Liberty Leading the People
The figure of Liberty leads the people of Paris over the barricades during the July Revolution of 1830, the tricolour in her hand. Delacroix mixes allegory with a real event.
A pyramid of bodies leads up to the flag at the top of the picture.
The July Revolution broke out in Paris at the end of July 1830. For three days, known as “the Three Glorious Days”, Parisians fought the troops of King Charles X. The king was deposed and replaced by Louis Philippe. Eugène Delacroix did not take part in the fighting himself. In a letter to his brother he wrote that if he had not fought for his country, he would at least paint for it.
In the centre a woman strides forward over a barricade. She is the figure of Liberty, an allegory. She wears a red Phrygian cap, a symbol of liberty since 1789, and is bare-breasted. In her right hand she holds the French tricolour and in her left a musket with a bayonet. She turns towards those following her. Her profile is classical, like that of an ancient statue.
Beside her strides a boy with two pistols. He is often said to have inspired Victor Hugo’s street urchin Gavroche in the novel Les Misérables, but this is not documented. On the left a man in a top hat carries a gun. He has sometimes been interpreted as a self-portrait of Delacroix, but this is disputed. In the foreground lie dead bodies, and a wounded man raises his eyes to Liberty. In the background the towers of Notre-Dame can be seen through the smoke.
The composition forms a pyramid with the flag at the top. Its base is made up of the dead. The colours are mostly subdued – browns, greys and smoke – but the red, white and blue of the flag recur in small details throughout the picture. Delacroix painted with lively brushwork and strong contrasts.
The picture combines a real event with an allegory. It shows people from different social classes: workers, students, members of the bourgeoisie. Liberty is both an idea and a powerful, physical woman. This was unusual and attracted both admiration and criticism. Delacroix was one of the leading figures of French Romanticism, and he gave the event a dramatic and emotionally charged form.
The painting was shown at the Salon of 1831 and bought by the state. But it was soon considered too subversive and was put away. It was shown again at the Exposition Universelle of 1855 and entered the Louvre in 1874. For a time it appeared on the French hundred-franc note. In 2013 a visitor scrawled on it with a marker pen, but the damage could be removed. In the 2020s it was restored and yellowed varnish was removed.
Liberty Leading the People has become a symbol of the French Republic and of the struggle for freedom in general. It has been quoted on posters, album covers and in political propaganda. The figure with the flag has shaped the image of Marianne, France’s national symbol.