The word “modern” has been cropping up a lot lately in exhibition titles in a bid to “sex up” traditional painting for younger audiences. Now, hard on the heels of Painting the Modern Garden at the Royal Academy, comes Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art (until 22 May) at the National Gallery.The National’s new show dusts off Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) by focusing on his influence on his Impressionist and Post-Impressionist followers – as for example by juxtaposing Renoir’s Arab Festival (1881) with Delacroix’s Convulsionists of Tangier (1838), and Cézanne’s Battle of Love (1890) with Delacroix’s Bathers (1854). But if you focus on the 20 works by Delacroix, what is most noticeable is his traditionalism. Rather t