Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix, a central figure of French Romanticism, is represented here chiefly through graphic work: rapid figure studies, copies after Old Masters such as Rubens and Raphael, and observations of contemporary types drawn from Gillray. The five sheets in this collection cluster around graphite and brown-ink drawing, several of them on tracing paper laid down, a working method that reveals how he transferred and reworked compositions. Their dates, as recorded by the Met, span 1817 to 1830, with impressions up to that point reflecting the drafting habits of his formative and early mature years.

5 works in the collection · All public domain (CC0)

Studies of Four Englishmen, after James Gillray

ca. 1817–25 · Brush and brown ink on tracing paper, laid down

Figure Studies after Rubens's "The Fall of the Rebel Angels"

ca. 1820–22 · Graphite

Combat of Nude Men, after Raphael

ca. 1823 · Pen and brown ink on tracing paper laid down

Battle Scene with a Prisoner Being Bound, after Raphael

ca. 1823 · Graphite on tracing paper, laid down

Adoration of the Magi, after Rubens

ca. 1830 · Graphite