DELACROIX

From the much-lauded Art & Ideas series from Phaidon Press which 'boasts expert but undogmatic texts and a wealth of illustrations' - The Sunday Telegraph. This concise and authoritative study of the French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) is an insightful reappraisal of the life and works of one of the most influential artists of the 19th century. Regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic School, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes, and his study of the optical effects of colour, profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist Movement. Dr Simon Lee considers Delacroix's life and art within the context of this tumultuous age in the years following the French Revolution and the rise of the British Empire. He looks at all the major works from Liberty Leading the People, Scenes from the Massacres of Chios with their Turkish costumes, Lord Byron in Arnaout costume, the female personification of the Greek nation half kneeling, hands outstretched, near bare breasted, dripping blood from the sleeve entitled Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, Justice Wall, Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard to many frescoes and ceiling paintings such as the Chapel of Holy Angels, Saint-Sulpice, Paris, Orientalist works to portraits. Here are his paintings, drawings, lithographs and prints, generously illustrated and explored in depth. Heavyweight quality softback, 352pp, over 100 colour illus.