Louvre Revives ‘Liberty Leading The People’ To Its Original, Powerful Vibrancy
By Mikelle Leow, 01 May 2024
Images © GrandPalaisRmn (Louvre museum) / Adrien Didierjean / Mathieu Rabeau
For nearly six months, Eugène Delacroix’s iconic painting, Liberty Leading the People, has been undergoing a major restoration at the Louvre Museum. The public will finally be able to witness the painting’s renewed appearance on May 2, 2024.
Years of accumulated yellow varnish layers had significantly dimmed the masterpiece’s appearance, obscuring the brilliance of Delacroix’s original vision.
Liberty Leading the People is a cornerstone of French Romanticism and a potent symbol of revolution. Painted in 1830, it depicts a scene from the July Revolution, where Parisians rose up against King Charles X. The central figure, a bare-breasted woman brandishing the French tricolor, embodies Liberty herself, leading the fight for freedom.
Before any physical restoration began, the team, led by curator Côme Fabre and director of paintings Sébastien Allard, used X-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation to conduct a non-invasive examination of the 2.6 x 3.25-meter (8.5 x 10.7-foot) canvas. This analysis ensured every detail of Delacroix’s brushwork and color palette would be preserved during the overhaul.
Grand moment cet après-midi dans les salles du #Louvre autour de la ministre de la Culture, @datirachida : c’est le retour en salle, après six mois de restauration, d’une icône française devenue symbole universel de l’idée qu’elle incarne, La Liberté guidant le peuple d’Eugène… pic.twitter.com/k3Z8V8w1Ks
— Musée du Louvre (@MuseeLouvre) April 30, 2024
As layers of the varnish peeled off, a vibrant palette hidden for far too long revealed itself. The revival has unveiled a richer blue in the French flag and a brighter red in Lady Liberty’s sash, elements crucial to the painting’s symbolism.
Beyond rescuing its original shine, the restoration was a journey of rediscovery, revealing details and nuances lost beneath layers of varnish. Contrasts sharpened, the overall temperature cooled, and a three-dimensional illusion reemerged. Characters, like the pistol-wielding child (often mistakenly called Gavroche), regained their intended positions within the composition. The boy “runs in front of Liberty, and not alongside her,” the institution explains.
And resurfacing from the shadows is a worn leather shoe at the bottom left. “It was neither hidden nor covered with repainting,” the Louvre elaborates. “The varnish screen had simply blended it optically with the paving stones.” The distant buildings, with distinct façades and smoke-filled windows hinting at exchanges of fire, have all come back to life.
The painting before the restoration (above) and after (below). Images © RMN-Grand Palais (Louvre Museum) / Michel Urtado, GrandPalaisRmn (Louvre museum) / Adrien Didierjean / Mathieu Rabeau
Perhaps the most prominent revelation comes from Liberty herself. Her tunic, previously assumed to be a uniform yellow, was revealed to be a light gray base with strategic applications of yellow. This intentional fading, now lost to time, served to highlight her bust. The cleaned yellow formed a halo around her chest, complementing the pure white of her bustier and the golden nimbus behind her head, creating the “hottest point” of the painting.
The restoration also shed light on Delacroix’s masterful use of color. He deliberately excluded green, orange, and purple, relying instead on a vast range of grays to build the composition. This “chromatic asceticism” served as a backdrop for the triumphant display of the French tricolor—blue, white, and red.
“Since its creation almost two centuries ago, the expressive force of Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People has never weakened, becoming the symbol of numerous liberation struggles around the world. It is one of those rare works that always ‘recharges itself’ depending on the political, social and cultural context in which it is viewed,” says Sébastien Allard, director of the Louvre’s paintings department. “The restoration that we have carried out has fully restored this momentum.”
As Liberty Leading the People resumes its rightful place in the Louvre, visitors can once again experience Delacroix’s revolutionary message up close.
[via The Guardian, Le Monde, The Times, images via various sources]