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Liberty Leads The People is a remarkably famous painting that illustrates the three day revolution that occured on July 27-29 of 1830. The revolution began when King Charles X denied the people of france their rights.  Delecroix voiced his patriotism through this piece even though he did not take part in the short revolution. He famously stated, " I may not have fought for my country, at least I have painted for her."  Delecroix painted in an onorthodox manner as he was known to use contrasting colors and hues to portray a more vivid message, instead of the more muted and dull color pallets that were favorable at that time. 

On first glance we are struck with the composition of the painting which draws our eye to Marianne the Lady of Liberty herself. She is shown to be standing on top of a baracade and holds in one hand a triicolour flag and a bayonet in the other. She is the ultimate symbol of the revolution, liberty and freedom. Her appearance at first glance is striking. The Phygian cap she wears has been symbolic since the time of the Roman's who gave them to newly freed slaves, an example of liberty.  Her gown and posture are remonisant to statues that the greeks and romans had built for Gods and Goddesses. Her stance alone represents democracy. We can see her influence over the crowd as she stands strong above the barricade with a young man looking up at her from the ground. She is the vision for the revolution. Holding both the flag and the bayonet symoblizes her voice of both the revolution of the modern man and the ideology of liberty. 

The colors of the flag are illustrated throughout the painting. We can see a faint flag on top of Notre Dame in the back right of the painting. We can also see the flag colors tied together from the rioters in the backround. Upon closer look we can see hints of all three colors from the revolutionaries on the ground. We see a red belt, blue jacket and white shirts all around. We can even see hints of the three from the sky above. The tricolor flag holds great meaning including, equality, brotherhood and modernization. This flag vastley differed from the white flag that was put in France in the 17th century to represent purity. 

When inspecting the different types of revolutionaries in the crowd we can see some of lower class. The gentlemen on the left side of the painting has on a dirty worksirt, loose trousers and a hankerchief tied around his aist to secure his loose pistol. We can assume that hsi in not high on the economic class. The younger boy beneath him is clinging on to the pile of rocks ready to throw instead of a weapon. THis could also represent the difference in class. The other gentlemen seemes to be apart of a different social class. He wears a top hat and holds a shotgun in hand as he marches on. We can assume that this revolution was one for everyone no matter your economic status, Not only were a variety of individuals involved for a common goal but so were children. We can see three young boys in this painting. The most notable one is to the right of Lady Liberty. He holds two pistols and seems to be ahead of Lady Liberty, ready to fight. Some have suggested that this image of this boy was inspiration for the character Gavroche in the famous novel, Les Miserables.  

Works Cited 

Zygmont, Dr Brian, "A- Level: Eugene Delecriox, Liberty Leading The People." Smarthistory.  Febuary 8, 2002

https://smarthistory.org/delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people-3/

Zelazco, Alicija, "Liberty Leading The People"  Britanica. June 14, 2008

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Liberty-Leading-the-People

Fisher, Allen, "Delacroix. Liberty Leading The People." EDUblogs.  April 22, 1997.

https://allenfisher.edublogs.org/files/2018/10/Delacroix.-Liberty-Leading-the-People-initial-analysis-2b09s4y-2dgj4s1.pdf