Interior of the Church of Valmont Abbey
Eugène Delacroix French
Not on view
This drawing of the church at Valmont in Normandy shows Delacroix’s masterful handling of the wash medium to create a shadowy ambience. During his visits to his cousin’s estate there, Delacroix was especially transfixed by the partially ruined fifteenth-century church on the property, which appealed to his Romantic imagination. After his first trip, he recalled, "Above all, the old church, half-ruined, where there were tombs, great Gothic windows with dark stained glass, and vaults containing the foundations of the abbey, all of these things inspired a host of romantic ideas." The dreamlike atmosphere conjured by the artist in this wash drawing corresponds with his written reflections on the church as a space of reverie.
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