Brief Biography-Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix was from Charenton-Saint-Maurice in Paris. His father was the minister of foreign affairs, and he was the ambassador of the French Republic in The Netherlands when Eugene was born. Rumour had it that Eugene’s birth father was a statesman and family friend named Talleyrand. Eugene’s life started adventurously; the story goes; that by the age of three, when they lived in Bordeaux, Eugene was burned, drowned, hanged, choked, and poisoned. He burned when a mosquito net over his head went on fire, drowned when a servant accidentally dropped him into the harbour at Bordeaux, hanged when he caught his head in a horse’s forage bag, choked after swallowing a grape and poisoned when he ate some verdigris.
His father died when Eugene was seven years old, and the family moved back to Paris. His uncle Henri Riesener, a painter, encouraged Eugene to sketch, and they regularly visited the studio of Pierre-Narcisse Guerin. His mother died when he was sixteen, and shortly afterwards, he enrolled as a student at Guerin's studio.
In 1816, he moved to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where Theodore Gericault was a student. He was highly impressed by Gericault's painting, The Raft of Medusa, which influenced his first significant picture, The Barque of Dante. Jean Antoine Gros had it framed, and the state bought it to hang in the Luxembourg Palace galleries. Romanticism was at its height, and Delacroix was considered the movement’s leading painter.
In 1825, he spent some time in England and was deeply impressed by the works of John Constable and, to a lesser extent, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and David Wilkie.
In 1832, he travelled to North Africa with Count Charles de Mornay on an official visit to the Sultan of Morocco. He was intrigued and highly influenced by Africa’s colours, light, and lifestyles. When he returned, he received numerous commissions for the government, mainly doing frescos; during this time, he worked on hundreds more miniature paintings regarding his African experiences.
In his middle age, his health failed due to excessive work, and he moved to a house near Fontainebleau, where he commuted to his studio in Paris. In 1855, he received the Grande Medaille d’Honneur, and in 1857 he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1859, he stopped sending his paintings to the salon after critics attacked him. He died in 1863 due to a recurring throat ailment.