Delacroix, (Ferdinand Victor) Eugène

French Romantic painter. His prolific output included religious and historical subjects and portraits of friends, among them the musicians Paganini and Chopin. Antagonistic to the French academic tradition, he evolved a highly coloured, fluid style, as in The Death of Sardanapalus (1829; Louvre, Paris).

The Massacre at Chios 1824 (Louvre, Paris) shows Greeks enslaved by wild Turkish horsemen, a contemporary atrocity (his use of a contemporary theme recalls Géricault's example). His style was influenced by the English landscape painter Constable.

Delacroix also produced illustrations for works by Shakespeare, Dante, and Byron. His Journal is a fascinating record of his times.