Eugène Delacroix, (born April 26, 1798, Charenton-Saint-Maurice, France—died Aug. 13, 1863, Paris), French painter. As a young man he was strongly influenced by the Romanticism of the painter Théodore Géricault and the Polish-born composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin. In 1822 he exhibited the painting Dante and Virgil in Hell, a landmark in the development of French 19th-century Romanticism. In his subsequent choice of subjects, Delacroix often showed an affinity with Lord Byron and other Romantic poets of his time. His work was characterized by an uninhibited expression of energy and movement, a fascination with violence, destruction, and the more tragic aspects of life, and a sensuous use of colour. After his success at the Paris Salon, he was commissioned to decorate government buildings; he became one of the most distinguished monumental mural painters in the history of French art. He explored the new medium of lithography and in 1827 executed 17 lithographs for an edition of Faust. In 1830 he painted Liberty Leading the People to commemorate the July Revolution that brought Louis-Philippe to the French throne. His use of colour influenced the development of Impressionism.
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