An Analysis of Liberty Leading the People

Categories of description: The things that are being described in my essay are iconography, historical significance and narrative. While a good amount of the text does have to do with description of the work, there is also interpretation of the characters and their respective emotional states. With said emotions having to do with the French Revolution and those involved, as well as their reactions to the personification of liberty herself.

Title: A discussion of attitudes having to do with the French Revolution.

Original Essay: La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People) by Eugène Delacroix, is a work that one can only truly grasp by looking at it though a historical lens. As can be gathered from the title, the woman in the center is the personification of Liberty. She leading a group of people, however, there are bodies on the ground. Indicating that liberty came at no small price for them. That cost was the French Revolution. The flag which liberty waves is the national flag of France, which originated as the flag of the revolutionaries. The attitudes of the at the time are also indicated by their stances. The two gentleman on it's left side are on the defense, waiting for another ambush; the boy on the right side is running forward, double-wielding pistols and full of energy. The person in the middle of the painting is gazing at Liberty, their salvation. And yet another young man near the bottom left is not gazing at Liberty, but at the bodies of the deceased. These people all show the various attitudes of the time: fear, bravado, suspicion, and regret. This painting is one that is used as an inspiration, but there is only truly one figure who seems inspired: the boy. The younger generation of the time. Liberty stands brightly in the sea of all the chaos as a beacon of hope to everyone, but especially to the young, for they will not know what it is to live life without