The Barque of Dante

The Barque of Dante (1822) by Eugène Delacroix. Its palette is led by warm black (#16170e, 48%) and dark olive (#34361e, 14%), with accents of rich orange ochre, golden olive, parchment and scarlet red. Overall the canvas is dark, moderately saturated and warm.

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

#16170e MG 220 warm black 47.5% of canvas
#34361e MG 195 dark olive 14.5% of canvas
#492911 MG 156 dark reddish brown 12.8% of canvas
#683a16 MG 155 dark reddish brown 9.1% of canvas
#836136 MG 178 rich orange ochre 7.3% of canvas
#8f956b MG 191 golden olive 5.9% of canvas
#eee4c5 MG 201 parchment 2.4% of canvas
#ac281c MG 019 scarlet red 0.6% of canvas

Color families

Black 43%, Brown 42%, Green 9%, Yellow 3%, White 1%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.32
Contrast: 0.51
Vividness: 0.032
Warmth: +0.99
Complexity: 154 cells
Hue range: 0.57
Focus: 0.17

Composition

57% of the visual weight is in the left half, 64% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.34 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 29% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 27% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1822
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 189.0 × 241.5 cm
Genre: genre art
Collection: Department of Paintings of the Louvre

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