Eugene Delacroix is the most prominent representative of romanticism in France. In the artist’s small painting After the Shipwreck (Barge of Don Juan – Dead Body Thrown to the Sea), he used the theme of shipwreck, which romanticists saw as having a symbolic sense. To the romanticists, the ocean exemplified elemental forces or the will of fate. Human life was seen as a small boat with neither a rudder nor sails that was carried wherever fate desired. The meaning of Delacroix’s painting, the theme of which was inspired by Byron’s poem “Don Juan, " is found in the drama of the struggle between humankind and the elements, as well as in the intensity of passions, raging like the sea in stormy weather. The emotional impact of the painting is achieved not only through the dramatic theme but also through the compositional structure, with sharp diagonal movements of the boat. The artist’s style of painting, with its characteristic free and dynamic strokes, speaks to Delacroix’s fascination with the art of Rubens, the most prominent colorist of the 17th century.