Undressing The Allegory Behind Lady Liberté

Reading the concealed references in Delacroix’s painting.

Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple) by Eugène Delacroix, Louvre Museum | Public Domain Wiki Commons

‘God, she is filthy’ wrote a French newspaper L’Avenir in 1831. ‘The lowest type of Harlot’ wrote a critic about Delacroix’s depiction of Lady Liberty in the Journal des Artistes in May of the same year. Overnight this painting became the most criticised artwork that was displayed in the famous…