In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres , Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance , with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form.
Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist.
In the words of Baudelaire , "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible. As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists , while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. He had three much older siblings. Charles-Henri Delacroix โ rose to the rank of General in Napoleon's army.
Henriette โ married the diplomat Raymond de Verninac Saint-Maur โ Henri was born six years later. He was killed at the Battle of Friedland on 14 June Delacroix who at the time suffered from erectile dysfunction returned to Paris in early September , only to find his wife pregnant.
An early church commission, The Virgin of the Harvest , displays a Raphael -esque influence, but another such commission, The Virgin of the Sacred Heart , evidences a freer interpretation.
