1820–1848
Independence & Revolutions (1820–1848)
Between 1820 and 1848, waves of revolt swept across the world. Greeks fought for independence from the Ottoman Empire, South American countries from Spain, and in 1830 and 1848 the people of France and much of Europe rose up for more freedom. Many of these revolutions failed at first, but their ideas about nations and rights did not go away.
Why artists painted it
Romantic artists took sides. Delacroix painted Greeks suffering at Chios and Liberty marching over barricades, and artists in Latin America celebrated their own heroes like Simón Bolívar.
Liberty Leading the People · Eugène Delacroix, 1830
Liberty Leading the People
Eugène Delacroix · 1830
👁️ Painted at the time
The 1830 July Revolution toppled the French king in three days, and Delacroix's Liberty became its symbol.
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi
Eugène Delacroix · 1826
👁️ Painted at the time
Delacroix shows Greece as a grieving woman on the ruins of Missolonghi, a call to Europe to help the Greek war for independence.
The Massacre at Chios
Eugène Delacroix · 1824
👁️ Painted at the time
Delacroix's painting of an Ottoman attack on the Greek island of Chios stirred sympathy for Greek independence across Europe.
Independence or Death
Pedro Américo · 1888
🕰️ Painted 40 years later
Brazil declares independence from Portugal in 1822: Prince Pedro raises his sword on the banks of the Ipiranga stream.
Episode of the September Days 1830, on the Grand Place of Brussels
Gustaaf Wappers · 1835
👁️ Painted at the time
Belgians fight in the streets of Brussels in 1830, the revolt that created an independent Belgium.
Barricade in the Rue Soufflot, June 1848
Horace Vernet · 1848
👁️ Painted at the time
Revolutionaries fight behind a barricade in a Paris street during the June Days of 1848, in one of the revolutions that swept through Europe that year.
The Reception of Lord Byron at Missolonghi
Theodoros Vryzakis · 1861
👁️ Painted at the time
The famous English poet Lord Byron is welcomed at Missolonghi in Greece in January 1824, when he came to help the Greek war for independence.
The Battle of Navarino
Ambroise Louis Garneray · 1827
👁️ Painted at the time
In October 1827 a British, French and Russian fleet destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian ships at Navarino, a sea battle that turned the Greek War of Independence in favor of the Greeks.
The Battle of Komárom, 1849
Mór Than · 1849
👁️ Painted at the time
Hungarian cavalry fight Austrian troops at Komárom in 1849, during the Hungarian Revolution against the Habsburg Empire.
During the March Unrest in Stockholm, 1848
Fritz von Dardel · 1848
👁️ Painted at the time
Crowds and soldiers clash in the streets of Stockholm during the March Unrest of 1848, a Swedish echo of the revolutions across Europe.
An Episode from the Five Days of Milan
Baldassare Verazzi · 1860
👁️ Painted at the time
A fighter holds a barricade in Milan during the Five Days of March 1848, when the people rose up and drove the Austrian army out of the city for a time.
No Sheet of Paper Shall Come between Me and My People
Isidor Popper · 1848
👁️ Painted at the time
A cartoon from 1848 mocks the Prussian King Frederick William IV, who said he would not allow a written constitution to come between him and his people.
The Decembrist Revolt
Vasily Timm · 1853
👁️ Painted at the time
On December 14, 1825, Russian officers led their soldiers into Senate Square in Saint Petersburg to demand reforms after the death of the tsar, but the revolt was crushed.
The Stone Breakers
Gustave Courbet · 1849
👁️ Painted at the time
Courbet's two laborers on a dusty road were the radical new subject of 1848: ordinary working people shown without prettying them up.