Liberty Leading the People

Delacroix painted Liberty Leading the People in the autumn of 1830, just months after the July Revolution (the 'Trois Glorieuses') in which Parisians rose up against King Charles X and forced his abdication. Delacroix did not participate in the fighting himself but wrote that the painting was his way of fighting for a cause. He combined the allegorical figure of Liberty with realistic depictions of Parisian revolutionary fighters — a bourgeois student, a worker with a pistol, a young street urchin — creating a bridge between allegory and journalism.

The painting was purchased by Louis-Philippe's government in 1831 but was quickly deemed too politically provocative and placed in storage. It was exhibited briefly during the 1848 revolution and again during the 1855 Universal Exhibition before entering the Louvre's permanent collection.