2700) "Liberty Leading the People" ("La Liberté guidant le peuple") - a painting by Eugène Delacroix exhibited in the Louvre, Paris, Republic of France (“République Française”): "Museums' Masterpieces Coin Series" ("Chefs d’œuvre des musées“): Year of Coin issue: 2023:
The Collection:
Launched in 2017, this series highlights the biggest masterpieces of French museums and commemorates the trends and influences of the country's History - "Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism..."
The "Museums' Masterpieces Series", or "When Art Meets Art", features such extraordinary artworks, which is also a challenge for engraving on a small coin - 'that of sublimating these artworks to translate the artistic power and subliminal effects of these immense original artists.
In 2023:
This year, the Masterpieces of Museums series celebrates three major emblematic works showcasing women in art:
i) "Liberty Leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix,
ii) "Portrait of Marie-Antoinette with a Rose" by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun and,
iii) “Young girl blowing into a glass pipe” by Kitagawa Utamaro.
Liberty Guiding the People, Eugène Delacroix:
"Liberty Leading the People ("La Liberté guidant le peuple") is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X.
A woman of the people with a Phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads a varied group of people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolour, which again became France's National Flag after these events – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other.
The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as "Marianne".
The painting is sometimes misinterpreted as depicting the French Revolution of 1789.
A Brief:
By the time Delacroix painted "Liberty Leading the People", he was already the acknowledged leader of the Romantic school in French painting.
Delacroix, who was born as the Age of Enlightenment was giving way to the ideas and style of romanticism, rejected the emphasis on precise drawing that characterised the academic art of his time, and instead gave a new prominence to freely brushed colour.
Delacroix painted his work - "Liberty Leading the People" in the autumn of 1830.
In that same year, Charles X, who reigned over France, decided to revoke the gains of the revolution by abolishing the freedom of the press.
This law provoked an uprising of the people that lasted three days, called the "3 Glorieuses".
As a tribute to this revolution, the artist painted a woman holding up the French flag in the light and guiding the people. Presently, this work is kept in the Louvre Museum.
The Painting:
The painting was first exhibited at the official Salon of 1831.
Delacroix depicted Liberty as both an allegorical goddess-figure and a robust woman of the people.
The mound of corpses and wreckage acts as a kind of pedestal from which Liberty strides, barefoot and bare-breasted, out of the canvas and into the space of the viewer.
According to Marcus Rediker she might have been inspired by a Dutch portrait of a fighting Anne Bonny (A woman pirate, who sailed with Jack Rackham, a notorious pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy - 1650-1726).
The Phrygian cap she wears had come to symbolise liberty during the first French Revolution of 1789.
The painting has been seen as a marker to the end of the Age of Enlightenment, as many scholars see the end of the French Revolution as the start of the Romantic era.
The fighters are from a mixture of social classes, ranging from the bourgeoisie represented by the young man in a top hat, a student from the prestigious École Polytechnique wearing the traditional bicorne, to the revolutionary urban worker, as exemplified by the boy holding pistols.
What they have in common is the fierceness and determination in their eyes. Aside from the flag held by Liberty, a second, minute tricolore can be discerned in the distance flying from the towers of Notre-Dame.
The identity of the man in the top hat has been widely debated. The suggestion that it was a self-portrait by Delacroix has been discounted by modern art historians.
In the late 19th century, it was suggested the model was the theatre director Étienne Arago; others have suggested the future curator of the Louvre, Frédéric Villot; but there is no firm consensus on this point.
Several of the figures are probably borrowed from a print by popular artist Nicolas Charlet, a prolific illustrator who Delacroix believed captured, more than anyone else, the predominant energy of the Parisians.
The French government bought the painting in 1831 for 3,000 francs with the intention of displaying it in the throne room of the Palais du Luxembourg as a reminder to the "citizen-king" Louis-Philippe of the July Revolution, through which he had come to power.
