Which French painter created 'The Death of Sardanapalus'?

The French painter who created The Death of Sardanapalus was Eugène Delacroix.

Delacroix exhibited the monumental oil painting at the Paris Salon in 1827. It depicts the legendary Assyrian ruler Sardanapalus watching as his possessions, servants, animals, and concubines are destroyed during his final catastrophe. The subject was drawn from ancient historical tradition and was also shaped by Lord Byron’s 1821 play Sardanapalus.

The work is a powerful statement of French Romanticism. Its violent movement, intense reds, glittering golds, asymmetrical composition, and loose brushwork challenge the controlled drawing and moral clarity associated with Neoclassicism. The huge red bed dominates the scene as both a luxurious royal object and the center of the unfolding massacre.

The painting is often contrasted with works by Delacroix’s artistic rival Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, whose style represented the Neoclassical emphasis on line. Delacroix also made a smaller 1846-era replica, now associated with the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the monumental 1827 version is in the Louvre.