Leader of the Nation: Delacroix, Leadership and Power

March 16, 2026

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830, depicting Liberty carrying the French tricolour and leading revolutionaries over the barricades.

Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People becomes a meditation on leadership, revolution and the image of a nation in moments of upheaval. It asks who gets to embody the hopes of a people, and at what cost.

The full essay continues in the Membership Archive, where power, symbolism and public expectation become a reflection on what it means to lead a nation through crisis.

Comments are reviewed before publication

More from The Image & Culture Journal

Winslow Homer, Snap the Whip (1872), depicting barefoot schoolboys holding hands and playing in a grassy field outside a red schoolhouse, with two boys breaking away from the line.

The Child With a Thousand Dollars

October 14, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

America is investing $1,000 in eligible newborns. But can money at birth overcome inequality at birth?

Pollice Verso (1872) by Jean-Léon Gérôme, depicting a victorious Roman gladiator standing over his defeated opponent as spectators demand his death.

The Colosseum Never Closed

October 11, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

The Colosseum never closed. Its crowds simply moved online, where public humiliation is only a click away.

William P. Chappel’s City Watchman (1870s), depicting a lone New York watchman leaving his sentry box on a snowy night.

Who Protects the Protector?

September 27, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

The uniform comes off. What happens to everything the officer has seen?

Jacob Riis’s Bandits’ Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street (1888), showing men, residents and a child in a narrow Lower Manhattan tenement alley.

Who Mourns the Gang Member? 🔒

September 14, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Every child is searching for somewhere to belong. Who will claim them before the gang does?

Theresa Rézeau self-portrait with Francis Bacon’s Study for Self-Portrait at Phillips Auction House, London.

I Don’t Know When I Was Born 🔒

September 13, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

What if you didn’t know when you were born? Francis Bacon’s self-portrait asks what it means to truly know ourselves.

Caravaggio, David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1609–10, showing David holding the severed head of Goliath.

Callow Disgrace 🔒

September 9, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Caravaggio meets The King in a reflection on power and pride. What happens when authority arrives before wisdom?

Detail from Raphael’s The Transfiguration (1516–1520), showing a father holding his son below the mountain.

The People Who Stayed

September 3, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Raphael left the painting unfinished. He died before the miracle arrived. Some of us are still waiting below the mountain.

George Frederic Watts, Hope (1886), showing a blindfolded woman seated on a globe, holding a lyre with a single remaining string.

What If Hope Is the Drug?

August 26, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

When does perseverance become a refusal to accept evidence? Theresa Rézeau reflects on George Frederic Watts’s Hope (1886).

Gustav Klimt, The Three Ages of Woman, 1905, depicting infancy, motherhood and old age in a meditation on the stages of a woman’s life.

Forever 21 🔒

August 22, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

At twenty-one, a daughter steps into a life of her own. Through the lens of Klimt, a mother learns that love must let her go.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503–1519, portrait of a seated woman with folded hands and an enigmatic expression against a distant landscape.

Divine Elegance 🔒

August 19, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and what it means to hold a room without trying.

Vincent van Gogh’s Prisoners’ Round (1890), depicting prisoners walking in a circle within the walls of a prison yard.

Even the Jailbird Sings 🔒

August 9, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Van Gogh's Prisoners' Round and the freedoms no wall has ever learned how to contain.

The Sower (1850) by French painter Jean-François Millet, depicting a solitary agricultural worker scattering seeds across a field.

The Boss 🔒

August 6, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Millet's The Sower and José Mujica: power, freedom, and the quiet authority of those who plant rather than accumulate.

The Clubfoot (1642) by Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera, depicting a smiling young boy with a disability standing against an open landscape.

The Dignity of Difference

July 29, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Ribera's The Clubfoot and what a smiling boy in 1642 still reveals about dignity, disability, and human worth.

Floral still life by Dutch painter Rachel Ruysch, depicting an elaborate arrangement of flowers against a dark background.

The Last Flower 🔒

July 27, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Rachel Ruysch's still life paintings and what wilting flowers teach us about beauty, time, and the grace of letting go.

The Shipwreck (1805) by British painter J. M. W. Turner, depicting survivors struggling amid violent waves and a storm-tossed sea.

The Man Who Built the Impossible 🔒

July 25, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Turner's The Shipwreck and Thomas Andrews, the man who designed the Titanic and watched it disappear in a single night.

Edwin Landseer, Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler, 1820, two powerful dogs rescuing a man in the snow.

The Image of Risk 🔒

July 21, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

When did the powerful dog become an image of danger? Theresa Rézeau explores Landseer, risk and responsibility.

William Hogarth’s The Four Stages of Cruelty, an eighteenth-century series examining cruelty, violence and its consequences.

The Monsters We Create

July 14, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Hogarth's Four Stages of Cruelty and the society that keeps producing the conditions for youth violence.

