Delacroix: last of the Old Masters or first of the new?

By Joe Lloyd

Few artists have delighted and scandalised the public as much as Eugène Delacroix. The greatest French painter of the first half of the 19th century, who is the subject of a landmark retrospective at the Louvre, became famous as a young man for his enormous paintings of dramatic and often violent scenes. Critics saw the intensity of his style as a sign of inner melancholy and turmoil and he was cast as the ultimate Romantic, a reputation that persists to this day.

Romanticism was a cultural movement that began in Britain and Germany in the late 18th century and soon spread to the rest of Europe. It prioritised inspiration and individual experience over the rational values of the Enlightenment. In early 19th century France, the dominant artistic movement was neo-classicism. Neo-classical painters, like Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, specialised in calm compositions, precise drawing and clear lines.