing aspirations, which left its mark even in the completed canvas, Delacroix's hesitation between a sincere desire to show reality (as he saw it) and an involuntary desire to raise it to the sidelines, between a gravitation towards emotional, immediate and already established painting. accustomed to the artistic tradition. Many were not satisfied that the most ruthless realism, which horrified the well-meaning audience of art Salons, was combined in this picture with an impeccable, ideal beauty. Noting as a dignity the feeling of life reliability, which had never before been manifested in Delacroix's work (and never repeated again later), the artist was reproached for the generalization and symbolism of the image of Freedom. However, and for the generalization of other images, making the artist guilty that the naturalistic nudity of a corpse in the foreground is adjacent to the nudity of Freedom.

This duality did not escape both Delacroix's contemporaries and later connoisseurs and critics. Even 25 years later, when the public was already accustomed to the naturalism of Gustave Courbet and Jean François Millet, Maxime Ducan still raged before Liberty on the Barricades, forgetting any restraint of expressions: “Oh, if Freedom is such, if this girl with bare feet and with bare breasts running, screaming and waving a gun, we don't need it. We have nothing to do with this shameful shrew! "

But, reproaching Delacroix, what could be opposed to his painting? The revolution of 1830 was reflected in the work of other artists. After these events, Louis-Philippe took the royal throne, who tried to present his coming to power as almost the only content of the revolution. Many artists who have taken this approach to the topic have taken the path of least resistance. The revolution, as a spontaneous wave of the people, as a grandiose popular impulse for these masters does not seem to exist at all. They seem to be in a hurry to forget about everything that they saw on the Parisian streets in July 1830, and "three glorious days" appear in their image as quite well-intentioned actions of Parisian citizens, who were concerned only with how to quickly acquire a new king instead of the exiled. These works include Fontaine's painting "The Guard Proclaiming King Louis Philippe" or O. Bernet's painting "The Duke of Orleans Leaving the Palais Royal".

But, pointing to the allegorical nature of the main image, some researchers forget to note that the allegorical nature of Freedom does not at all create dissonance with the rest of the figures in the picture, it does not look as alien and exceptional in the picture as it might seem at first glance. After all, the rest of the acting characters are also allegorical in their essence and in their role. In their person, Delacroix, as it were, brings to the fore the forces that made the revolution: the workers, the intelligentsia and the plebs of Paris. A worker in a blouse and a student (or artist) with a gun are representatives of very specific sectors of society. These are undoubtedly bright and reliable images, but Delacroix brings this generalization to symbols. And this allegoricality, which is clearly felt already in them, reaches its highest development in the figure of Freedom. She is a formidable and beautiful goddess, and at the same time she is a daring Parisian. And next to him, jumping on stones, screaming with delight and waving pistols (as if conducting events) is a nimble, disheveled boy - a little genius of the Parisian barricades, whom Victor Hugo will call Gavroche in 25 years.

The painting "Liberty on the Barricades" ends the romantic period in Delacroix's work. The artist himself was very fond of this painting of his and made a lot of efforts to get it to the Louvre. However, after the seizure of power by the "bourgeois monarchy", the exhibition of this canvas was prohibited. Only in 1848, Delacroix was able to exhibit his painting one more time, and even for quite a long time, but after the defeat of the revolution, it ended up in the storeroom for a long time. The true meaning of this work by Delacroix is ​​determined by its second name, unofficial: many have long been accustomed to seeing in this picture the "Marseillaise of French Painting".

"One hundred great pictures" N. A. Ionin, publishing house "Veche", 2002

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix(1798-1863) - French painter and graphic artist, leader of the romantic trend in European painting.

Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple (1830)

Description of the painting by Eugene Delacroix "Freedom leading the people"

The painting, created by the artist in 1830, and its plot tells about the days of the French Revolution, namely about street clashes in Paris. It was they who led to the overthrow of the hated restoration regime of Karl H.

In his youth, Delacroix, intoxicated by the air of freedom, took the position of a rebel, he was inspired by the idea of ​​writing a canvas glorifying the events of those days. In a letter to his brother, he wrote: "I may not have fought for the Motherland, but I will write for her." The work on it lasted 90 days, after which it was presented to the audience. The canvas was called "Freedom Leading the People".

The plot is simple enough. Street barricade, according to historical sources it is known that they were built from furniture and paving stones. The central character is a woman who, with bare feet, crosses a barrier of stones and leads the people to their intended goal. In the lower part of the foreground, figures of killed people are visible, on the left side of the oppositionist, who was killed in the house, a nightgown is worn on the corpse, and on the right side of an officer of the royal army. These are symbols of the two worlds of the future and the past. In her right hand raised, a woman holds the French tricolor, symbolizing freedom, equality and brotherhood, and in her left hand she holds a gun, ready to give her life for a just cause. Her head is tied with a scarf typical of the Jacobins, her breasts are bared, which means the revolutionary desire to go to the end with their ideas and not be afraid of death from the bayonets of the royal troops.

The figures of other rebels are visible behind it. The author, with his brush, emphasized the diversity of the rebels: there are representatives of the bourgeoisie (a man in a bowler hat), an artisan (a man in a white shirt) and a street child (gavroche). On the right side of the canvas, behind the clouds of smoke, two towers of Notre Dame can be seen, on the roofs of which the banner of the revolution is placed.

Eugene Delacroix. "Freedom leading the people (Freedom on the barricades)" (1830)
Canvas, oil. 260 x 325 cm
Louvre, Paris, France

Delacroix was undoubtedly the greatest romantic exploiter of the motive of flaunting the breast as a means of conveying conflicting feelings. The powerful central figure in Freedom Leading the People owes much of the emotional impact to her majestically illuminated breasts. This woman is a purely mythological figure who has acquired a completely tangible authenticity, appearing among the people on the barricades.

But her tattered suit is the most meticulous exercise in artistic cutting and sewing, so that the resulting woven product shows the breasts as well as possible and thereby asserts the power of the goddess. The dress is sewn with one sleeve to leave the hand holding the flag exposed. Above the waist, apart from the sleeves, the fabric is clearly not enough to cover not only the chest, but also the second shoulder.

The free-spirited artist clothed Freedom with something asymmetrical in design, finding the antique rags to be a fitting outfit for a working-class goddess. In addition, her exposed breasts could not be exposed as a result of some abrupt unintentional action; rather, on the contrary, this detail itself is an integral part of the costume, the moment of the original idea - should at once awaken the feelings of holiness, sensual desire and desperate rage!