EUGÈNE DELACROIX: “Liberty leading the People”, 1830 - oil on canvas, 260- 325 cm . - Paris , Louvre.

Eugène Delacroix is the French romanticism painter par excellence and one of the most important names in the European painting of the first half of the 19 th century. Although his sources of inspiration are clearly baroques, Delacroix evolved his painting towards an audacious antirealism that makes him the prelude of modernity, and a painter admired by many impressionists decades later.

“Liberty leading the People” is a work filled with symbolism. The Liberty, feminine figure with nude breasts, French flag and Phrygian cap, leads people's attack, in which we can identify famous names as Gavroche or Fréderic Villot, curator at the Louvre and Delacroix's close friend. Technically it's also an extraordinary work, in which the memories of Gericault's impressive “the raft of the medusa” are present in the composition, which is finished with the fast and agile Delacroix's brushstroke. Immediately associated with the French Revolution, “Liberty leading the People” also demonstrates the capacity of the Painting to become the symbol of an age.