 Eugène Delacroix (1798 - 1863), Romantic
art's key figure, saw Alexandre Dumas in the same way as the other great
contemporary authors. Without being very close, their relationship shows
the links that united the various elements of the Romantic Movement. With
his painting La Mort de Sardanapale (The
Death of Sardanapale), which scandalized people in 1827 by breaking
with the classical tradition, Delacroix emerged as the leader of Romantic
art school. At that time, in Charles Nodier's salon de l'Arsenal, he met
writers such as Dumas, Hugo, Vigny, Stendhal, Gautier, Lamartine, as well
as composers such as Berlioz, and painters. In 1831, at the Exhibition,
Delacroix presented the painting that will become his most famous work :
La Liberté guidant le peuple (Freedom
guiding people). Two years later, the painter, having been invited
by Dumas to his great fancy-dress ball, took part in the decoration of the
rue Saint-Lazare appartment, and dazzled the artists who were present by
improvising, in a few hours, a flaming Rodrigue
après la bataille (Rodrigue after
the battle). The same year, in 1833, Delacroix went to Marocco, in
the context of a diplomatic mission led by the count of Mornay, ad brought
hundreds of drawings back. In 1857, recognized at last, he enters the Institut
after eight unsuccessful attempts. Later, the Impressionists, the Neo-Impressionists
and the Fauvists, Maurice Denis, Matisse and Picasso, will claim Delacroix's
influence. And yet, as Dumas deplored it in a talk he gave in 1864, December
10th, a year after Delacroix died, « this man, who should have
had, at the supreme moment, his antechamber full of students, his lounge
full of friends, his bedroom full of sighs and sobs, died alone, died forsaken,
in his old manservant's arms, his hands in the hands of his old housekeeper ».
|
Page
précédente | Imprimer
Haut de page