Essay On Eugene Delacroix

Eugene Delacroix was Born in France on April 26th 1798 and died at the age of 65 on August 13th 1863. Delacroix is defined as a romantic artist (Jobert). The romanticism period was influenced by the industrial revolution and the political turmoil in France due to the changing of government during this time period (French Revolution). Delacroix never truly considered himself a romantic painter, but rather wanted to be known as a more classical painter (Delacroix and Pach). I would like to say that Delacroix reflected a multitude of styles and techniques, and that Delacroix cannot be pinned to one specific style of art. To show the complexity of Delacroix’s styles and influences I will use The Justice of Tragan to exemplify styles such as classicism, romanticism, Baroque, and early stages of impressionism. To give further support of the versatility of Delacroix paintings, I will also re-visit Dante and Virgil to show aspects other than the romantic themes previously discussed in class. I will be comparing Michelangelo’s Dawn to Dante and Virgil to help support my claims. As well as I will be comparing Monet’s Camille Monet in the Garden to Delacroix’s Odalisque to give further evidence of different style in his typically romantic paintings.

Delacroix painted, The Justice of Tragan, which is an oil on canvas, painted in 1840. This painting depicts Roman Emperor Tragan riding into Rome where a mother is calling for him to dispense justice, because her son has been murdered. Tragan at first says that he will deal with the matter when he returns for he is preparing for the upcoming war, but the mother cries out that by then it will be too late for the murderer could have fled by then, and her son deserves justice now (Justice of Tragen)...

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... To review the styles shown in Delacroix’s paintings, he demonstrates romanticism, classicism, baroque, and impressionism. All of these styles are represented in the painting The Justice of Tragan, He shows romanticism through the emotion and the political meaning, classicism in the subject matter, architecture and human figures, baroque style can be seen in with the use of light and diagonal lines, and the early influences of impressionism with the use of complementary colors in the sky. So even though Delacroix is technically defined of a romantic painter, and despite the fact that he qualifies himself as a classical painter I do not think he is either, nor do I think that he is solely a baroque or impressionist painter. I think that Delacroix has the aspects of all of these art styles in his paintings and that he cannot be defined only to one type of art style.