Lest an art history teachable moment pass, Delacroix. It's not about 1789

[Recursion]

So, someone on a different board complained about this painting that "those people are storming the barricades to guillotine other people who's only 'crime' was being born rich".

I'll let that stand, for the moment, as a critique of the 1789 French Revolution, but from an art history standpoint I can't let that go.

Delacroix's painting was not about "The French Revolution" (which in the US means the Revolution of 1789). It was about the July Revolution of 1830, in which the House of Orleans gained a temporary ascendancy over the House of Bourbon (to be all later undone in the chaos of 1848).

Anyways, just wanted to get that out there.

EDIT: It's also more than a little uncomfortable that several cartoonists have done a parody of this portrait (which is fine) in a way that obscures Marianne's nipple (which is... ironic).

[nichomachus]

1. See, that art history degree paid off after all