This painting by Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) was created in 1830. A woman leading the people... The age of Romanticism in Europe was at its height and Napoleon's quest for United Europe under the flag of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite created fire that could not be extinguished for a long time. It was indeed the age of Revolution that would change the whole face of Europe. The little boy in the painting is Gavroche of Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables. Hugo like Delacroix was able to capture the conflagration of his times, only in writing... This woman in the painting is really France leading the rest of the world... The ideals of the French Revolution needed some time to establish after its bloodiness and excesses settled down... After all, the age of Robespierre, Marat and Danton was not the most democratic... As far as Napoleon, he was too ambitious to settle for less and so soon.
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