WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.439 Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take a massive 00:00:02.439 --> 00:00:04.259 collection of sources and distill them into the 00:00:04.259 --> 00:00:07.120 must -know facts, the unexpected history, and, 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:11.699 well, the absolute best stories. And today, we're 00:00:11.699 --> 00:00:14.640 tackling a real giant of 19th century French 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:19.219 art, Ferdinand Victor, Eugène Delacroix, acknowledged 00:00:19.219 --> 00:00:21.719 leader, though often, you know, fiercely debated 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:24.960 of the French Romantic school. Just a huge force. 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:27.059 Yeah, the amount of material is almost overwhelming. 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:29.399 We're talking, what, over 9 ,000 works linked 00:00:29.399 --> 00:00:32.000 to him by the end? Exactly. So our mission today 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.520 is pretty clear. Cut through all that. Find the 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:36.520 essential context, the really dramatic works, 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:38.920 those surprising influences that defined him. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.299 And position him, really, as this crucial link, 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:43.979 you know, bridging the old masters and what became 00:00:43.979 --> 00:00:46.200 modern art. To really get Delacroix, though, 00:00:46.219 --> 00:00:48.880 you first have to understand the... The artistic 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:51.380 battleground he stepped onto. His whole identity 00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:53.880 was almost forged in opposition to his great 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:57.140 rival, Ingres. Ah, Ingres. Yeah, that was the 00:00:57.140 --> 00:00:58.880 clash in Paris at the time, wasn't it? Absolutely. 00:00:58.939 --> 00:01:01.119 If you were serious about painting then, you 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:04.620 kind of had to pick a side. Team Angris. Neoclassicism. 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:07.700 Right. Champion in clarity, line, careful form. 00:01:07.819 --> 00:01:10.719 Looking back to Raphael. Line over color, essentially. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:13.790 Gandela Croix. He went the complete opposite 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:15.730 direction, looked further back, beyond the French 00:01:15.730 --> 00:01:18.549 school even, to the Venetians, Titian, Veronese, 00:01:18.590 --> 00:01:21.250 and especially Rubens. So for him, it was color 00:01:21.250 --> 00:01:23.709 first. Color, definitely. Yeah. And movement, 00:01:23.890 --> 00:01:27.650 explosive energy, intense drama. Ingres wanted 00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:30.310 structure, that static perfection. Delacroix 00:01:30.310 --> 00:01:34.239 wanted, well. Passion, violence, nature, action. 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:36.019 But it wasn't just one -out emotion, was it? 00:01:36.019 --> 00:01:37.680 There was calculation there. I love that quote 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.500 from Baudelaire. Oh, the Baudelaire quote is 00:01:39.500 --> 00:01:42.099 perfect. Passionately in love with passion, but 00:01:42.099 --> 00:01:45.000 coldly determined to express passion as clearly 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.739 as possible. Coldly determined. That's the key, 00:01:47.819 --> 00:01:49.640 isn't it? It really is. It implies his rational 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:52.079 mind controlling the explosion. He wasn't just, 00:01:52.099 --> 00:01:54.180 you know, throwing paint around. He was engineering 00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:56.840 an emotional response using really sophisticated 00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:00.500 techniques. Color theory, composition. That intellectual 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:03.200 control. It stops it from just being melodrama. 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:05.280 Precisely. Okay, so let's dig into the man himself. 00:02:05.780 --> 00:02:09.580 His origins are, well, they're pretty interesting, 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:13.580 even a bit mysterious. Born 1798 near Paris. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.379 Came from a good background initially, educated, 00:02:16.620 --> 00:02:19.639 but tragedy hit early. His legal father, Charles 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:22.740 Francois Delacroix, died in 1805. And then his 00:02:22.740 --> 00:02:26.099 mother in 1814, so he was orphaned at 16. Yeah, 00:02:26.139 --> 00:02:29.069 quite young. But the real intrigue, the shadow 00:02:29.069 --> 00:02:31.849 over his birth, is who his biological father 00:02:31.849 --> 00:02:33.750 might have been. This is the Talleyrand connection, 00:02:33.969 --> 00:02:36.349 right? Exactly. The sources strongly suggest 00:02:36.349 --> 00:02:38.750 that his legal father, Charles Francois, couldn't 00:02:38.750 --> 00:02:40.830 have actually conceived him at the time. Medical 00:02:40.830 --> 00:02:43.590 reasons. So the finger points squarely at Charles 00:02:43.590 --> 00:02:47.009 Maurice de Talleyrand Paragor, diplomatic extraordinaire. 