This plan did not come to fruition and the canvas hung in the palace's museum gallery for a few months, before being removed due to its inflammatory political message. After the June Rebellion of 1832, it was returned to the artist.
Delacroix was permitted to send the painting to his aunt Félicité for safekeeping. After the Second Republic was established following the Revolution of 1848 it was exhibited briefly in that year, and then during the Second Empire in the Salon of 1855.
The recently established Third Republic finally acquired the painting in 1874 for the collection of the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
In 1974–75, the painting was the featured work in an exhibition organised by the French government, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Detroit Institute of Arts as a Bicentennial gift to the people of the United States.
In 2012, it was moved to the new Louvre-Lens museum in Lens, Pas-de-Calais, as the starring work in the first tranche of paintings from the Louvre's collection to be installed.
On 07.02.2013, the painting was vandalised by a visitor in Lens. An unidentified 28-year-old woman allegedly wrote an inscription ("AE911") on the painting.
The woman was immediately arrested by a security guard and a visitor. A short time after the incident, the management of the Louvre and its Pas-de-Calais branch published a press release indicating that "at first glance, the inscription is superficial and should be easily removed".
Louvre officials announced the next day that the writing had been removed in less than two hours by a restorer without damaging the original paint, and the piece returned to display that morning.
Although Delacroix was not the first artist to depict Liberty in a Phrygian cap, his painting may be the best known early version of the figure commonly known as Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic and of France in general.
The Coin:
The Reverse of the 10€ (Ten Euro) Silver Colourised Coin depicts one of Eugène Delacroix's most famous works - "Liberty Leading the People," painted in 1830 and depicting a woman holding up the French flag.
The Coin focusses on Marianne and Gavroche (a fictional character in the 1862 novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo).
The "chefs d’œuvre des musées“ ("museum masterpieces") stamp that signs all the coins in this series has been added at the top right and blends in with the artwork.
The special feature is that this coin is colourised.
The Louvre Museum, in which the work is exhibited, is an integral part of the design as it represents one of the sides of the frame.
The name of the work, the artist's name and the yeardate "2023" complete the display around the painting.
The Obverse of the 10€ (Ten Euro) Silver Colourised Coin is common to the Series.
It depicts several views of many major French museums.
An interior view of the Musée d’Orsay, on the top left, is recognisable by its distinctive clock.
Beside that is a view of the façade of the Louvre as seen from the Napoleon courtyard where the pyramid is located.
Below these two elements, a fresco shows the Hôtel Salé, which houses the Picasso Museum.
The lower portion of this face features a view of the façade of Hôtel Biron, the current Rodin Museum, and above, the famous Centre Pompidou stairway.
The face value and the words “République Française” are also inscribed.
The specifications of this Coin are:
Country: Republic of France (“République Française”); Year of Coin issue: 2023; Denomination: 10€ (Ten Euro); Coin Series Theme: "Museum Masterpieces" ("chefs d’œuvre des musées"; Coin Theme: "Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple) - a painting by Eugène Delacroix exhibited in the Louvre, Paris"; Metal Composition: .999 Fineness Silver (Ag); Weight: 22.20 grams; Coin Quality: Proof (P); Mint: Monnaie de Paris (The Paris Mint); Mintage: 3,000 pieces.
Links to other posts in Metropolis Tiffany Art Coin Series:
Links to other Coins in the Cyborg Revolution Coin Series" issued in this Series:
Links:
Most Haunted Places Coin Series:
Links to other posts on Metropolis Tiffany Art Coin Series:
The 7-Summits Silver Coin Series:
For other interesting posts on honouring the work done for the blind/visually impaired persons please visit the following links:
1) A tour of Pune's Blind School and interaction with the students - a short story
2) A two-Rupee coin issued by the Indian Mints honouring Louis Braille on the occasion of his 200th Birth Anniversary in 2009 and a brief report on the Braille system
6) Honouring Louis Braille on the Bicentenary of his birth in 2009
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