Eugène Delacroix, La Liberté guidant le peuple 1830

Delacroix began work on his allegorical depiction of the July revolution only a few weeks after the events, in September 1830. At the centre of the composition stands a female personification of liberty wearing the Phrygian cap of the Jacobins. In her left hand, she holds a rifle with bayonet and in her right, the tricolour. She is summoning men and boys of different social classes to storm a barricade. Among the dense clouds of gunpowder smoke, the towers of Notre-Dame are discernible in the background.

Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty leading the people), oil on canvas, 325 × 260 cm, France, 1830; source: Musée du Louvre, Paris, © Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte (bpk), photographer/agency: RMN, image number: 00057447.