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:49.439 Family friend. And the man who actually took 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:51.740 over from Charles François as Minister of Foreign 00:02:51.740 --> 00:02:53.900 Affairs. It's quite the connection. Delacroix 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:55.659 himself probably suspected it. And there's more 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:57.960 than just suspicion, right? People noted the 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:00.740 resemblance later on. Oh, yeah. Apparently the 00:03:00.740 --> 00:03:02.919 physical similarity between the adult Eugene 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:05.699 and Talleyrand was striking. But it goes beyond 00:03:05.699 --> 00:03:08.080 looks. The practical support. That's crucial. 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:11.120 Talleyrand provided support throughout Delacroix's 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:13.599 career. often through what are described as these 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:16.759 numerous anonymous commissions. Which, for a 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:19.259 young artist trying to break the mold, must have 00:03:19.259 --> 00:03:22.879 been vital, especially going up against the neoclassical 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:24.939 establishment. Absolutely essential. Think about 00:03:24.939 --> 00:03:27.860 it. You're young, maybe struggling financially, 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:30.860 and you're deliberately provoking the powerful 00:03:30.860 --> 00:03:33.479 academy. You need a patron. Someone with influence. 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:37.120 And Telerand, a master political operator, could 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:40.599 offer both money and, just as importantly, protection. 00:03:41.240 --> 00:03:44.439 It kind of reframes his early ability to withstand 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:47.340 criticism. Makes sense. Despite all this potential 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:49.419 drama behind the scenes, his formal training 00:03:49.419 --> 00:03:51.500 was very conventional, wasn't it? Oh, completely. 00:03:52.099 --> 00:03:54.939 Studied classics, L 'Essai Louis Le Grand. Then, 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.819 from 1815, trained with Pierre Narcisse Caron. 00:03:57.979 --> 00:04:00.159 Who was a disciple of Jacques Louis David. So 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.780 pure neoclassical style. Right. And his early 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:05.379 pieces, like The Virgin of the Harvest from 1819, 00:04:05.639 --> 00:04:07.960 show he could do it perfectly well. That refined 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:10.740 Raphael -esque drawing. The skill was there. 00:04:11.020 --> 00:04:13.680 But the passion wasn't quite unleashed yet. Not 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:16.819 yet. That needed a catalyst. And the catalyst 00:04:16.819 --> 00:04:19.699 was his friend, Theta Doverico. And specifically, 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:22.560 Jericho's painting, The Raft of the Medusa. Oh, 00:04:22.819 --> 00:04:25.720 The Raft. That painting just exploded onto the 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:28.439 scene. High drama, contemporary disaster, raw 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:32.019 human suffering on a massive scale. It was romanticism 00:04:32.019 --> 00:04:34.740 announcing itself with force. And Delacroix saw 00:04:34.740 --> 00:04:36.620 it and thought, okay, that's the way forward. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:39.569 Seems like it. His immediate big response was 00:04:39.569 --> 00:04:43.709 the bark of Dante in 1822. Dante and Virgil crossing 00:04:43.709 --> 00:04:46.689 the sticks, the damn souls clinging to the boat. 00:04:46.829 --> 00:04:49.829 It debuted at the Paris Salon. Caused a huge 00:04:49.829 --> 00:04:52.709 stir. Huge, yeah. And mostly negative from the 00:04:52.709 --> 00:04:55.029 establishment critics. They were shocked. Why, 00:04:55.029 --> 00:04:58.709 what? The energy, the color. All of it. The frenzied 00:04:58.709 --> 00:05:00.649 movement, what they saw as an unfinished look, 00:05:00.810 --> 00:05:03.389 the vibrant, almost jarring colors. It was a 00:05:03.389 --> 00:05:05.850 direct challenge to neoclassical restraint. But 00:05:05.850 --> 00:05:08.790 interestingly, the state still bought it for 00:05:08.790 --> 00:05:10.810 the Luxembourg galleries. Right. And that set 00:05:10.810 --> 00:05:12.569 the pattern for his whole career, didn't it? 00:05:12.769 --> 00:05:15.149 Widespread official opposition, but then support 00:05:15.149 --> 00:05:18.050 from powerful, often more forward -thinking patrons 00:05:18.050 --> 00:05:20.949 or state figures. He learned early on how to 00:05:20.949 --> 00:05:23.550 navigate that system, how to find support outside 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:26.129 the Academy's approval. He definitely did. He 00:05:26.129 --> 00:05:28.629 knew he was picking a fight. So this controversial 00:05:28.629 --> 00:05:31.649 but successful debut launched him right into 00:05:31.649 --> 00:05:34.350 engaging with current events, which takes us 00:05:34.350 --> 00:05:36.939 nicely into our next section. political passion, 00:05:37.060 --> 00:05:39.899 and the grand scale of suffering. Yeah, he moved 00:05:39.899 --> 00:05:42.759 quickly from literary or religious themes to 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:46.279 real -time political crises, specifically the 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:48.720 Greek War of Independence against the Ottomans. 