Overturned Flower Basket - 1848/9 or - Basket of Flowers by Eugene Delacroix Met. Mus. NY Ferdinand Victor Eug鋝e Delacroix (April 26, 1798 - August 13, 1863) was the most important of the French Romantic painters. Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of color profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. Given the social and political unrest in post-revolutionary Paris, Delacroix retreated to his country house, Champrosay, in September 1848. There he undertook a series of flower paintings, intended for the Salon of 1849, that he hoped would capture the variety and profusion of garden flowers. Because of the possibility of frost, he worked quickly and produced five canvases. Of these, only two satisfied him sufficiently to be included in the Salon: the present work and "Fruit on a Pedestal" (Philadelphia Museum of Art). ?006 TopFoto