For almost 200 years, she remained the definitive symbol of the French Republic. After a long-awaited renovation, Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty has survived the struggles of revolutionary anarchy and will rise again in its original form.
The 19th century artist’s world-famous and widely copied Statue of Liberty Leading the People depicts a shirtless woman waving the French flag and leading armed men into battle. It will go on display again at the Louvre on Thursday for the first time in six months. Efforts to remove decades of varnish and dirt.
Delacroix’s work is often thought to depict the French Revolution of 1789, but it was created in 1830 to commemorate the July Revolution that overthrew King Charles X of France that same year.
Purchased by the French government the following year and housed in the Louvre since 1874, it became the definitive depiction of the personified France known as Marianne, and a symbol of revolutionary rebellion.
Reinterpreted by countless contemporary artists, versions of this image have appeared on banknotes, album jackets, book covers, and political placards at protests around the world.
But over the years, the original gradually lost its expressive power, as modern conservators now argue that the original was a misguided attempt by our predecessors to trap the painting’s glory in time. lost.
Statue of Liberty Leading the People was coated with eight layers of varnish over the years to brighten its color, but the surface varnish oxidized and sank beneath a dull yellow coating. It’s gone.
“The colors, the white, the shadows, all of this finally merged under a yellowish layer,” Sebastien Arard, director of paintings at the Paris Museum of Fine Arts, told Agence France-Presse. “We are the first generation to rediscover color,” he added.
The painting was removed from its traditional location at the Louvre on September 20, 2023, and replaced with Arie Schaeffer’s “Les Femmes souliotes”, which hung opposite it.
Due to its large size (2.6 x 3.25 meters), the restoration work was carried out within the museum premises.
Curator Comme Fabre told AFP that experts began by analyzing the work using X-rays, ultraviolet and infrared light, and comparing it with archival images of the discovered paintings.
In the process, Favre said, “we even discovered that certain changes, such as the brown markings on Liberty’s dress, were made after Delacroix and could potentially be removed.”
The Louvre, the world’s largest museum, has carried out approximately 200 restorations since 2015, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Belle Ferronnière, Titian’s Pardo Venus, and the Algiers Museum. Also included are several works by Delacroix, including The Women of Chios and The Massacre of Chios.