00:05:48.939 --> 00:05:51.259 A cause celeb across Europe at the time, right? 00:05:51.339 --> 00:05:54.139 Fueled partly by Lord Byron. Hugely. Byron was 00:05:54.139 --> 00:05:57.500 this embodiment of romantic ideals, the passionate 00:05:57.500 --> 00:06:00.899 artist involved in revolutionary action. Delacroix 00:06:00.899 --> 00:06:03.579 admired him enormously. And Delacroix wades in 00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:06.199 with the massacre at Chios in 18 - 1824, which 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:08.600 wasn't your typical heroic battle scene. Not 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:10.459 at all. That's what made it so radical. It showed 00:06:10.459 --> 00:06:12.480 Greek civilians being rounded up for death or 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:15.339 slavery by the Turks. No heroism, no comfort, 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:18.319 just disaster. That must have really provoked 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:20.100 the establishment. History painting was supposed 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:24.019 to be uplifting, moral. Exactly. Think of David's 00:06:24.019 --> 00:06:27.620 oath of the Heratia noble sacrifice, clear moral 00:06:27.620 --> 00:06:31.279 choice. Chios offered none of that. Just apathy, 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:34.050 despair, suffering. I remember that quote from 00:06:34.050 --> 00:06:36.149 Antoine Jean Gros, another artist, he called 00:06:36.149 --> 00:06:39.850 it. A massacre of art. Yeah. They hated it. If 00:06:39.850 --> 00:06:42.170 you're going to paint on that scale, show us 00:06:42.170 --> 00:06:44.470 virtue, show us heroism, or at least give us 00:06:44.470 --> 00:06:47.269 a clean line. Delacroix gave them raw suffering 00:06:47.269 --> 00:06:50.430 and this landscape that looked almost messy. 00:06:50.670 --> 00:06:52.709 That messy quality, though, that's technically 00:06:52.709 --> 00:06:54.810 important, isn't it? Something changed in his 00:06:54.810 --> 00:06:57.470 technique around then. Oh, massively. While he 00:06:57.470 --> 00:07:00.449 was working on Chios, he saw paintings by English 00:07:00.449 --> 00:07:03.519 landscape artists. John Constable, Richard Parks 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:05.740 Bonington. And they were focused on light and 00:07:05.740 --> 00:07:07.699 color in a different way. Completely different. 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:10.279 Studying nature directly, trying to capture the 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:12.660 effects of light. So Delacroix, inspired by this, 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:14.959 apparently went back to Chios and made huge changes. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:17.160 To the sky and background. Yeah, painting them 00:07:17.160 --> 00:07:20.220 much more freely. And crucially, he started experimenting 00:07:20.220 --> 00:07:23.040 with putting dabs of pure, complementary color 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:25.920 side by side. Optical mixing. Letting the viewer's 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:28.699 eye blend the colors from a distance. Precisely. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:31.439 Instead of mixing green on the palette. Put down 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:34.240 yellow next to blue. Small, broken brush strokes. 00:07:34.759 --> 00:07:36.800 It's a technique that directly points towards 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.720 impressionism decades later. Wow. So a revolutionary 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:43.720 technique to depict a politically charged tragedy 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:46.399 that the Academy probably didn't even think was 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:48.639 a suitable subject for high art. That sums it 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:50.600 up pretty well. A total rupture. And he followed 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:52.839 this up two years later, still on the Greek theme, 00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:56.220 with Greece on the ruins of Missolonghi, 1826. 00:07:56.720 --> 00:07:58.980 Right. This was a direct response to another 00:07:58.980 --> 00:08:01.899 horrific event, the siege of Missolonghi in 1825, 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:04.420 where the Greek defenders, rather than surrender 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:07.649 to the Turks, basically chose mass suicide. Blew 00:08:07.649 --> 00:08:09.509 themselves up. So the painting is more allegorical. 00:08:09.529 --> 00:08:11.910 A monument. Yes, very much a monument. You have 00:08:11.910 --> 00:08:14.189 this central figure, a woman in Greek dress, 00:08:14.410 --> 00:08:17.509 breast bared, standing amidst the rubble. She's 00:08:17.509 --> 00:08:21.870 liberty or Greece personified. Arms raised imploringly. 00:08:21.870 --> 00:08:24.170 Yes, a really dramatic gesture. It's clearly 00:08:24.170 --> 00:08:26.930 symbolizing freedom against tyranny. Using that 00:08:26.930 --> 00:08:28.910 female figure as the sort of soul of the nation. 