Sardanapale, from "Le Monde Illustré"
Engraver Emile Thomas French
After an intermediary drawing by Albert Duvivier French
After Eugène Delacroix French
Not on view
The popular illustrated weekly "Le Monde Illustré" published this reproduction of Delacroix’s "The Death of Sardanapalus" (1827; Louvre) when the painting was included in an exhibition of the Société de l’Union des Arts in May 1874. The magazine declared that it believed "it must make known to its readers the most remarkable works currently on view in Paris." A decade after the artist’s death, the painting had come up at auction for the first time the previous year and was purchased by the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who lent it to a number of exhibitions in London and Paris.