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LA LIBERTAD GUIANDO AL PUEBLO
The canvas represents a scene of July 28, 1830 in which
the people of Paris, the barricades. King Charles X of
France had abolished the parliament by decree and had the
intention of restricting press freedom. The initial
disturbances became an uprising that led to a revolution
followed by crazed citizens of all social classes. There was
not an only leader. That is why Delacroix represents
Freedom as a guide that leads to the people. Neither is
represented by an abstract fo rm, but is an allegorical figure
very sensual and real.
The spectator only has possibilities, joining the mass, or
being devastated by it. The town is the union of classes:
the bourgeois is represented with his top hat and wielding
his rifle, next to a ragged and wounded man who asks for
mercy from France. In the background appear mists and
fumes of the battle that dilute a fairly realistic French
quarter. At the foot of Liberty a dying man stares at her,
telling her that it is worth dying for her.
The painting was bought by the French State in 1831, but
it seems that it was sent in 1839. However, in 1848 the
director of the national museums claimed it, being
delivered by the author the following year. When the
Second Empire was established, the cloth became part of
the Louvre reservation, until it was presented in 1863,
after the author's death. The work has become a universal
icon of the struggle for freedom.