Throughout his career, Delacroix was inspired by the novels of Sir Walter Scott, a favorite author of the French Romantics. This painting, shown at the Salon of 1846, depicts a scene from Ivanhoe. Rebecca, who had been confined in Front de Boeuf's castle (seen in flames in the background), was carried off by two Saracen slaves at the command of the Christian knight Bois-Guilbert, who had long coveted her. Delacroix painted a less dramatic version of the subject in 1859 (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

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