Liberty Leading the People
Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix painted this monumental canvas in just three months, inspired by the July Revolution of 1830 that toppled King Charles X. The central figure — a personification of Liberty — holds the tricolor flag and strides over the bodies of the dead, leading a motley coalition of Parisians: a worker in a top hat, a street urchin brandishing pistols, and a student. Delacroix broke convention by depicting Liberty not as a classical goddess but as a real woman of the people, with dirt on her skin and determination in her eyes. The painting was purchased by the French government but was considered too incendiary to display publicly, and was hidden away for years. It later inspired Victor Hugo's character Gavroche in "Les Misérables." Today it hangs in the Louvre and remains the definitive visual symbol of French republican values and the universal struggle for freedom.
Look Closer — Tips for This Artwork
- 1Look at Liberty's feet, not her face: she steps over a barricade of fallen bodies, and Delacroix painted the dust and rubble as carefully as her flag.
- 2Find the boy on the right with two pistols — he reportedly inspired Gavroche in "Les Misérables".
- 3Count the social classes in the crowd: a bourgeois in a top hat, a worker with a sabre, a street urchin — Delacroix meant the revolution to be read as a coalition.
- 4Look at the sky behind the towers of Notre-Dame to the right: the smoke of the fighting echoes the red, white and blue of the flag.
