Delacroix at the Met

Fist of all, Happy Halloween everyone! The Metropolitan Museum always does great decorative displays for each Holiday season.
It was a dreary Friday and I couldn't think of any better way to spend the afternoon than go visit my favorite Museum!

Eugene Delacroix, the iconic, eighteenth century, French painter, regarded as the leader of the French Romantic School of art, was a prolific painter during his career. He produced over eight hundred paintings, thousands of drawings and sketches and many pages of writing.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently held  the most comprehensive exhibits of his work. 

A self portrait said to have been made while in his forties.

 "Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi"

This painting was displayed at an event raising funds in support of the Greek Revolution against the Ottomans.  A woman in Greek costume with her breast bared, arms half-raised in an imploring gesture before the horrible scene personifies the suicide of the Greeks, who chose to kill themselves and destroy their city rather than surrender to the Turks. At her feet, a hand reaches out through the stones, the body having been crushed by rubble. The painting serves as a monument to the people of Missolonghi and to the idea of freedom against tyrannical rule. This event interested Delacroix not only for his sympathies with the Greeks, but also because the poet Byron, whom Delacroix greatly admired, had died there.

 

I mostly displayed here the paintings that were inspired by the Greek revolution against Ottoman rule. This was happening during Delacroix's life from 1821 to 1830.

The exhibit, however, is rich with many more paintings and subjects that I have room to show here. I suggest you take yourself over to the Met and have a look for yourself!

Enjoy!

Maria