”Marianne into Battle”

When Delacroix presented his painting “Liberty Leading the People” at the 1831 Salon – with the deliberately banal title of “barricade scenes”, he revealed both his wish to illustrate a “modern subject” and to express an act of revolutionary conviction, using his paintbrush to show the patriotic commitment of the inhabitants of Paris.  Whilst the painting was immediately acquired by King Louis-Philippe, effectively indebted to the “Three Glorious Days” of the French Revolution for this throne, it did not grace the walls of the Louvre until 1874, since the symbolic power of its pictorial message remained rather disturbing to the monarchs who succeeded him.
The work is revolutionary in more ways than one, not least due to its subject matter (the famous painting indeed celebrates the popular uprising of the bloody days of July 1830, which brought the reign of King Charles X to an end). It breaks with all tradition and convention governing great historical paintings, combining in a powerful and original manner elements of most trivial realism with those of poetic lyricism in a representation of Liberty that is both allegorical and represented by a real woman. It is also revolutionary in its form, as Delacroix, a true creator of “immersive” scenography, leads the viewer to the very heart of the action, through a frontal staging as well as the use of life-size figures. Thus, the person looking at Liberty is not simply a passive spectator of the painting, they themselves in turn become part of the action in this epic scene, irresistibly caught up in the formidable fervour of this striding woman.
Far more than simply being a scene from recent history, Liberty Leading the People is thus for the painter a symbolic pictorial expression, both modern and original, of the French people in battle, rising up to defend and impose their freedom.  Delacroix surpassed all expectations in this respect since, thanks to a progressive shift in opinion over the decades, his Liberty would turn into a true icon, becoming the image of Marianne, the incarnation par excellence of the French Revolution, an image used to decorate French bank notes and postage stamps.