00:08:29.129 --> 00:08:32.090 And the timing again. Byron had died at Missolonghi 00:08:32.090 --> 00:08:35.509 just the year before. Exactly. Sealing that tragic 00:08:35.509 --> 00:08:38.850 romantic connection between the cause, the place, 00:08:38.950 --> 00:08:42.950 and the poet Delacroix admired so much. So these 00:08:42.950 --> 00:08:46.169 early works really cemented his reputation. Not 00:08:46.169 --> 00:08:48.669 just a painter, but someone reacting powerfully, 00:08:48.730 --> 00:08:51.330 maybe even violently, to the world around him. 00:08:51.450 --> 00:08:55.149 Using color, scale, movement to express these 00:08:55.149 --> 00:08:58.110 huge emotions. And that search for intense feeling, 00:08:58.269 --> 00:09:01.009 for drama, leads us right into his next phase. 00:09:01.549 --> 00:09:04.549 violence, sensuality, and the literary imagination. 00:09:05.009 --> 00:09:07.549 That trip to England in 1825 seems important 00:09:07.549 --> 00:09:10.470 here, too. Seeing Constable in Bonington wasn't 00:09:10.470 --> 00:09:12.769 just about landscape, was it? No, it reinforced 00:09:12.769 --> 00:09:15.690 his whole approach to color. He visited portraitists 00:09:15.690 --> 00:09:18.090 like Thomas Lawrence, too. It solidified his 00:09:18.090 --> 00:09:20.610 move away from strict linearity. You can really 00:09:20.610 --> 00:09:22.450 see that in the portrait of Louis Goss Schwider, 00:09:22.549 --> 00:09:25.049 can't you? Painted around 1826 -30, it's quite 00:09:25.049 --> 00:09:27.250 elegant, but the color handling is so rich in 00:09:27.250 --> 00:09:29.370 one of his few full -length portraits. It is 00:09:29.370 --> 00:09:31.929 beautiful. But beyond portraits, he really dives 00:09:31.929 --> 00:09:34.350 into literature for inspiration, especially authors 00:09:34.350 --> 00:09:37.009 dealing with passion, darkness, history. And 00:09:37.009 --> 00:09:38.570 he wasn't just painting based on them. He was 00:09:38.570 --> 00:09:41.940 a lithographer, too. A very fine one, yes. hugely 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:44.500 prolific, illustrating Shakespeare thinks the 00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:47.279 death of Ophelia, Hamlet scenes Goethe's Faust, 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:50.179 Walter Scott's historical novels. He's visually 00:09:50.179 --> 00:09:52.320 interpreting the great romantic narratives. But 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:54.259 the painting that really combines literature, 00:09:54.460 --> 00:09:57.159 violence and sensuality in the most extreme way 00:09:57.159 --> 00:10:00.659 has to be the death of Sardanapalus from 1827 00:10:00.659 --> 00:10:03.840 -28. Oh, Sardanapalus. Yeah, that is peak dark 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:06.179 romanticism right there. A massive, overwhelming 00:10:06.179 --> 00:10:08.940 canvas. Based on a play by Byron again, right? 00:10:09.059 --> 00:10:11.240 But Delacroix really amps it up. He takes the 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:14.019 story of the doomed Assyrian king, Sardanapalus, 00:10:14.019 --> 00:10:16.720 who, facing defeat, orders everything he values 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.399 destroyed before the enemy arrives. Servants, 00:10:19.399 --> 00:10:21.799 concubines, horses, treasures. And he turns it 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:25.200 into this opulent nightmare. The king sits on 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:27.820 his own funeral pyre, watching it all unfold. 00:10:28.059 --> 00:10:30.019 Watching with his terrifying, calm detachment 00:10:30.019 --> 00:10:32.659 as chaos erupts around him. Silk, gold, jewels, 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:34.559 blood, slaughter. The shock valley must have 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:37.179 been immense. It's so visually rich, exotic colors, 00:10:37.299 --> 00:10:40.100 sensual figures, but then, just like horror. 00:10:40.700 --> 00:10:43.059 Absolute horror. Look at the foreground. That 00:10:43.059 --> 00:10:45.200 struggling nude woman about to have her throat 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:48.600 cut. Jewels scattered around. Dying animals. 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:51.799 The whole composition is this whirlwind of diagonals. 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:55.519 The dying horse, the victims, all angled dramatically. 00:10:55.679 --> 00:10:58.059 Exactly. Fighting against the static central 00:10:58.059 --> 00:11:00.860 figure of the impassive king. It's visual anarchy, 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.799 barely contained. But wasn't he criticized for 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:06.659 just exploiting the violence and nudity? Using 00:11:06.659 --> 00:11:09.549 a literary source as an excuse for pure sensation. 00:11:09.889 --> 00:11:11.889 Oh, absolutely. Critics were appalled. They saw 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:15.409 the gore, the chaos, the eroticism. But for Delacroix 00:11:15.409 --> 00:11:18.210 and for romanticism, this was about the sublime, 00:11:18.269 --> 00:11:20.850 that mix of terror and beauty, pushing passion 00:11:20.850 --> 00:11:23.169 to its absolute limit. And the king's detachment, 00:11:23.169 --> 00:11:26.149 is that part of the romantic ideal? It's often 00:11:26.149 --> 00:11:28.070 interpreted that way, yeah. Transcending the 00:11:28.070 --> 00:11:30.289 physical horror through willpower or indifference. 00:11:30.970 --> 00:11:32.970 But yeah, the official reaction was overwhelmingly 00:11:32.970 --> 00:11:34.850 negative. The painting was so disturbing, it 00:11:34.850 --> 00:11:37.509 wasn't shown again for ages. So a huge swing 00:11:37.509 --> 00:11:40.929 from the political suffering of Chios to this 00:11:40.929 --> 00:11:43.789 theatrical, self -inflicted, almost eroticized 00:11:43.789 --> 00:11:46.649 violence. Same energy, different subject. He 00:11:46.649 --> 00:11:50.149 kept exploring that dark historical vein. In 00:11:50.149 --> 00:11:53.710 1829, the murder of the Bishop of Liège, inspired 00:11:53.710 --> 00:11:56.649 by Walter Scott. Another medieval scene. Very 00:11:56.649 --> 00:11:58.929 dramatic. And technically impressive too, right? 