- Current section: Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 Overview
- 2 The Death of Sardanapalus
- 2.1 Inspiration for the Death of Sardanapalus
- 2.2 Sardanapalus – subject and composition
- 2.3 A passionate reaction
- 2.4 Controversial colour and composition – exercise
- 2.5 Neoclassical – the established style
- 2.6 An alternative deathbed tradition
- 2.7 Interpreting the classical form
- 2.8 Colour and light – exercise
- 2.9 Painterly techniques
- 2.10 Colour versus line
- 2.11 Birth of the ‘Romantic’
- 3 Delacroix – classic or Romantic?
- 3.1 A classical education
- 3.2 The influence of Géricault and Gros
- 3.3 A Baroque influence
- 3.4 Neoclassical and the Baroque – a delicate balance
- 3.5 The Barque of Dante – innovation within tradition
- 3.6 Massacres of Chios – challenging the establishment
- 3.7 Massacres of Chios – a critical stir
- 3.8 Transcending the Romantic-classic divide
- 3.9 Delacroix’s early career – exercise
- 4 The Romantic artist and the creative process
- 5 Romantic themes and subjects in Delacroix’s art
- 5.1 Sardanapalus – a disconcerting subject
- 5.2 Sardanapalus – passion and futility
- 5.3 The popular Gothic
- 5.4 A taste for the grotesque
- 5.5 The Gothic, the grotesque and artistic expression
- 5.6 Modernity – challenging tradition
- 5.7 Extremes of modernity
- 5.8 Delacroix’s modernity – the historical context
- 5.9 A reaction to the bourgeois establishment
- 5.10 Features of French Romantic art and artists – exercise
- 6 The Oriental and the exotic
- 7 Conclusion
- Glossary
- References
- Acknowledgements
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Delacroix
In this unit you will be introduced to a variety of Delacroix’s...
In this unit you will be introduced to a variety of Delacroix’s work and see how his paintings relate to the cultural transition from Enlightenment to Romanticism. You will study Delacroix’s early career, his classical background, the development of Romantic ideas and their incorporation into his work. You will have the opportunity to study some of his most important paintings and compare them to works favouring a Neoclassical approach. You will also be able to see how his themes, subjects and style were influenced by Romantic ideas, the exotic and the Oriental. Through this you will develop an understanding of the classic-Romantic balance that how his work was influenced by cultural change of that period and to some extent contributed to the progression from Enlightenment to Romanticism.
At the end of this Unit you should be able to:
- identify those aspects of Delacroix’s art that qualify it as ‘Romantic’;
- come to an understanding of the interplay between classicism and Romanticism in Delacroix’s art;
- appreciate the nature of Delacroix’s fascination with the Oriental and the exotic even before he visited Morocco.
- Duration: 16 hours
- Published on: Tuesday 21st June 2011
- Level: Introductory
- Posted under: History of Art
Contents
Delacroix
Introduction

In this unit you will be introduced to a variety of Delacroix’s work and see how his paintings relate to the cultural transition from Enlightenment to Romanticism.
You will study Delacroix’s early career, his classical background, the development of Romantic ideas and their incorporation into his work. You will have the opportunity to study some of his most important paintings and compare them to works favouring a Neoclassical approach. You will also be able to see how his themes, subjects and style were influenced by Romantic ideas, the exotic and the Oriental. Through this you will develop an understanding of the classic-Romantic balance that how his work was influenced by cultural change of that period and to some extent contributed to the progression from Enlightenment to Romanticism.
This unit is an adapted extract from the Open University course From Enlightenment to Romanticism c.1780-1830 (A207). [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
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