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Delacroix's The Design Of Liberty Leading The People

Decent Essays
When viewing this painting, one’s eyes focus immediately to a barefooted woman wearing a tattered yellow dress. In one hand she is carrying the French, and in the other a rifle. She is not alone. This woman is leading a revolt against the government during the French Revolution. Behind her are hordes of diverse people following her into battle. There are people of all sorts. There are members of the French bourgeoisie who are wearing suits and top hats, members of the more educated class that are wearing the bicorne hat (type of hat Napoleon wore,) and members of the working class. All around them lie dead bodies, but these people do not care for they are trampling them. On the right side of the painting, part of a building in the distance is visible. The rest, however, is covered in a thick smoke. Beside the woman is a kid flaunting two pistols, and beneath her is a man crawling towards her whilst staring up at the French flag.

The use of color in this painting
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The use of emphasis in this painting is one method that Delacroix uses to, in essence, emphasize the greatness of the liberation. No matter how many times you look at this painting, every single time you will be drawn into the center with the woman and the flag. The woman carrying the flag is the obvious focal point in this piece. She is the object that is the center of everybody’s attention. This is why Delacroix deliberately made her the brightest and most standout piece of the painting. He did this to glorify the revolution by making it the one thing everyone is fixated on. Another design method he uses is balance. The variation between the dark and light colors creates a since of hope. The brightness of the flag symbolizes this hope of liberation. Everything else in the painting is darker. This balance is showing the light (Liberty) breaking through the darkness (French Government) like the sun peeking through the clouds on a rainy
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