00:11:58.990 --> 00:12:01.250 The use of light and shadow. The chiaroscuro, 00:12:01.289 --> 00:12:03.649 yeah, it's fantastic. We know he based the setting, 00:12:03.730 --> 00:12:06.470 that huge vaulted hall, on sketches he'd made 00:12:06.470 --> 00:12:08.690 of places like the Palais de Justice in Rouen 00:12:08.690 --> 00:12:11.450 and maybe even Westminster Hall. So bringing 00:12:11.450 --> 00:12:15.070 architectural realism into these historical fantasies. 00:12:15.210 --> 00:12:17.629 Right. And the brushwork itself had that characteristic 00:12:17.629 --> 00:12:20.039 energy. There's a great quote from a critic in 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:22.440 1855 describing it. What did they say? Something 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:25.139 like, less finished than a painting, more finished 00:12:25.139 --> 00:12:27.940 than a sketch. Left by the painter at that supreme 00:12:27.940 --> 00:12:30.879 moment when one more stroke of the brush would 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:32.799 have ruined everything. Capturing that perfect 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:35.000 moment of spontaneity, that really sums up his 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:36.960 appeal, doesn't it? It does. And that energy 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:39.600 absolutely explodes in his most famous work. 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:42.500 Which brings us to the next big moment. Liberty, 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:45.899 legacy, and political explosiveness. We have 00:12:45.899 --> 00:12:48.500 to talk about liberty leading the people, 1830. 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:51.240 The definitive image of the Romantic movement, 00:12:51.419 --> 00:12:54.639 maybe. You can definitely argue that. Painted 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:57.820 right after the July Revolution of 1830, the 00:12:57.820 --> 00:13:00.399 three glorious days that kicked out King Charles 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:03.879 X. It's such a powerful image. Part real, part 00:13:03.879 --> 00:13:06.379 allegory. Completely dominated by liberty herself, 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:09.669 right? The symbolic, powerful figure marching 00:13:09.669 --> 00:13:11.750 over the barricade, holding the tricolor flag. 00:13:11.990 --> 00:13:14.289 She embodies the will of the people. And the 00:13:14.289 --> 00:13:17.549 people around her are so specific, not just generic 00:13:17.549 --> 00:13:20.029 figures. No, you've got the street kid with the 00:13:20.029 --> 00:13:22.549 pistols, Gavroche -like figure, the factory worker, 00:13:22.750 --> 00:13:25.509 the bourgeois guy in the top hat. All classes 00:13:25.509 --> 00:13:28.009 united in that moment of uprising. But then grounded 00:13:28.009 --> 00:13:30.740 by the reality of the foreground. Yes, that's 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:33.100 the crucial counterpoint. The dead soldiers, 00:13:33.299 --> 00:13:35.940 the cost of the revolution lying right there 00:13:35.940 --> 00:13:38.399 at Liberty's feet. It's triumph mixed with sacrifice. 00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:40.759 So the new government, Louis -Felix regime, they 00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:42.980 bought the painting. They did. But then they 00:13:42.980 --> 00:13:45.159 almost immediately got cold feet. Too inflammatory, 00:13:45.299 --> 00:13:47.500 even though it celebrated the revolution that 00:13:47.500 --> 00:13:50.080 brought them to power. Exactly. They realized 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:52.179 pretty quickly that glorifying street revolution 00:13:52.179 --> 00:13:55.379 could be, well, dangerous for any government, 00:13:55.500 --> 00:13:57.679 even the one that just benefited from it. By 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:00.950 1832, it was taken down. deemed too inflammatory 00:14:00.950 --> 00:14:03.850 for public view. Wow. That says a lot about its 00:14:03.850 --> 00:14:06.350 power. The government was literally scared of 00:14:06.350 --> 00:14:08.629 the art it owned. It really does. It stayed hidden 00:14:08.629 --> 00:14:11.490 away for years. Until when? Wasn't put back on 00:14:11.490 --> 00:14:13.970 proper display until after the next revolution, 00:14:14.190 --> 00:14:17.250 the one in 1848 under Louis Napoleon, later Napoleon 00:14:17.250 --> 00:14:19.950 III. Then its status as the symbol of French 00:14:19.950 --> 00:14:22.590 republicanism was locked in. And that connection 00:14:22.590 --> 00:14:25.960 to Le Miserable. The boy -inspiring Gavroche? 00:14:26.179 --> 00:14:28.639 Widely believed, yeah, though maybe more speculation 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:31.159 than proven fact. But it shows how the painting 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:33.279 entered the cultural imagination. So liberty 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:36.399 ties together revolution, myth, literature, and 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:39.620 his signature style. Color, movement, passion. 