Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix - Apollo Slays Python - 1850-51 - Oil on mounted canvas, 800 x 750 cm - Musée du Louvre, Paris. This painting decorates the ceiling of the Galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre (click photo for larger image)Artist Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) is widely regarded as the greatest of the French Romantic painters. His use of color influenced the development of both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism--and he also left his mark on Modern Art. Delacroix's greatest virtuosity was reserved for a project which came in 1850, featured here, and was the most important commission of Delacroix's career. It was the greatest of honors to decorate the central part of a ceiling at the Louvre. Delacroix’s inspiration often came from literature (as well as from historical or contemporary events). Apollo was a favorite subject of the artist, and this episode--taken from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”--is the artist’s interpretation of good over evil.