Delacroix is best known today for this painting. It was inspired by the ‘Three Glorious Days’ of the July 1830 Revolution when the people of Paris rose up against King Charles X.
The Parisians are depicted breaking through a barricade. The female figure at the top of the composition – part classical goddess, part woman of the people – urges the crowd forward and waves the tricolour flag. She is presented as a symbol of Liberty. Delacroix deliberately used the colours blue, white and red in combination several times in his painting: the French flag, a symbol of the 1789 Revolution then of the Empire, was banned when the Monarchy returned to power between 1815 and 1830. This famous allegorical/historical painting, often referenced in art and advertising, stands as a symbol of liberty and freedom fights.