The works
of French painter Eugene Delacroix
Born in
1798, near the end of the French Revolution, Delacroix was a leading artist of Romanticism, which was an artistic movement that was characterized by a heightened interest in nature and emphasized
an individual’s expression of emotion and imagination. (https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Romantic+art)
The
Metropolitan Museum of Art is now exhibiting the first retrospective in North
America devoted to Delacroix works and was organized in conjunction with the Musée
du Louvre in Paris. The exhibition is a collection of more than 150 paintings,
drawings, prints, and manuscripts and in places his work chronologically throughout
various rooms of The Tisch Galleries.
His subjects were primarily inspired from figures in the bible, literature, and history, but the outer wall of the gallery was dominated by a projected reproduction of a of the portrait of Delacroix. The projection is accompanied by a biography of the artist.
Like many
artists of the 1820’s Delacroix entered into and sought the recognition of the
Salon, which was the annual exhibition of contemporary art that was held at the
Louvre. His work was so well accepted that the director of the royal museums,
Auguste de Forbin, ensured Delacroix that many of his paintings would be
purchased by the French state.
The gallery opens with two large paintings, the first of which is Greece on the Ruins of Misslonghi, 1826. Photo courtesy of Google images
My picture came out to blurry, but I didn't want to have this missing from my paper. The paining was inspired by the Greece liberation struggle from the Ottoman empire. As, mentioned he often looked to history as a source of stimulus.
Christ in the Garden of Olives (1824-1827)
Directly
across the cavernous room hangs this 9 ft.
by 11 ft. painting, also called The Agony in the Garden, depicts Christ moments
before his arrest. It is usually on display at a church in Paris, elevated high
above the ground. This viewing represents a unique opportunity to see it close
up and at eye level.
French writer Charles Baudelaire, described Delacroix as a genius who is ceaselessly in search of the new. Baudelaire called him, "a poet in painting".
Medea
About to Kill Her Children, 1838
This was exhibited at the 1838 Salon, and
depicts the Greek mythology tale of wife, enraged over her husband’s unfaithfulness,
decides to murder her children. The French title for this painting is Medee furieuse,
means that Medea has list her mind and all reason.
While often inspired by the historic, literature, and biblical, he was also inspired, like many others by travel. Delacroix traveled to Morocco as a part of a diplomatic mission, and he became fascinated people and culture. When he returned home he painted many of the people he had encountered, by use of sketches he had taken as well as relying on his memory. His drawings were relatively unknown to the public during his lifetime, were only found after in death in 1863.
Women of
Algiers in Their Apartments, 1834
The
following are some of the watercolor over graphite on wove paper drawings he
produced while in Morocco.
A Man of
Tangier, 1832
Standing
Moroccan, 1832
Portrait of Schmareck, Tanner at Tangier, 1832
Saada, the
Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Preciada, One of Their Daughters, 1832
Looking at
his drawings you find that some are works onto themselves, such as the above, while
others are drawn as the basis for paintings he was to create later. He also sketched
in oil on canvas before going on to replicate the painting.
Death of
Sardanapalus, sketch, 1827-27
This is a
study for one of Delacroix’s largest, most violent, and controversial
paintings, which he produced for the Salon of 1827-28 (Louvre). Based on Lord
Byron’s drama Sardanapalus (1821) it unfolds around its brooding protagonist in
the upper left, the final king of Assyria, who has ordered the ultimate brutal
visual spectacle: the destruction by murder and by fire of all that he
possesses, which he will witness until he to is consumed. The Salon painting
was roundly criticized for violating the norms of artistic propriety. (Museum
placard)
Death of
Sardanapalus, 1845-46
He produced
this reproduction after he sold the earlier piece to a private collector. He
kept this version for himself for the rest of his life.
The Combat
of the Giaour and Hassan, 1826
This
painting is considered to be one of Delacroix’s best early depictions of combat.
It is inspired by a poem by Lord Byron called The Giaour. This painting combined
his use of vibrant colors with his ability to portray the intensity of a chaotic
moment as if it were frozen in time.
The Combat
of the Giaour and Hassan, 1835
Here he
returns to the previous work yet here the intensity is heightened as the two
men have the distance between them reduced to nothing with the figure on the
ground already perished. The title Giaour is a Turkish word meaning non-Muslim.
.
Delacroix didn’t always paint scenes of conflict
Interior
of a Dominican Convent in Madrid (L’Amende Honorable), 1831
This scene
is inspired by the novel Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), by Charles Robert Maturin
in which the protagonist is forced into a convent to compensate for his mother’s
sins.
Delacroix is
a generally regarded as the pre-eminent Romantic painter but many of the early
modernist considered him to be the tree from which they all branched. Former director
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philippe De Montebello declared that “Delacroix
was a transformative figure in the history of European painting, who shaped
what we think of today as modern.” – NYC-ARTS profile of Delacroix 11/01/18. He
influenced important artists to follow such as Van Gough, Manet, and Gauguin.
Delacroix studied
the forms of animals, with horses being his most painted.
Arab
Horses Fighting in a Stable, 1860
A Young Tiger
Playing with Its Mother, (Study of Two Tigers) 1830. Photo courtesy of Google Images
My photo
came out much too dark, so I didn’t have a good image of this, which is ironic
in that this image was all over the place, especially in the gift shop at the
end of the gallery. This painting was exhibited at the 1831 Salon. Delacroix
was inspired by visits to the Jardin des Plantes zoo with his friend and animal
sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye but is believed to have painted this mostly by observing
his own cat. (Wikipedia)
Delacroix
also had shown a great interest in both sea and landscapes.
The Shipwreck
of Don Juan, 1840
Again,
drawing from literary inspiration Delacroix painted a scene from Lord Byron’s
Don Juan, showing the moment in which Don Juan and the other few survivors from
a shipwreck draw lots to determine who would be sacrificed to feed his starving
companions. (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O18873/the-shipwreck-of-don-juan-oil-painting-delacroix-eugene/)
Christ on
the Sea of Galilee, 1854
Delacroix
painted this subject several times in 1853-54, and can be divided into two
parts, those with rowboats and those with sailboats. (http://www.eugene-delacroix.com/christ-on-the-sea-of-galilee.jsp)
The Sea at
Dieppe, 1852
There is
much more to see, as the collection can be described as massive. There are 800
paintings, thousands of drawings, as well as manuscripts. It goes without
saying but Delacroix was a prolific artist.
To truly
appreciate the one in a lifetime exhibition a trip to New York is in order. But
hurry, the exhibition is on view only until January 6th, 2019.
Cites
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O18873/the-shipwreck-of-don-juan-oil-painting-delacroix-eugene/
http://www.eugene-delacroix.com/christ-on-the-sea-of-galilee.jsp
I greatly enjoued your photographs and commentary of the Delacroix show. I watched the Philipppe deMontebello review of the show when it originally aired on WNET 13. This is a blockbuster show and I'm glad you were able to get immersed in it. The Met is such a huge institution that it is worthwhile to go back 2 or 3 times a year and see the collection in small bites. There is a renewed interest in figurative painting of the 19th century now that we are well beyond the mid century excitement in NYC of the "shock of the new" and Modernism. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely intend on going back in 2019 and am happy I was able to see the Delacroix exhibit.
ReplyDelete