Eugene Delacroix was the greatest French painter of the Romantic Movement. Delacroixs output was enormous. After his death his executors found more than 9;000 paintings; pastels; and drawings in his studio and he prided himself on the speed at which he worked; declaring If you are not skilful enough to sketch a man falling out of a window during the time it takes him to get from the fifth storey to the ground; then you will never be able to produce monumental work. Among great painters he was also one of the finest writers on art. He was a voluminous letter writer and kept a journal from 1822 to 1824 and again from 1847 until his death - a marvelously rich source of information and opinion on his life and times. His influence; particularly through his use of color; was prodigious; inspiring Renoir; Seurat; and van Gogh among others. Van Gogh wrote about him: Only Rembrandt and Delacroix could paint the face of Christ.
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Review
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Newly moved to Detroit SuburbsBy M. PersaudI wish I could give this book 4.5 stars; but I feel that it is closer to a 5; so I am giving it that.Honestly; had I not moved to a city near Detroit and seen it for myself I wouldnt believe this book. I didnt believe half the things that people said about the city in general; thinking that it was a sensationalized darling of the media. Im from a big city; and have seen a good share of them-and Detroit is like nothing Ive seen before. Empty skyscrapers and high rises; some beautifully structured; gape at you; yet many of the citys cultural institutions are open and uniquely worth a visit. Huge mansions are available for the standard price of a house in Los Angeles and regular homes are available for less than a laser printer; while new condominiums are being built and sold for the same price as the historic mansions. Thats in the city proper; the only part Ive visited. In the living part of downtown; the new Whole Foods proudly advertises itself.This book contains obviously contains many years of research on the history of Detroit; as well as a lot of interesting interviews and concepts. Its far from a coolly written academic text; being infused with the descriptions and opinions of the author who is often times a wry commentator and; in fact; grew up in the city himself. Its an extremely interesting; up-to-date; and raw read. In fact; I would have given it an outright five had I not disagree with a couple points regarding his treatment of racial politics; which he generally handles well throughout the book. As is widely known; Detroits history is intertwined with the history of race in this country; and it is essential to discuss this in any book on the city-the discussions in the book about the riots are particularly interesting-and attempting to avoid controversy by avoiding the topic would be to miss a large part of the citys culture and evolution. However; I disagree with his treatment of a particular mayor. He defends him by virtue of his charisma and the continued interest of the city in him-which is obviously sort of like peoples interest in reality TV-but never shows any reason why the hatred of him within the suburbs/city is connected to racial politics. Indeed; stealing; gang politics; and the other "interesting" activities he engaged in are more than enough to make people hate him; no matter his persona.But; this one topic out of many aside; I definitely recommend this book.12 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Good Writing; Interesting Characters; Peek at the MayhemBy Wayne A. SmithBinelli is a good writer and has produced an interesting if breezy overview of efforts to make something of Detroit.The author; a Detroit native; moves back to the city to chronicle the people who hope to reinvigorate what is arguably Americas most desperate urban area. This is not "ruin porn"; as apparently people call profiles of Detroit that focus on the mayhem; arson; desolation and abandonment that have bled a once booming metropolis of over 2;000;000 people down to todays count of 700;000 inhabitants. The desolation; failures; and rotten characters are a part of the story; but they form the backdrop for a book that recounts Detroits rise; fall and present state of hope a midst the hopelessness many feel for the city.The reader gets early chapters on the carving out of the wilderness of the French trading post that became Detroit; its rise as an industrial center and peak as the home and production site of automobiles. The movement of autos first to the suburbs; then to the South and overseas; social unrest in a bi-racial metropolis; the 1967 riots and corrupt urban politics each acted as accelerants upon each other; fueling an unhealthy urban environment that led to the flight of whites and middle class blacks away from the metropolis. These people took with them from the city much of the entrepreneurship that can sustain jobs; the tax base and the density that every city needs to pay for basic services and infrastructure in urban areas.For some reason Detroits fall has been uniquely physical among American cities. Detroit residents have an inexplicable romance with fire; the number of arsons that claim buildings exceeds that of other cities by a large amount. Lately mayors have taken to demolition of large numbers of abandoned buildings. What official Detroit doesnt get; scrappers do - entrepreneurial citizens who take homes and buildings apart for copper tubing; fixtures and any other building materials that can be reclaimed and sold.This has produced a city that is largely abandoned in many areas. What exists; doesnt work well. A history of corrupt politics along with a shrunken tax base means that citizens are largely without basic services - Binelli chronicles one 911 "center" that is a fireman on the porch of a run-down station with a telephone. That public official attempts to direct the one ambulance in his area to multiple situations nightly. That means that stroke and heart attack victims wait sometimes hours for a response.With buildings being taken down; there is enough open land within the city limits that agricultural industries and farming are serious proposals to reinvigorate the economy. This would be on top of the many small farm-plots that dot the city presently; inhabitants using a cheap available resource (open land) to produce income by the planting of crops.Binellis book is largely about the people who look for solutions - like the small urban farmers above and Mayor Bing; who is trying to physically move the spread-out population back to a tight urban core in order to deliver services more efficiently (this plan calls for abandonment of largely sparsely inhabited outlying areas). Hope does spring eternally and one will find himself rooting for these schemes even if they seem like long-shots.The other characters the author highlights include firemen; who he accompanies on runs and around the station house; neighbors - each of whom seems much more colorful than an average group one would find living on your block; and politicians. The politicians are of course; both a symptom and cause of some of Detroits woes. Recent Mayor Kilpatrick proved incredibly corrupt as well as incredibly bad at hiding his personal aggrandizement. He and some other powers-that-be remind one of the corrupt third world countries that steal most international aid for their own profit and are quite brazen about it.On the whole Binellis survey is interesting and well painted. The reader gets enough glimpses at the severe decay and abandonment within which the city exists to satisfy the urge to know what Detroit is really like in detail. The glimpses of hope offer that; the personalities is some cases are testaments to the will to survive; in others examples of the depths people can sink to when parasiticly trying to steal; cheat and scheme their way through life.A minor annoyance is Binellis seemingly reflexive tilt to the left. A couple of gratuitous George Bush and conservative swipes were uncomfortably placed in his text. The major fault I found was that he blamed the de-industrialization of Detroit wholly on the managers of GM; Ford and Chrysler. No mention of the effect that strong labor unions had on pushing costs up to the point where they were anti-competitive with the rest of the world and other areas of the United States.On the whole; an interesting read.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Binellis Book Is The Book To ReadBy JoshIf you are at all interested in Detroit; urban fluorescence and decline; the American Rust Belt or cities in general; this is an extremely intriguing and informative look at the disparate; though interdependent; threads of economic; social and political history that have made Detroit what it is today.I suspect that many people who intend to read this book are Michiganders who have grown up hearing stories about the "good old days" of Detroit. Im sure many of you are tired of hearing about Detroits problems; and maybe; like me; are getting tired of the media circus that surrounds the city and seeks to profit from its demise. For all of you; let me tell you what this book is not.Its not:political propagandagawker/ruin pornmessiah mentalityfatalismexaggerated optimismInstead; Binellis book is a hard; honest (dare I say; "Midwestern"?) look at whats happening in the city and how it got to where it is today. Binelli manages to tie together the threads of Detroits history so eloquently that the complexities of the city; which are often barely visible to outsiders; come into magnificent focus with each chapter. This book is more than an evenhanded account of Detroit; it is one of the definitive accounts; bowing only to Sugrues "Origins of the Urban Crisis."In short; I highly recommend Binellis book. If you are at all interested in Detroit; this one is not to be missed.