00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:41.960 Where do you even go after creating something 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:43.899 like that? Well, Delacroix went somewhere completely 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:46.240 different, personally and artistically, which 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:48.840 leads us to phase five, the exotic escape and 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:52.080 North African travel. The trip in 1832 with the 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:54.700 diplomatic mission. That's the one. With Charles 00:14:54.700 --> 00:14:57.000 Edgar de Mornay. They traveled through Spain, 00:14:57.059 --> 00:15:00.500 then into North Africa, Morocco mainly. This 00:15:00.500 --> 00:15:02.840 was just after France had conquered Algeria. 00:15:02.860 --> 00:15:04.919 So it was a politically charged region, too. 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:06.940 And his reason for going wasn't just artistic 00:15:06.940 --> 00:15:10.700 tourism. He wanted to get away. He explicitly 00:15:10.700 --> 00:15:12.980 said so. He wanted to escape the constraints 00:15:12.980 --> 00:15:15.919 of Paris, find something more primitive, more 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:19.500 authentic, as he saw it, away from European conventions. 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.740 And this trip becomes foundational for the whole 00:15:22.740 --> 00:15:25.980 Orientalist movement in art, right? Though maybe 00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:28.220 his version was a bit different. It was. Yes, 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:30.980 it fed into Orientalism, this fascination with 00:15:30.980 --> 00:15:34.059 the East. But Delacroix wasn't just looking for 00:15:34.059 --> 00:15:36.899 exoticism for its own sake. He was looking for 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:39.340 a connection to the classical past. How so? He 00:15:39.340 --> 00:15:41.500 was absolutely captivated by the people he saw, 00:15:41.620 --> 00:15:43.759 their clothes, their bearing. He felt they had 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:46.500 a dignity. a way of moving and dressing that 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:48.580 was closer to ancient Romans and Greeks than 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:50.860 anything he saw in modern Paris. Didn't he write 00:15:50.860 --> 00:15:52.879 something about that in his journal? He did. 00:15:53.259 --> 00:15:55.580 Something like, the Greeks and Romans are here 00:15:55.580 --> 00:15:57.820 at my door, in the Arabs who wrap themselves 00:15:57.820 --> 00:16:00.779 in a white blanket and look like Cato or Brutus. 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:04.500 So he saw North Africa not just as other, but 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:07.080 as a living link to the classical world he admired. 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:11.070 Exactly. He was synthesizing. Seeing classical 00:16:11.070 --> 00:16:13.750 dignity through the lens of vibrant real -world 00:16:13.750 --> 00:16:16.330 color and light, not through the cold white marble 00:16:16.330 --> 00:16:19.129 of neoclassicism, it was almost a critique of 00:16:19.129 --> 00:16:22.169 his own society. Combining classical ideals with 00:16:22.169 --> 00:16:24.789 romantic execution. That's a good way to put 00:16:24.789 --> 00:16:27.389 it. And the trip unleashed a torrent of work. 00:16:27.570 --> 00:16:30.090 Over a hundred paintings and drawings came out 00:16:30.090 --> 00:16:32.230 of it. But he ran into difficulties, didn't he? 00:16:32.269 --> 00:16:35.149 Especially trying to paint women. Big time. Religious 00:16:35.149 --> 00:16:37.450 and cultural norms meant Muslim women were largely 00:16:37.450 --> 00:16:40.250 inaccessible to a male European artist. They 00:16:40.250 --> 00:16:42.830 had to remain covered and secluded. But he managed 00:16:42.830 --> 00:16:45.450 somehow for that famous painting, Women of Algiers. 00:16:45.730 --> 00:16:48.289 Yes, he got special, discreet permission to sketch 00:16:48.289 --> 00:16:50.950 some women in a private home in Algiers. That 00:16:50.950 --> 00:16:52.789 resulted in Women of Algiers in their apartment, 00:16:53.029 --> 00:16:56.610 1834. It's incredible, so intimate, glowing with 00:16:56.610 --> 00:16:59.330 color, a real contrast to the violence of some 00:16:59.330 --> 00:17:01.690 earlier works. A moment of quiet observation. 00:17:02.129 --> 00:17:04.769 Definitely. He had less trouble painting subjects 00:17:04.769 --> 00:17:06.910 from the Jewish communities, though. That led 00:17:06.910 --> 00:17:09.210 to works like The Jewish Wedding in Morocco from 00:17:09.210 --> 00:17:12.509 1839. And the trip also seemed to boost his interest 00:17:12.509 --> 00:17:15.910 in painting animals. Horses, lions. Oh, absolutely. 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:18.950 For romantics, powerful animals often embodied 00:17:18.950 --> 00:17:23.289 pure, untamed passion. Nature's energy, free 00:17:23.289 --> 00:17:26.450 from civilization's constraints. So horses fighting, 00:17:26.789 --> 00:17:29.950 lions hunting, these became major themes. Yeah, 00:17:29.970 --> 00:17:33.049 think of Arab horses fighting in a stable, 1860, 00:17:33.190 --> 00:17:35.349 or the various versions of the lion hunt. They're 00:17:35.349 --> 00:17:38.509 all about that raw, dynamic energy. The animal 00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:41.009 is a symbol of primal force. It feels like as 00:17:41.009 --> 00:17:44.089 he got older, his focus shifted slightly. Less 00:17:44.089 --> 00:17:46.490 reaction to immediate events, more towards these 00:17:46.490 --> 00:17:49.230 sustained, large -scale projects. Which brings 00:17:49.230 --> 00:17:51.569 us to religious works, musical inspirations, 00:17:51.710 --> 00:17:54.490 and those huge monumental commissions. It's true. 00:17:55.109 --> 00:17:57.549 Despite the sometimes scandalous or violent nature 00:17:57.549 --> 00:18:00.029 of his famous works, he had a lifelong engagement 00:18:00.029 --> 00:18:02.430 with Christian themes, hundreds of religious 00:18:02.430 --> 00:18:05.029 paintings. Which seems a bit paradoxical, given 00:18:05.029 --> 00:18:07.569 that some sources suggest he wasn't conventionally 00:18:07.569 --> 00:18:09.970 religious, maybe agnostic. It is fascinating. 