Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was born in 1798 in Charenton-Saint-Maurice near Paris and passed away in 1863 in Paris.
In 1815, he took painting lessons under Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, a student of Jacques-Louis David, and met Théodore Géricault. In 1824, he participated in the Salon with the work “The Massacres at Chios.” The Greek War of Independence served as a source of inspiration for his works of this period. During his three-month stay in England in 1825, he met Bonington and Fielding, studied the landscapes of John Constable, and engaged with poetry and theater through the work of Byron and Shakespeare. Upon returning to Paris, he exhibited the works “The Death of Sardanapalus” and “Marino Faliero,” which were inspired by Lord Byron. During this time (1825-1832), he met Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, George Sand, Frédéric Chopin, Théophile Gautier, and others. In 1826, he created the work “Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi.” Inspired by the July Revolution, he painted “Liberty Leading the People,” which was exhibited at the Salon of 1831. He traveled to Spain and Morocco in 1832 as part of a diplomatic mission led by Count Mornay, and upon returning to France, he painted “The Women of Algiers in their Apartment” (1832) and “The Sultan of Morocco” (1845). With the support of Adolphe Thiers, he began decorating major public buildings: the King’s Reception Room at the Palais Bourbon (1833-1838), the Libraries of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate (1838-1847), among others. In 1849, he was appointed a member of the Salon committee. In 1850, he traveled to Belgium to admire the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens once again, and to Germany. After repeated failures, he was elected a member of the Academy in 1857. However, he did not teach at the École des Beaux-Arts due to the institutions’ distrust toward Romanticism, with which he was deeply identified.