Painter and muralist Eugène Delacroix was one of the leading artists of the French Romantic period of the 19th century. The selected Delacroix quotes below reveals his ability to paint a picture with words and imagery as well as with brushes and pigments.
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Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and color shaped the work of the Impressionists. His passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement and continues to inspire artist today. His Inspiration included history, literature, music and exotic places. The inspirations are seen in Delacroix's famous works including "Liberty Leading the People" and "The Death of Sardanapalus."
Delacroix emphasized color and movement rather than clarity of outline and form. He worked with bold colors and free brushwork.
Delacroix's Romanticism would be called individualist. Delacroix quotes give insight into how he thought but Baudelaire's quote may say it best. "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible." (excerpted from biograhpy.com and wikipedia)
Eugene Delacroix Quotes About Color
Not only can color, which is under fixed laws, be taught like music, but it is easier to learn than drawing, whose elaborate principles cannot be taught.
I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will.
Draughtsmen may be made, but colourists are born. -- Eugene Delacroix #color #quotes
The sea is a dark greenish blue like a fig.
Remember the enemy of all painting is gray: a painting will almost always appear grayer than it is, on account of its oblique position under the light.
The more an object is polished or brilliant, the less you see its own color and the more it becomes a mirror reflecting the color of its surroundings.
All painting worth its name, unless one is talking about black and white, must include the idea of color as one of its necessary supports, in the same way that it includes chiaroscuro, proportion, and perspective.
Everyone knows that yellow, orange, and red suggest ideas of joy and plenty. I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will.
See Even More Color Quotes!
If you enjoyed these Eugène Delacroix quotes I know you won't want to miss The Ultimate List of Color Quotes >>
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Feature Image Credit: Eugène Delacroix [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
