”Perfect beauty implies perfect simplicity, a quality that at first sight does not arouse the emotions which we feel before gigantic works, objects whose very disproportion constitutes an element of beauty”

Eugène Delacroix

April 26, 1798, Charenton, Île-de-France – August 13, 1863, Paris

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was the greatest French Romantic painter, whose use of colour was influential in the development of both Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. His inspiration came chiefly from historical or contemporary events or literature, and a visit to Morocco in 1832 provided him with further exotic subjects. Delacroix’ debut at the Paris Salon of 1822, in which he exhibited his first masterpiece, Dante and Virgil in Hell, is one of the landmarks in the development of French 19th-century Romantic painting.

 

Delacroix’ use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of color profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement.

Massacre at Chios, 1824

Death of Sardanapalus, 1827

A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, Walter Scott and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

A Young Tiger Playing with its Mother, 1830

In the latter part of his career, Delacroix was favoured with a string of important commissions to decorate government buildings, as a group of murals for the Salon du Roi at the Palais-Bourbon, the ceiling of the Library of the Palais-Bourbon (1838–1847), the Library of the Palais du Luxembourg (1840–1847), the ceiling of the Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre (1850), the Salon de la Paix at the Hotel de Ville (1849–1853), and the Chapel of the Holy Angels in the Church of Saint-Sulpice (1849–1961).

Hamlet with Horatio, 1839

Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, 1844

Christ on the Sea of Galilee, 1854

Moroccan Saddles His Horse, 1855

Lion Hunt, 1861

In the words of Baudelaire, ”Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible.”

Ovid among the Scythians, 1862

More on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix

Source photos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix

 

***** [În română] *****

Eugène Delacroix

26 aprilie, 1798, Charenton, Île-de-France – 13 august 1863, Paris

Eugène Delacroix a fost un important pictor francez din perioada romantismului.

În 1805 moare tatăl artistului, Charles Delacroix, prefect de Bordeaux. Familia se mută la Paris. Micul Eugène începe studiile la Liceul Imperial. Primește o aleasă educație în spirit clasic – Homer, Dante, Byron, Diderot, Montesquieu, Montaigne – face scrimă și continuă studiile muzicale. În anul 1814, Eugène își pierde și mama – moartea ei duce la destrămarea rapidă a familiei Delacroix. La cei 16 ani ai săi, Eugène se mută în casa surorii și a cumnatului său.

În 1822 expune la Salon primul său tablou: Dante și Vergiliu în Infern. În 1832 călătorește în Maroc. Vizitează Andaluzia, unde studiază pictura spaniolă. Între anii 1833-1861, pictorul lucrează la decorarea bibliotecii din Palatul Bourbonilor, a galeriei Apolline din Louvre, a Salonului Păcii din primaria Parisului. Pictează și biserici pariziene: Saint-Denis du Saint-Sacrement, Saint-Sulpice. În ianuarie 1857 a fost acceptat printre membrii Academiei de Arte Frumoase.

Mai mult: https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix

 

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