The Ever Elusive, Masterful Delacroix | 2018-10-21 21:05:52 (Visits: 535 Times) |  | | "Christ in the Garden of Olives (The Agony in the Garden)," 1824–26, by Eugène Delacroix. Oil on canvas. 9 feet, 1 7/16 inches 1,by 11 feet , 3 13/16 inches, Church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, Paris. (Jean-Marc Moser/COARC/Roger-Viollet)
2,“Women of Algiers in Their Apartment,” 1834, by Eugène Delacroix. Oil on canvas, 70 7/8 inches by 90 3/16 inches. Musée du Louvre, Paris. (RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY/Franck Raux)
3,“The Battle of Nancy and the Death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Jan. 5, 1477,” 1831, by Eugène Delacroix. Oil on canvas, 7 feet 9 5/16 inches by 11 feet 8 3/16 inches. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy. (P. Mignot)
A tour de force retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
BY MILENE FERNANDEZ
October 11, 2018 Updated: October 12, 2018
NEW YORK—There’s a restless quality, a kind of centrifugal force, still stirring within the paintings by Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863). While celebrated as the 19th-century artist who epitomizes romanticism, his oeuvre continues to elude comprehension. For the first time in North America, we have an exceptional opportunity to learn more about Delacroix, beyond his emblematic painting for the French Republic “Liberty Leading the People,” reproduced in countless history books, and on the obsolete 100 franc banknote.
You may know of Delacroix as the darling of the Paris Salon, or of Delacroix as the painter of majestic murals, of religious commissions, and of wild animals. Less known is Delacroix the portraitist of friends, the satirical cartoonist, or the illustrator of plays. There’s also Delacroix the Orientalist, the womanizer, and the sulfurous rival of the other last old master, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867). No matter how Delacroix may be described, we have the opportunity to reassess, in broader context, the works of an indisputably passionate artist who relentlessly created for passion’s sake.The Metropolitan Museum of Art has mounted the most comprehensive exhibition possible of Delacroix on this side of the Atlantic. The retrospective, aptly titled “Delacroix,” follows its Paris debut this past summer. It was organized by the associate curator of The Met’s department of European paintings, Asher Miller, with the director of the Musée du Louvre’s department of paintings, Sébastien Allard, and its curator, Côme Fabre. In solid collaboration with the Louvre, practically every major work by the French artist that was not too massive, too precious, or simply impossible (his murals) to transport can be seen at The Met until Jan. 6, 2019.
“This is clearly a historic occasion,” the recently appointed director of The Met, Max Hollein, said before the opening. The nearly 150 works, including oil paintings, watercolors, prints, drawings, and journals, are spaciously displayed on sufficiently subtle chromatic walls and perfectly lit to enjoy each piece on its own terms. Four years in the making, the exhibition “Delacroix” is a magnificent curatorial tour de force, considering the large number of works Delacroix produced—more than 800 paintings, 8,000 drawings, 100 prints, and an even a greater number of written pages—and the incredible diversity of all of them.Stylistically, Delacroix emulated the terribiltà (the terror-inducing aspect) of Michelangelo, filtered through the energetic brushwork of Géricault and Rubens.
Stylistically, Delacroix emulated the terribiltà (the terror-inducing aspect) of Michelangelo, filtered through the energetic brushwork of Géricault and Rubens.
“Wishing to attract attention by impressing the public, Delacroix balanced the boldness of a dark subject, the dramatic intensity of gesture and color, and the horrifying aspect of the figures trying to board the boat through a display of “beaux morceaux” (beautifully rendered passages),” Sébastien Allard and Côme Fabre wrote about the painting in the exhibition catalog.
When the painting entered the collection of the Palais du Luxembourg, considered the antechamber to the Louvre, Delacroix knew that after his death, his paintings would be displayed alongside the likes of Raphael and Poussin. He wrote in his journal: “Fame is not an empty word for me. The sound of praise gives me real happiness.”
His paintings of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire solidified his fame further. “Scenes from The Massacre of Chios” (1824) could not be transported from Paris. Yet a preliminary oil study for it, “Head of an Old Greek Woman”(1824), is included in the retrospective, and one of Delacroix’s preliminary drawings for it is on display in the “Devotion to Drawing” exhibition at The Met. His painting “Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi” (1826), exhibited in an 1826 benefit supporting the Greeks, captured the public’s attention. Delacroix was able to transcend the specificity of the current event by revisiting the outmoded genre of the allegory.
As one reads in the exhibition catalog about other examples of Delacroix’s paintings exhibited in the Salon, it becomes evident how careful and strategic he was in choosing his subject matter, all the while remaining fiercely independent.
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