Works of Jacques Louis David and Damier Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Works of Jacques Louis David and Damier - Essay Example During the period of romanticism, the painter worked quickly, freer and looser brush strokes giving evidence of the process of artistic creation. Another important aspect of romanticism was an interest in social issues, leading to a larger participation and concern in the events of the time. This is seen in the works of Eugene Delacroix, as in his Moorish scenes of men and wild beasts in physical conflict. He cultivated surface texture, impasto and used a rich palette of colors. Delacroix also pursued the same theme in his Jacob Wrestling with an Angel and in his North African paintings of turbaned men battling with tigers. Delacroix, however, is known best for his Liberty Guiding People, a patriotic painting of the French Revolution, in which the central figure of a woman beckons the soldiers forward with the flag she raises high above the field of the dead and wounded, while the drummer boy beside her valiantly charges with a pistol upraised. These two figures which form strong vig orous diagonals stand out amidst the smoke and confusion of the battle. An important realist is Honore Damier, whose rare gift for social satire found expression in his prints, political cartoons and paintings. While he lashed out at the corruption and hypocrisy of the privileged class, as in The Legislature, he had a profound sympathy for the poor and the oppressed, as in The Third Class Carriage and The Washer woman. Daumier had a sense of the dramatic moment revealed in a single look or gesture.