00:18:10.410 --> 00:18:12.789 But for Delacroix, the stories of Christianity, 00:18:13.049 --> 00:18:15.609 the suffering, the redemption, the miracles, 00:18:15.710 --> 00:18:18.130 offered perfect vehicles for exploring profound 00:18:18.130 --> 00:18:21.460 human emotion on a grand scale. So works like 00:18:21.460 --> 00:18:23.619 Christ on the Sea of Galilee, he did multiple 00:18:23.619 --> 00:18:26.200 versions. Yes, exploring that theme of faith 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:29.740 tested by natural chaos. And his interpretations 00:18:29.740 --> 00:18:33.579 had power. His Pieta Mary Mourning Christ was 00:18:33.579 --> 00:18:36.759 later copied by Van Gogh. That shows the emotional 00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:39.680 resonance. And alongside painting, music remained 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:42.039 incredibly important to him, didn't it? Absolutely 00:18:42.039 --> 00:18:44.140 essential. He wrote about needing it constantly. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:46.220 Said something like, nothing can be compared 00:18:46.220 --> 00:18:48.829 with the emotion caused by music. that have put 00:18:48.829 --> 00:18:51.569 him in a state of exaltation needed for creation. 00:18:51.849 --> 00:18:54.789 Did he connect specific composers to his work? 00:18:55.049 --> 00:18:57.150 Beethoven seems to have been a major inspiration, 00:18:57.250 --> 00:18:59.849 that sense of scale, drama, emotional intensity. 00:19:00.430 --> 00:19:03.089 And he was close friends with Chopin. Ah, the 00:19:03.089 --> 00:19:05.190 double portrait with George Sand that got cut 00:19:05.190 --> 00:19:07.609 up. Sadly, yes. We only have the fragments now. 00:19:07.910 --> 00:19:10.190 But you can imagine him responding to the rhythm, 00:19:10.250 --> 00:19:13.329 the harmonies, the emotional arcs in music, and 00:19:13.329 --> 00:19:15.269 trying to translate that feeling into color and 00:19:15.269 --> 00:19:18.480 composition. And this energy, fueled by music 00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:20.900 perhaps, helped him tackle these enormous public 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:23.160 commissions later in his career. Definitely. 00:19:23.900 --> 00:19:27.140 Starting around 1833, he began receiving major 00:19:27.140 --> 00:19:29.759 government contracts to decorate public buildings. 00:19:30.339 --> 00:19:32.900 This was a chance to work on the kind of architectural 00:19:32.900 --> 00:19:36.140 scale he admired in the old masters. Like Veronese, 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:40.500 Tintoretto, Rubens, the great decorators. Exactly. 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:43.299 It was a lifelong ambition. But it required a 00:19:43.299 --> 00:19:45.119 different kind of discipline than studio painting. 00:19:45.500 --> 00:19:48.259 Years of sustained effort. We're talking huge 00:19:48.259 --> 00:19:51.049 projects. The Salon du Roi at the Palais Bourbon, 00:19:51.289 --> 00:19:53.650 libraries in the Palais Bourbon, and the Luxembourg, 00:19:53.690 --> 00:19:55.730 the ceiling of the Galerie de Poulain in the 00:19:55.730 --> 00:19:59.029 Louvre. Monumental undertakings and incredibly 00:19:59.029 --> 00:20:01.630 demanding physically. Imagine spending years 00:20:01.630 --> 00:20:04.309 up on scaffolding, dealing with fresco techniques 00:20:04.309 --> 00:20:06.950 or painting on dry plaster, trying to make your 00:20:06.950 --> 00:20:09.589 colors work across vast, often curved surfaces. 00:20:09.910 --> 00:20:12.170 It's a world away from the perceived spontaneity 00:20:12.170 --> 00:20:14.170 of some of his other work. It really is. It shows 00:20:14.170 --> 00:20:16.589 incredible range and discipline. And the culmination 00:20:16.589 --> 00:20:19.059 of all this was his final major commission. The 00:20:19.059 --> 00:20:21.519 Chapel at Saint -Sulpice. The Chapelle des Anges 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:24.400 at Saint -Sulpice, yes. Completed between 1857 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:27.859 and 1861. It's considered his masterpiece in 00:20:27.859 --> 00:20:30.880 mural painting. Featuring two massive, incredibly 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:33.799 dynamic scenes. Jacob wrestling with the angel 00:20:33.799 --> 00:20:36.019 and the expulsion of Heliodorus from the temple. 00:20:36.180 --> 00:20:38.519 They have this amazing energy, dramatic lighting. 00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:41.299 Art historians often call it the finest mural 00:20:41.299 --> 00:20:43.779 painting of his time. It must have taken a tremendous 00:20:43.779 --> 00:20:46.640 toll on him physically. It did. His health was 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.279 already fragile, and the years of labor on these 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:51.740 murals really wore him down. And this is where 00:20:51.740 --> 00:20:54.180 his housekeeper becomes important. Jenny? Jean 00:20:54.180 --> 00:20:56.700 -Marie Le Guillaume, yes. Yeah. Jenny. She was 00:20:56.700 --> 00:20:59.240 incredibly devoted, fiercely protective of his 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:01.640 privacy in his later years, managed everything 00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:04.299 for him. Many credit her care with allowing him 00:21:04.299 --> 00:21:06.140 to keep working as long as he did. A touching 00:21:06.140 --> 00:21:08.579 detail. The great public artist needing that 00:21:08.579 --> 00:21:10.640 private support. It humanizes him, doesn't it? 