Léon Bonnat, Jacob Wrestling with an Angel (1876), depicting Jacob struggling with the angel in a dramatic biblical scene.

Change My Name 🔒

July 9, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Bonnat's Jacob Wrestling with an Angel and what a new name cannot do alone.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Blind Leading the Blind, 1568, depicting six blind men following one another as the leader falls into a ditch.

The Blindness of the Sighted 🔒

July 6, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Blindness and the refusal to see are not the same thing. Theresa Rézeau on Bruegel and what we choose not to see.

The Potato Eaters (1885) by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, depicting a peasant family gathered around a table sharing a simple evening meal.

Year 1992 🔒

July 3, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Van Gogh's Potato Eaters and a year in Zimbabwe she has never left behind.

Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, c. 1508–1512, detail showing the outstretched hands of God and Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The Hand Of God 🔒

June 30, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Maradona called it the hand of God. Theresa Rézeau on Michelangelo and the most controversial gesture in football history.

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942 — Theresa Rézeau Fine Art

The Erosion of Gallery Culture

June 18, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Galleries are closing and fewer people are collecting. Through Hopper's Nighthawks, Theresa Rézeau asks what is really being lost.

Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors, 1533, double portrait filled with symbols of wealth, knowledge and power, with an anamorphic skull representing mortality.

The Trillionaire and the Skull 🔒

June 13, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Elon Musk's trillion and what Holbein's hidden skull still has to say.

Moses Tladi, Rural Domestic Scene, a South African landscape depicting rural homes, figures and everyday life.

Child of Africa

June 6, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

What does it mean to belong in Africa? Theresa Rézeau explores borders and belonging through Moses Tladi.

Hieronymus Bosch, The Cure of Folly, c. 1501–1505, depicting a surgeon removing the “stone of madness” from a man’s head.

The Spiritual Cost of Constant Visibility 🔒

May 15, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Bosch's Cure of Folly understood it centuries ago. Theresa Rézeau on what modern visibility culture costs the interior life.

When the Pavilion Becomes the Battlefield 🔒

May 12, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Boycotts are turning Venice into a battlefield. Theresa Rézeau on Hirszenberg and what is lost when artists are reduced to nationality.

Edvard Munch, Melancholy, 1891, depicting a solitary figure seated by the shoreline with his head resting in his hand.

The Image of Melancholy 🔒

May 4, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

What does Munch's Melancholy share with Michael Jackson's childhood? Theresa Rézeau on distance, discipline, and the slow restructuring of closeness.

And There Is Nothing to Be Done

May 1, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Goya's Y no hay remedio refuses to make violence meaningful. Theresa Rézeau on exile, war, and the cost of seeing clearly.

Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1801, depicting Napoleon Bonaparte on a rearing horse as he gestures towards the Alpine pass.

Tears of the General 🔒

April 18, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

David's Napoleon does not climb the mountain — he commands it. Theresa Rézeau on power, belief, and the images we are taught to trust.

Jean-Michel Basquiat portrait, reflecting the life and legacy of the American artist whose meteoric rise transformed contemporary art.

The Dream Costs. Just Ask Basquiat 🔒

April 7, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Basquiat didn't just paint — he insisted. Theresa Rézeau on the cost of greatness and what his life reveals about legacy.

Eugène Burnand, The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection (1898), showing Peter and John running towards Christ’s tomb.

Hope is Motion 🔒

April 5, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Eugène Burnand’s painting of Peter and John running to the tomb reveals what hope looks like before certainty arrives.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Elevation of the Cross (1610–1611), depicting Christ being raised on the cross as figures strain beneath him.

Good Friday 🔒

April 3, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Rubens’ Elevation of the Cross refuses to make the Crucifixion abstract. Theresa Rézeau on violence, responsibility, and what makes Good Friday “good.”

Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Flight into Egypt, depicting the Holy Family travelling through a dark landscape as they flee into Egypt.

Ghetto Gospel

March 28, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

When does proximity become suspicion? Theresa Rézeau examines migration, xenophobia and urban inequality through Tanner’s Flight into Egypt.

J. M. W. Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, c. 1835, depicting flames and smoke engulfing the Palace of Westminster beside the River Thames.

When the Earth Cannot Write Back

March 22, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

War's ecological casualties go unrecorded. Theresa Rézeau on Burtynsky, Turner, and the earth's silent suffering.

Bust of Commodus as Hercules, c. 191–192 CE, depicting the Roman emperor wearing the lion skin of Hercules and holding symbols of the hero.

Commodus: The Tragedy of the Unseen Son 🔒

March 20, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Before Commodus became a tyrant, he was a son who felt unseen. Theresa Rézeau on paternal silence and the Hercules who hid behind it.

Theresa Rézeau at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, standing in the marble courtyard surrounded by the mosque’s white domes and Islamic architecture.

