The Great Artists: Romantics & Realists: Delacroix

For lovers of Western Art, the 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People remains the ultimate image of the Romantic Age. a contemporary, revolutionary canvas full of color and movement, it remains the masterpiece of the Frenchman Eugene Delacroix - a painter deeply aware of the Romantic spirit of the times. He was a friend of the composers Chopin and Berlioz, and was also a huge admirer of the tragic figure of Byron. It was Byron's work that inspired the Death of Sardanapalus, one of the most abandoned and violent images of Romantic Art.