To master the rendering of the human form in conventional poses was a core aim of artistic training in art schools, or academies, which is why the resulting studies are known in French as "académies." This study has been identified as Delacroix's earliest "académie" in oil paint, produced while he was a pupil of the history painter Pierre Narcisse Guérin. Delacroix was less interested in the contour of the figure than in conveying an impression of physical presence through the rendering of human flesh.
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Medium:Oil on paper laid down on panel (formerly canvas)
Dimensions:15 3/4 × 13 3/8 in. (40 × 34 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift from the Karen B. Cohen Collection of Eugène Delacroix, in memory of Arthur G. Cohen, 2024
Object Number:2024.592.1
the artist (until d. 1863; his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 17–29, 1864, part of no. 200; sold to Thoré); Théophile Thoré (from 1864); ?H[enri?] Vever; [A. Vullier, Paris, until 1897; sold in February to Mercier]; Monsieur Mercier, Lausanne (from 1897); by descent to H.E. Lombardet, Lausanne (until 1966; his sale, Lausanne, February 3, 1966); C[onstantin A.]. Sfezzo, Lausanne (until 1987; sale, Christie's, London, November 27, 1987, no. 51, to Jane Roberts Fine Arts); [Jane Roberts Fine Arts, London, 1987–88; sold to Cohen]; Karen B. Cohen, New York (1988–2024)
Kunstmuseum Bern. "Eugène Delacroix," November 16, 1963–January 19, 1964, no. 1 (as "Académie," lent by Monsieur H. E. Lombardet, Lausanne).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections," April 10–June 16, 1991, no. 1 (lent by Karen B. Cohen).
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, no. 28.
Paris. Musée National Eugène Delacroix. "Une passion pour Delacroix: La collection Karen B. Cohen," December 16, 2009–April 5, 2010, no. 83 (as "Académie d'homme de dos").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Delacroix," September 17, 2018–January 6, 2019, no. 1 (as a promised gift from the Karen B. Cohen Collection of Eugène Delacroix to The Met).
Alfred Robaut. L'œuvre complet de Eugène Delacroix. Paris, 1885, p. 393, as part of no. 1470, dates this group of seventeen academy figures to 1820; notes that they were not catalogued by M. Moreau.
Felix Baumann and Hugo Wagner. Eugène Delacroix. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Bern. Bern, 1963, no. 1, state that the medium is oil on paper laid down on canvas and that the canvas has the seal of the artist's posthumous studio sale on its back; misassociate the picture with number 15 in Robaut 1885 and follow Robaut's provenance for that work.
Lee Johnson. The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue. Vol. 1, Oxford, 1981, p. 3, no. 1, as "Male Academy Figure: Half-Length, Side View"; dates it 1818/20? and notes its owner as H. E. Lombardet in Lausanne; provides provenance information.
Lee Johnson. The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue. Vol. 2, Oxford, 1981, pl. 1.
Important 19th Century Pictures and Continental Watercolours: The Properties of the Executors of the late Mrs. Hart, Mr. C. Sfezzo, Lausanne, and from various sources. Christie's, London. November 27, 1987, p. 67, no. 51, ill., as "Académie: Torse d'homme" on paper laid down on panel; as property of Mr. C. Sfezzo, Lausanne; provides partial provenance information for Robaut 1885, no. 15.
Lee Johnson. The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue. Vol. 6, Oxford, 1989, p. 193, no. 1 in second supplement, adds provenance information and its inclusion in a private collection in New York; notes that the study was laid down on panel sometime after 1964 and that the seal from the canvas had been removed.
Jacob Bean, Lee Johnson, and William M. Griswold. Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1991, p. 64, no. 1, ill., as in the collection of Karen B. Cohen; state that it was probably executed when Delacroix was in the studio of Pierre Narcisse Guérin.
Colta Ives with Elizabeth E. Barker inRomanticism & the School of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2000, pp. 58–59, no. 28, ill., date it 1818–20?; state that it is one of four male academy figures dating from the artist's time in Guérin's studio.
Une passion pour Delacroix: La collection Karen B. Cohen. Ed. Christophe Leribault. Exh. cat., Musée National Eugène Delacroix. Paris, 2009, p. 164, no. 83, colorpl. 83.
Sébastien Allard and Côme Fabre inDelacroix. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2018, pp. 23–24, no. 1, ill. (color).
Asher Miller inDelacroix. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2018, p. 275, no. 1, dates it 1818–20.
Sometime after 1964, the study was laid down on panel and the seal from Delacroix's posthumous sale was removed.
After Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)
1852
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