Eid and the Art of Gratitude 🔒

March 19, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Discipline gives meaning to celebration. Theresa Rézeau on Eid, Islamic art, and the quiet architecture of gratitude.

Leader Of The Nation 🔒

March 16, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

What does it truly mean to lead a nation? Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People has the answer.

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936, showing Florence Owens Thompson with two of her children during the Great Depression.

Motherhood Under Pressure

March 15, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

What does Lange's Migrant Mother still tell us today? Theresa Rézeau on maternal resilience across a century of crisis.

Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son, c. 1819–1823, depicting the mythological god Saturn consuming one of his children.

The Joker and Goya’s Saturn 🔒

March 7, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

What connects Goya's Saturn to the Joker's philosophy? Theresa Rézeau on fear, power, and what quietly resists moral collapse.

Philippe de Kraan, Mother Love, contemporary artwork exploring maternal love and the relationship between mother and child.

Contemporary Art: The Question of Trust

February 10, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Nobody really likes contemporary art — or so the claim goes. Philippe De Kraan disagrees.

Käthe Kollwitz, mother and child image, depicting an intimate embrace that evokes protection, grief, vulnerability and the bonds of family.

Pain Needs Shelter 🔒

January 24, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Family pain needs shelter, not spectacle. Käthe Kollwitz knew it first.

Andrei Rublev, The Trinity (c. 1411), depicting three angels seated around a table in one of the most celebrated icons of Orthodox Christian art.

The Hand That Laboured

January 10, 2026|Theresa Rezeau

Sacred images can now be summoned in seconds. Theresa Rézeau considers Rublev’s Trinity in an age of instant creation.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson, 1893, depicting an elderly Black man teaching a young boy to play the banjo.

Black Art, Divine Witness

October 1, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

Tanner’s The Banjo Lesson is a painting about knowledge passed from one generation to another. A reflection on Black art, recognition, and the dignity of being seen.

The Return of the Prodigal Son (c. 1668) by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, depicting a father tenderly embracing his kneeling son.

The Art of Fatherhood

June 15, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son and what two ageing hands resting on broken shoulders reveal about fatherhood.

Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509–1511, Renaissance fresco depicting philosophers and scholars gathered in a monumental classical architectural setting.

What Makes A Masterpiece?

May 21, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on what truly earns the title of masterpiece and who gets to decide.

Fine art installation in a luxury property interior, curated by Theresa Rézeau Fine Art

Art Meets Property

May 18, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

In luxury real estate, art is no longer decoration. It is the soul of the home.

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (c. 1503–1519) by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, depicting Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child.

The Art Of Motherhood

May 11, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Leonardo's Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the hidden force behind every civilisation.

Sacred religious painting evoking the spiritual legacy of the Catholic Church and the dawn of a new papacy under Pope Leo XIV

When Heaven Paints Again

May 8, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

A new papacy brings a new vision. Theresa Rézeau on Pope Leo XIV, sacred art, and the quiet Catholic revival reshaping Britain.

Superfine: Black Style as Fine Art at the 2025 Met Gala

May 6, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

The 2025 Met Gala honoured Black dandyism and diasporic identity. Theresa Rézeau on fashion as resistance and art.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Three Graces, 1635, depicting three nude female figures embracing in a pastoral landscape.

The Body as a Gift

May 5, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

Beauty standards change. Art remembers. Theresa Rézeau on the body, judgement, and what Rubens understood.

The Price Was Two Guilders 🔒

May 3, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

Warren Buffett built his legacy on patience and long-term value. So did Vermeer. Theresa Rézeau draws the line between them.

Semen Natanovich Guyetsky, Children Reading, 1940, two children absorbed in a book, reflecting cultural memory and transmission during wartime.

Ukraine: Art Worlds Under Fire

May 2, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

War fractures cultural memory. Theresa Rézeau on Guyetsky and a Ukrainian art dealer forced into exile.

Amedeo Modigliani, Reclining Nude, 1917, depicting a reclining female nude in the artist’s distinctive modernist style.

The Naked Truth 🔒

April 30, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

Theresa Rézeau on Modigliani and why the artistic nude still unsettles a culture that has no trouble with hyper-sexualised billboards.

Enough Of This Scandal!

April 30, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

The art world is rife with scandal, from looted artefacts to inflated markets. Theresa Rézeau argues it's time collectors, advisors, and institutions demand transparency and collect with conscience.

Pompeo Batoni, The Return of the Prodigal Son, showing the father embracing his returning son in a scene of forgiveness and reconciliation.

The Art of Reconciliation

April 29, 2025|Theresa Rezeau

Batoni painted the return. The Eubanks reveal how difficult reconciliation can be.

Your cart is empty

More from The Image & Culture Journal

The Child With a Thousand Dollars

The Child With a Thousand Dollars