Liberty Leading the People

Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugène Delacroix. Its palette is led by charcoal (#1f1b19, 24%) and dark taupe (#473b30, 21%), with accents of pale slate, cool white, indigo blue and scarlet red. Overall the canvas is mid-toned, muted and balanced between warm and cool.

Color note

Delacroix studied how colors act on each other side by side, using complementary contrasts and colored shadows. His ideas about color shaped the Impressionists and Van Gogh.

Palette

#1f1b19 MG 222 charcoal 24.2% of canvas
#473b30 MG 177 dark taupe 20.7% of canvas
#5d5247 MG 176 taupe 18.0% of canvas
#948f8c MG 214 pewter 15.6% of canvas
#b0b7bf MG 207 pale slate 9.3% of canvas
#e6e9e3 MG 204 cool white 6.3% of canvas
#527cba MG 103 indigo blue 4.0% of canvas
#be5943 MG 017 scarlet red 1.9% of canvas

Color families

Brown 30%, Gray 28%, Black 24%, Blue 11%, White 5%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.48
Contrast: 0.66
Vividness: 0.024
Warmth: +0.08
Complexity: 223 cells
Hue range: 0.55
Focus: 0.05

Composition

58% of the visual weight is in the right half, 67% in the upper half. Symmetry 0.37 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 9% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 32% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1830
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 260.0 × 325.0 cm
Genre: history painting
Made in: France
Collection: Department of Paintings of the Louvre

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