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Study of Bodies "Liberty Leading the People"

1830
Not on view
A priest kneels among corpses as a mob passes in the distance at the upper left. This brush drawing is traditionally thought to represent an episode of street violence in Paris that Eugène Delacroix witnessed during the July Revolution of 1830. As such, it served as raw material for his best-known work: Liberty Leading the People (1830; Musée du Louvre, Paris), exhibited at the Salon the following year. Absent is the allegorical figure of Liberty herself, triumphantly bearing a rifle in her left hand and the tricolor flag in her right.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Study of Bodies "Liberty Leading the People"
  • Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)
  • Date: 1830
  • Medium: Point of brush and brown ink on off-white woven paper
  • Dimensions: 7 5/16 x 13 11/16 in. (18.6 x 34.8 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.1.613
  • Curatorial Department: The Robert Lehman Collection

More Artwork

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Studies of Horses, Eugène Delacroix French, Graphite and traces of brown ink on laid paper
Studies of Horses
Eugène Delacroix
A Bearded Man, Standing, and a Classical Head, Eugène Delacroix French, Pen and brown ink on tracing paper (mounted on heavy wove paper)
A Bearded Man, Standing, and a Classical Head
Eugène Delacroix
1815–63
Les Français peints par eux-mêmes encyclopédie morale du dix-neuvième siècle. Paris, L. Curmer, 1840-1842.
Eugène Delacroix
19th century
La Pietà, Eugène Delacroix French, Etching on chine collé; second state of two
La Pietà
Multiple artists/makers
1852
Studies of a Goat, Eugène Delacroix French, Graphite on wove paper
Studies of a Goat
Eugène Delacroix
1798–1863

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