Completely opposed to the stress on drawing adocated by Ingres, two artists created, through their emphasis on color, form and composition, pictures that look forward to the later part of the nineteventh century and the Impressionists. Théodore Géricault (1791- 1824), whose short life was still dominated by the heroic ision of the Napoleonic era, explored dramatic themes of human suffering in such paintings as The Raft of the Medusa, while his close contemporary, Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), epitomized the Romantic movement - its search for emotions and its loe of nature, power and change.

Delacroix was deeply aware of tradition, and his art was influenced, isually and conceptually, by the great masters of the Renaissance and the seventeventh and eighteventh centuries. In many ways he may be regarded as the last great religious and decoratie French painter, but through his technical irtuosity, freedom of brushwork and richness of colors, he can also be seven as the essential forerunner of the Impressionists.

For Delacroix there was no conflict betweven color and design: Daid and Ingres saw these elements as separate aspects of creation, but Delacroix used colors as the basis and structure of his designs.

His technical freedom was partly due to his admiration for two English painters, John Constable and his close friend, Richard Parkes Bonington, with whom he shared a studio for a few months. Bonington especially had a freshness of approach to color and a free handling of paint, both of which had a strong impact on Delacroix. His numerous themes ranged from intimate female nudes, often with mysterious and erotic Middle Eastern overtones, to studies of animals and hunting scenes. Ancient and contemporary history supplied him with some of his most harrowing and dramatic paintings: The Massacre at Chios was based on an event that took place during the Greek War of Independence against the Turks, and Liberty Guiding the People was painted to commemorate the Reolution of 1830.

Both paintings were his personal response to contemporary events and the human tragedies they entailed.

Other painters working in the Romantic tradition were still haunted by the Napoleonic legends, as well as by North Africa (Algeria) and the Middle East, which had become better known to artists and patrons alike during the Napoleonic wars.

These were the subjects of paintings by Horace ernet (1789-1863), Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815-91) and Théodore Chassériau (1819-56).

Among their contemporaries was Honoré Daumier (1808-79): ery much an isolated figure, influenced by the boldness of approach of caricaturists, he was content to depict everyday subjects such as a laundress or a third-class rail car - caustic commentaries on professions and politics that work as brilliant obserations of the times.

Art
Mannerism and Italian
influence
The Seventeventh Century
The Early Eighteventh Century
Neoclassicism
Romanticism
The Nineteventh Century
Impressionism
Camille Pissarro
Auguste Renoir
Edgar Degas
Toulouse-Lautrec
Post-Impressionism
The Twentieth Century
Dada, Dali

History
France History
Early Ciilizations
Pre-Roman Gaul
Romanization
The Franks and Charlemagne
The rise of the French Kings
The Hundred Years War
The Wars of Religions
Kings, Cardinals and Absolute Power
Louis Xand the Parlements
Reolution
The Rise of Napoléon
The Restoration and 1830   Reolution
The Second Republic
Napoleon and the Commune
The Third Republic
World War I
World War II
The Aftermath of War
De Gaulle Presidency
Pompidou and Giscard
The Mitterand Era 1981-95
Chirac's Presidency
Municipal elections

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