1.

2 Ideas and influences

The Oriental and the exotic played a central role in this process of artistic negotiation and reconciliation.
The Enlightenments preoccupation with exotic lands as part of an indirect critique of western European
societies increasingly competed with visions of the East as a sitalte of fantasy, desire and sensuous
pleasure. Like the Prince Regents Pavilion, Delacroixs work also exemplified in many respects a
specifically Romantic concern with the Oriental and exotic as a means of unleashing and expressing
personal desire. His interest lay largely in Greece, Turkey and Morocco. In a typical switch from an
enlightened to a Romantic perspective, the psychological and social ideas opened up by the
Enlightenments consideration of such places gave way to the application of those ideas to a process of
artistic self-exploration and self-expression. And yet, as we shall see, Delacroix was not always so clearly
on the side of Romanticism. His 1832 journey to Morocco would be a crucial, transforming influence on
his career.
First, it is necessary to establish how Delacroix developed his artistic thought, values and practice in the
early part of his career in order to appreciate the full impact on his art of a concern with Oriental and
exotic subjects. Our starting point will be the painting that caused the greatest furore of the artists
career.