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Madame Henri François Riesener (Félicité Longrois, 1786–1847)

1835
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 801
Delacroix rarely portrayed anyone other than his closest family and friends. His affection for Madame Riesener, an aunt by marriage, is expressed through the frank tenderness of this portrait. She was once known for her beauty: some thirty years before the date of this portrait she served as a lady-in-waiting to empress Josephine, and having caught Napoleon’s eye, engaged in a brief liaison with him. After she died, Delacroix wrote to George Sand, "each of the beings necessary to our existence who disappears, takes away with him a whole world of feelings that no other relationship can revive."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Madame Henri François Riesener (Félicité Longrois, 1786–1847)
  • Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)
  • Date: 1835
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 29 1/4 x 23 3/4 in. (74.3 x 60.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1994
  • Object Number: 1994.430
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Studies of Horses, Eugène Delacroix French, Graphite and traces of brown ink on laid paper
Studies of Horses
Eugène Delacroix
A Bearded Man, Standing, and a Classical Head, Eugène Delacroix French, Pen and brown ink on tracing paper (mounted on heavy wove paper)
A Bearded Man, Standing, and a Classical Head
Eugène Delacroix
1815–63
Les Français peints par eux-mêmes encyclopédie morale du dix-neuvième siècle. Paris, L. Curmer, 1840-1842.
Eugène Delacroix
19th century
La Pietà, Eugène Delacroix French, Etching on chine collé; second state of two
La Pietà
Multiple artists/makers
1852
Studies of a Goat, Eugène Delacroix French, Graphite on wove paper
Studies of a Goat
Eugène Delacroix
1798–1863

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