About the Artist

Delacroix is perhaps the most influential artist of the 19th century. In 1815 he began to visit the studio of Pierre Guerin in Paris as well as the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He was particularly inspired by the work of Franciso Goya, Peter Paul Rubens and Paolo Veronese. Later, he admired the light, fresh palette of John Constable, which motivated him to visit London in 1825. A second influential trip took him to North Africa and southern Spain in 1832. A member of the Royal Academy since 1857, Delacroix paved the way for French Romantic painting. With images developed solely out of glowing colours, he deviated from "official" neoclassicism. His recognition that colour must be primarily representational of light, and that shadow is light's coloured reflection, was of special importance to the impressionists. Among the artist's major works are Dante and Virgil in Limbo, 1822, Jacob's Battle with the Angel, 1858, and The Lion Hunt, 1861.