Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830

Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People is one of the most shocking and popular paintings of its time. Painted in 1830 and measuring 6 feet  by 10 feet, the painting manages to encapsulate the struggle for freedom waged by French working middle class. He achieves this through his use of composition, spacing, body language and color.

Delacroix makes two distinct groupings of people in this painting - the dead lying in the foreground and the gallant revolutionaries standing just above them. Reportedly, Delacroix painted the man sporting a top hat and musket as himself, showing his support for the cause.

Everything in the painting revolves around the center figure and her flag. Her importance in the painting could not be more blatant. Wielding a musket in one hand, she illustrates the call to arms against tyrannical rule. Her stepping forward with one foot over the dead shows the victory over the regime. And finally, placed directly in the center of the painting and held high above anything else, the French flag, wrinkly and beaten by the struggle, waves brilliantly. On top of all this, the light source spotlights her, while an opening in the clouds illuminates her from behind, leaving the rest of the sky in darkness. Her face, looking back to the people, beckons them to march forward. By throwing all the light at the main Liberty figure, Delacroix manages to ensure that the painting beckoned feelings of excitement, as opposed to a solemn reaction to the dead. The men holding guns and swords in the background add to the effect, working together to make this one of the most powerful and well-known paintings of all time.