Inspired in part by Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, this painting reimagines the battlefield not as a site of revolution, but as the quiet, charged space between two people. Here, liberty is not found through conquest, but through the emotional reckoning that comes with love, loss, and the shifting terms of connection.

The man stands, arm raised—not with a weapon, but holding a patterned cloth that billows and breaks across the canvas echoing the movements of a flag. It flutters in red and white like a banner of passion and fatigue, love and surrender. His stance is not heroic in the traditional sense, but intimate—an attempt to shield, to hold on, or to mark an ending with dignity. His gesture is both protective and imploring, echoing the archetype of the standard-bearer, yet turned inward. Beneath him, the woman bends into her own space, her posture soft with resignation or reflection. She is not led, nor defeated—but caught in the complicated terrain of intimacy and departure.

The dripping paint and diffused contours suggest dissolution, memory, and the inevitable unraveling that comes with truth.

This is not a portrait of conflict, but of aftermath. Of the battlefield we create and inhabit with those we love. A meditation on how we wave our flags—not in conquest, but in vulnerability.

Liberty or Surrender

80 x 100 cm

Oil on canvas

2025