Delacroix

Allard, Sébastien and Côme Fabre with contributions by Dominique de Font-Réaulx, Michèle Hannoosh, Mehdi Korchane, and Asher Miller (2018)

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Description

Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) was one of the towering figures to emerge in France in the wake of Napoleon. No other artist of the nineteenth century balanced a reverence for the past with such a strong ambition and spirit of innovation. Distinguishing himself from many other talented young artists in Paris, he gained renown in the 1820s for his novel subject matter, theatrical sense of composition, vibrant palette, and vigorous painterly technique. His vast production—including some eight hundred paintings, prints in a variety of media, and thousands of drawings and pages of writing—won the admiration of countless writers and artists, including Charles Baudelaire, Paul Cézanne, and Pablo Picasso.

This comprehensive monograph closely examines the full breadth of Delacroix’s career, including his engagement with the work of his predecessors, his fascination with the natural world, his interest in Lord Byron and the Greek War of Independence, and the profound influence of his voyage to North Africa in 1832. It brings to life his relationships with his contemporaries, ranging from the painters Pierre Narcisse Guérin and Antoine Jean Gros to Gustave Courbet, as well as his exploration of literary, historical, and biblical themes, his writing in personal journals, and his triumphant exhibition at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. Richly illustrated and encompassing the entire range and diversity of his art, from grand paintings to intimate drawings, Delacroix illuminates how this intrepid figure changed the course of European painting by heeding “a call for the liberty of art.”

Table of contents

Foreword
Lenders to the Exhibition
Contributors
Preface and Acknowledgments
Asher Miller

The Sphinx of Modern Painting
Sébastien Allard and Côme Fabre
Fame Is Not an Empty Word”: 1822–32
Driven to Greatness: 1833–54
From the Last of the Romantics to the Genius of Color: 1855–63

The Act of Looking in Delacroix’s Early Narrative Paintings
Asher Miller

Painting His Thoughts on Paper”: Delacroix and His Journal
Michèle Hannoosh

Eugène and His Masters: Becoming Delacroix
Mehdi Korchane

Delacroix and the Exposition Universelle of 1855
Dominique De Font-Réaulx

Notes
Checklist
Compiled by Asher Miller
Bibliography
Index

About the authors

Sébastien Allard is Chief curator and director, Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Côme Fabre is Curator of nineteenth-century French paintings, Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Dominique de Font-Réaulx is Director, Musée National Eugène-Delacroix, Paris.

Michèle Hannoosh is Professor of French, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Mehdi Korchane is an Independent scholar.

Asher Miller is Associate curator, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Press reviews

Choice

"This beautiful exhibition catalogue represents the first major retrospective given to Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) in more than half a century.... In erudite but accessible prose, the authors demonstrate how Delacroix took new approaches to every genre, from history to still life...Highly recommended."

Vulture, Jerry Saltz

"Here it is, everything you need to know about the ingenious French freak of painterly nature, Eugene Delacroix (1798–1863) . . . all in one beautifully illustrated book. If you’re not exactly sure who Delacroix is or why he’s so epically important (I would rate him as indispensable to understanding all of 19th-century painting), this is the book to read. No other museum catalogue text about this master — or many others — is so lucidly written, accessible, and fun to read."

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Exhibition

Delacroix

September 17, 2018–January 9, 2019

French painter Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) was one of the greatest creative figures of the nineteenth century. Coming of age after the fall of Napoleon, he reconnected the present to the past on his own terms. Delacroix produced an extraordinarily vibrant body of work, setting into motion a cascade of innovations that changed the course of art. This exhibition will be the first comprehensive retrospective devoted to this amazing artist ever held in North America.

The exhibition, a joint project with the Musée du Louvre, will illuminate Delacroix's restless imagination through more than 150 paintings, drawings, prints, and manuscripts—many never before seen in the United States. It will unfold chronologically, encompassing the rich variety of themes that preoccupied the artist during his more than four decades of activity, including literature, history, religion, animals, and nature. Through rarely seen graphic art displayed alongside such iconic paintings as Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1826), The Battle of Nancy (1831), Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1834), and Medea about to Kill Her Children (1838), this exhibition will explore an artist whose protean genius set the bar for virtually all other French painters.