Painted in 1830, Eugène Delacroix's painting "Liberty Leading the People" is sometimes wrongly thought to depict the French Revolution of 1789. Instead it commemorates the July Revolution of 1830, which overthrew King Charles X. In the scene a woman of the people, viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne holds the tricolour in one hand – flag of the French Revolution – which would become the French national flag after the July Revolution.
Purchased by the government in 1831, the painting is one of the most iconic French images and lives on display at The Louvre.
