Chapter 1 of 6
A King's Last Order
Look at the chaos pouring across this enormous canvas, nearly four metres wide. Eugène Delacroix painted it in 1827, loosely inspired by Byron's tragedy of an Assyrian king who, facing defeat, ordered everything he loved destroyed before he died. The king reclines at the top, calm as a god, while a torrent of bodies, horses and gold cascades toward you.
Critics at the Salon were appalled by its violence and its tumbling, off-balance composition. Notice there is no still centre, only a great red diagonal sweeping everything down into ruin.