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:13.200 It does. Which brings us to his final legacy 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:16.099 and those unusual final instructions. First, 00:21:16.259 --> 00:21:19.259 just the sheer volume of work he left. That 1864 00:21:19.259 --> 00:21:23.319 sale. Over 9 ,000 items. It's just staggering. 00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:26.720 About 850 paintings, over 1 ,500 pastels and 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:30.619 watercolors, and get this, over 6 ,600 drawings. 00:21:30.859 --> 00:21:33.460 Wow. All that drawing really underlines his own 00:21:33.460 --> 00:21:35.720 quote, doesn't it? Color always occupies me, 00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:39.579 but drawing preoccupies me, yes. For all his 00:21:39.579 --> 00:21:41.900 fame as a colorist, the foundation was constant, 00:21:42.019 --> 00:21:45.259 obsessive drawing. And his impact on the artists 00:21:45.259 --> 00:21:48.660 who followed. Immense. Foundational for modernism, 00:21:48.700 --> 00:21:51.160 really. His expressive brushwork, his ideas about 00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:53.480 color, especially how shadows aren't just black 00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:55.720 but contain color that directly influenced the 00:21:55.720 --> 00:21:58.240 Impressionists. Manet, Renoir, they copied his 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:00.539 works. Obsessively. Trying to figure out how 00:22:00.539 --> 00:22:03.240 he did it. And someone like Degas bought the 00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:05.180 portrait of Baron Schweider for his own collection. 00:22:05.380 --> 00:22:07.579 They knew he was the key figure. The direct line 00:22:07.579 --> 00:22:10.160 runs through him. Absolutely. From the old masters 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:13.059 through Romanticism, pointing directly to Impressionism 00:22:13.059 --> 00:22:15.470 and beyond. And we also have his journal. Which 00:22:15.470 --> 00:22:17.710 gives us insight into his thinking. A fantastic 00:22:17.710 --> 00:22:20.690 resource. His thoughts on art, life, politics. 00:22:20.950 --> 00:22:23.369 Very eloquent, very revealing. Which makes his 00:22:23.369 --> 00:22:25.809 final instruction even more striking. He died 00:22:25.809 --> 00:22:29.869 August 13, 1863. But his will contains something 00:22:29.869 --> 00:22:32.390 quite specific. Extremely specific and unusual. 00:22:32.670 --> 00:22:35.970 He put in a clause expressly forbidding any representation 00:22:35.970 --> 00:22:38.609 of his features after his death. No death mask, 00:22:38.910 --> 00:22:42.150 no drawings, no photographs. Nothing. I forbid 00:22:42.150 --> 00:22:44.990 it expressly, he wrote. That's quite something. 00:22:45.210 --> 00:22:47.710 For an artist who spent his life creating unforgettable 00:22:47.710 --> 00:22:52.109 images of human drama, liberty, the Greeks, Sardanapalus, 00:22:52.109 --> 00:22:55.549 to then demand his own image be erased. It's 00:22:55.549 --> 00:22:57.710 a profound final act, almost a contradiction. 00:22:58.130 --> 00:23:00.970 The master image maker wanting his own physical 00:23:00.970 --> 00:23:03.170 form to vanish from the record. So wrapping this 00:23:03.170 --> 00:23:05.900 up, Delacroix. The romantic who fused politics, 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:08.660 literature, exoticism, classicism, all through 00:23:08.660 --> 00:23:10.839 color and movement, paving the way for modern 00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:13.819 art. Yet ending with this command for anonymity, 00:23:13.880 --> 00:23:15.880 it really makes you think about the man versus 00:23:15.880 --> 00:23:18.000 the work, doesn't it? Why would he do that? After 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:20.180 being, as Baudelaire said, passionately in love 00:23:20.180 --> 00:23:22.380 with passion, but coldly determined to express 00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:25.079 it, why erase the expressor? Perhaps he wanted 00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:27.700 the art, the energy, the color, the emotion he 00:23:27.700 --> 00:23:30.940 engineered to be his sole legacy, not the frail 00:23:30.940 --> 00:23:33.579 human appearance. The work transcends the man. 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:36.279 And the work certainly endures. Its themes feel 00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:38.500 incredibly current sometimes. If you want proof, 00:23:38.779 --> 00:23:40.779 you should look up how a contemporary artist 00:23:40.779 --> 00:23:43.380 like Yu Minjun reinterpreted the massacre at 00:23:43.380 --> 00:23:46.160 Chios. That sense of suffering, political commentary, 00:23:46.440 --> 00:23:49.359 it still resonates. It really does. And it's 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:51.759 a final powerful irony, isn't it? The ultimate 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:54.259 master of visual drama ending with an act of 00:23:54.259 --> 00:23:56.700 deliberate visual erasure. A perfectly calculated 00:23:56.700 --> 00:23:58.019 final provocation.