Today is celebrated as Bastille Day in France. This week’s picture, a work with an aptly revolutionary theme, is Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People.
It was painted in 1830, not long after the popular insurrection which inspired it. In the summer of that year Charles X, unloved Bourbon monarch of France, introduced several draconian measures to strengthen his increasingly frail grip on power. He abolished the freedom of the press and reorganised the electoral system to increase the power of the aristocracy. In Paris, the simmering discontent of the masses boiled over into outright violence. During “Three Glorious Days” at the end of July, an army of insurgents stormed and eventually took the Hotel de Ville. The King and his troops withdrew from the capital.
The people’s victory turned out to be a hollow triumph. The Duke of Orleans acceded to the vacant throne and was crowned Louis-Philippe, King of the French. Liberte, egalite and fraternite were not high on his list of priorities. As Delacroix cynically noted, the new king’s rule brought out placemen and parasites “just as a fall of rain brings out snails”. None of this could be guessed from his picture, a grand if slightly fantastical monument to a moment of revolutionary ardour. The work was purchased by the state and hurriedly put into cold storage, where it remained for decades. The dream of being led into a radiant future by a half-naked woman personifying Liberty was thought dangerous by the new regime. Those who had benefited from the insurrection did not wish to see it repeated.
It is unlikely that Delacroix meant to depict a specific incident. Partially obscured by gunsmoke, the west towers of Notre Dame appear in the background, the tricolor – rallying flag of the insurgents – fluttering distantly...
