Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People - Harlot or Heroine?
Morning Lecture
20 September 2023
Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix
Delacroix wrote to his brother: “if I have not fought for the country, at least I will paint for her.”
This lecture explores one painting, Liberty Leading the People, placing it at the heart of French Romanticism and looks at its powerful role in the aftermath of the July Revolution and its mixed critical reception.
It also covers the historical background and the influences that led to the creation of Liberty and her compatriots on the barricades and asks why this icon of French revolutionary fervour continues to exert its fascination today.
OurSpeaker Daphne Lawson has an MA by Research and Thesis from the University of Kent on Degas’s Public and Private Spectacle, as well as a BA in Art History from London University. Since 1994, until she retired, she was the full time Art History Lecturer for The Bader College, Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex, the European Campus of Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada. There, she taught Art History courses ranging from French Impressionism, European Romanticism and Pre-Raphaelite Painting to the survey programme spanning the period from Greek Sculpture to Contemporary British Art.
Her first career was as an actress. She was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and worked in theatre, film and television as an actress until her thirties when she had three children.
Daphne Lawson