Eugène Delacroix

Delacroix led French Romanticism. He admired the colour of Rubens and the Venetians, and painted with bold brushwork, drawing subjects from literature, current events and exotic lands.

In 1832 he travelled to Morocco with a diplomatic mission, and the light and colour of North Africa stayed with him for life. His journal is a classic of art writing, and his study of colour inspired the Impressionists and Van Gogh.