Mentor to Gustave Moreau, his brief career showed his brilliance. Claimed by Ingres to be ‘the Napoleon of painting’.
Delacroix
Moreau’s extraordinary paintings have been described as Symbolist, Decadent, even Surrealist. They are notoriously difficult to read – here is some help.
Delacroix’s famous painting of Marianne, personification of the French nation, does not stand alone. Here is a small collection.
Also a grim story of suicidal disembowelling, and a propaganda painting for Napoleon.
Since they were first shown at the end of the 1800s, Tissot’s 350+ paintings of the life of Christ have been controversial, but much loved.
The most brilliant history painter of his early career, he became a great teacher, and influenced many artists of the 1800s, including Delacroix.
Tales of grisly executions, and failed experiments in updating storytelling in paintings.
His visit to Italy resulted in some of the finest paintings of Venice, several completed shortly before his untimely death.
Although he did not even make his 26th birthday, Bonington was very successful, and a great influence on Delacroix and others since.
The last of the great classical narrative painters, his huge canvases explored lesser-known tales from Greece, Rome, and Scotland.
The Eclectic Light Company 