iPhone app iPad app Android phone app Android tablet app More

Featuring fresh takes and real-time analysis from HuffPost's signature lineup of contributors
Hot on the Blog
Ricky GervaisBonnie TylerDr Brooke MagnantiEsther Rantzen
Artfinder

Artfinder allows you to explore your passion for art and exhibitions online

GET UPDATES FROM Artfinder
 

Artwork Of The Week: Liberty Leading The People, By Delacroix

Posted: 13/07/2012 14:57
Amazing
 Inspiring
 Funny
 Scary
 Hot
 Crazy
 Important
 Weird

delacroix liberty leading the people Liberty Leading The People by Delacroix

To celebrate Bastille Day, this week's Art of the Week is Delacroix's Liberty Leading The People.

Now more famous as Coldplay's album cover, this work celebrates the French Revolution of 1830.

Liberty's air-punching posture directly inspired New York's Statue of Liberty, built just over 50 years after the painting was finished. Hats play an important symbolic role in this painting: Liberty wears a 'Phrygian' hat, which symbolised Liberty in the first revolution (1789-94).

The man to the left wears a top hat representing the bourgeoisie, and the boy's hat is typical of those worn by rural workers, suggesting all-round support for the cause.

LEARN MORE AT ARTFINDER.COM

 

Follow Artfinder on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@artfinder

FOLLOW UK CULTURE
 
 
  • Comments
  • 1
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Comments are closed for this entry
View All
Recency  | 
Popularity
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
domdeesy
23 Fans
08:44 AM on 07/17/2012
Here, Delacroix was heavily influenced by the earlier Theodore Gericault's "The Raft of the Medusa" where France is again represented but as an unjust nation of great inequality.
Permalink  |