History Painting and Narrative

The narrative of historical events was of prime political and aesthetic importance to the generation that came to the fore in France in 1830. The choice of the right moment to illustrate historical events was a continuing subject of concern to Delacroix, as the brief explanations he wrote for the salon and catalogues demonstrate. He wants spectators to understand the chosen moment as part of a continuing narrative but also as the moment most revelatory of the historical meaning of the narrative, This lecture illuminates Delacroix's sense of illustrative historical moment, with some reference to Sartre, Freud, Delaroche and Isabey.