Eugène Delacroix (or to give him his full name, Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix) was born on 28 April 1798 in Charenton-Saint-Maurice (Paris), and died on 13 August 1863 in Paris. He is regarded as the leader of the French Romantic art movement and admired as a colorist (for his masterful use of color). Later in his career he produced paintings that expressed rather than hid his brushwork (something the Romantics never did, but something which would influence subsequent painters, including Renoir, Seurat, and Van Gogh).
Delacroix's long and illustrious career as a painter started in 1815 when he joined the studio of Pierre Guerin, moving the following year to the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1819 Delacroix obtained his first commission, a painting ("The Virgin of the Harvest") for a church near Rambouillet. He exhibited at the official French Salon for the first time in 1822; his painting "Dante and Virgin in Hell" was bought by the state. In 1831 he was awarded the Legion of Honor.
Delacroix's Paris studio has been turned into a museum. The museum's website has a detailed, illustrated timeline of Delacroix's painting career.
Delacroix is credited with developing the color triangle, which is a very useful tool in acquiring the basics of color theory.
