Eugene Delacroix Giclée Fine Art Prints

In the words of Charles Baudelaire, Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) was "the leader of the modern school". The artist offered a personal interpretation of the traditions of European painting and opened the way to the future by bringing the imagination to the fore.

Colour takes over the drawing, enriches the composition, defines the content and its expressiveness.

In 1817, Delacroix entered the École de Beaux-Arts and befriended Antoine-Jean Gros and Théodore Géricault. He exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1822, the painting "The Barque of Dante"purchased by the state. In 1824 he presented "The Massacre at Chios", a canvas recalling an episode in the recent Greek national liberation uprising against Ottoman rule, and in 1827 "The Death of Sardanapalus". In this work, the artist disregards the laws of perspective and framing, and pokes fun at the conventions of representation. The colour spills out in a diagonal of red and gold that gives the work its integrity. Delacroix depicts disorder, eroticism, and death with incredible zest - establishing himself as the most prominent representative of the Romantic movement.

In 1832 he sailed from Toulon with the French delegation sent to the Sultan of Morocco; he travelled to Algeria and Spain. The discovery of the light and of the magic of the East intoxicated his senses. He filled his sketchbooks with drawings and watercolours, which would later become a valuable source of forms. Commissioned by the state, he painted decorative panels for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, as well as frescoes for the church of Saint-Sulpice, which he completed two years before his death. Delacroix was also a remarkable writer. His Diary, begun in his youth, is a stirring document of that era.