Working in a linear mode, Delacroix here used a hard, sharp pencil to explore postures for a painting of the Lamentation in the recently built church of Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement in Paris. Rather than sketching the figures from life, he drew on his knowledge of a striking Pietà by Italian Mannerist painter Rosso Fiorentino (1530–40; Louvre). In Delacroix’s final composition, completed in just seventeen days, he reversed the orientation of the figures. After being asked to switch chapels at a late stage, he needed to accommodate a light source from the opposite side.
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Dimensions:Overall: 9 3/4 x 14 5/16 in. (24.7 x 36.3 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Gift from the Karen B. Cohen Collection of Eugène Delacroix, in honor of Carmen Bambach, 2013
Accession Number:2013.1135.25
Inscription: Inscribed in graphite, lower center: "Plus levée que dans le dessin"
Marking: Stamped in red ink, lower right: Delacroix estate mark (Lugt 838a)
Eugène Delacroix (French)(his estate sale, Paris 1864, prob. no. 345); Private Collection, New York; Seligmann Gallery; Salander-O'Reilly Galleries(Sold to Karen B. Cohen, 1985)
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries. "Corot-Delacroix: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors," May 1, 1986–June 30, 1986.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections," April 10–June 16, 1991.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Romanticism and the School of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection," October 17, 2000–January 21, 2001.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Devotion to Drawing: The Karen B. Cohen Collection of Eugène Delacroix," July 17–November 12, 2018.
Johnson vol. 5, p. 83; MMA 1991.43; MMA 2000.42
Julius Meier-Graefe, Lane Faison Jr. Corot-Delacroix, an Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors.. Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, 1986, cat. no. 90, fig. no. pl. 32, ill.
Lee Johnson The Paintings of Eugene Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue: Volumes 5-6: The Public Decorations and their Sketches; Supplements and Plates. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989, vol. V, p. 83.
Jacob Bean, Lee Johnson, William M. Griswold Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections. Ex. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, cat. no. 43, p. 110, ill.
Colta Ives, Elizabeth E. Barker Romanticism and the School of Nature : Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection. Exh. cat.: October 17 - January 21, 2001. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press, New York, 2000, cat. no. 42, pp. 88-89, ill.
Christophe Leribault Une passion pour Delacroix: la collection Karen B. Cohen. Paris, 2009, cat. no. 19, p. 49, ill.
Ashley Dunn, Colta Ives, Marjorie Shelley Delacroix Drawings: The Karen B. Cohen Collection. New York, 2018, cat. no. 90, pp. 114, 164, ill.
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The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.
