"Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi"

Eugène Delacroix - Oil
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi is an 1826 oil painting by French painter Eugene Delacroix, and now preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. This painting was inspired by the third siege of Messolonghi by the Turkish forces in 1826 during which many people of the city decided to surrender to the enemy to escape famine and epidemics. Greece is depicted as a kneeling woman who occupies the major part of the painting. She is wearing a traditional Greek costume, her chest being widely bare, and she spreads her arms as a sign of sadness. The hand of a dead victim can be seen over the rubble, beneath her feet. In the background, a black man wearing a yellow turban, who symbolizes the enemy, is planting a flag in the ground.