36 Works, Today, April 27th. is artist Albert von Keller's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #116

Keller, Albert von

Stigmatization, c. 1908

Oil on canvas

42 x 81 cm

Swiss Institute for Art Research

Stigmata, in Christianity, are the appearance of bodily wounds, scars and pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, such as the hands, wrists and feet. An individual bearing the wounds of stigmata is a stigmatist or a stigmatic. More on Stigmatization

Albert von Keller (27 April 1844 – 14 July 1920) was a German painter of Swiss ancestry. He specialized in portraits and indoor scenes. Female figures are a prominent feature of his work.

Keller was born in Gais, Switzerland. He was one of eight children born to Caroline Keller, who was divorced at the time of his birth. As was customary, she had resumed the use of her maiden name. Her ex-husband's brother may have been his true father. When he was three, after several moves, the family settled in Bayreuth where he attended primary school and took piano lessons. In 1852, his mother became a citizen of Bavaria and, by extension, so did he. Sometime in mid 1854, they relocated to Munich and he was enrolled at the Maximiliansgymnasium [de]. He graduated in 1863 and transferred to Ludwig Maximilian University to study law.

Albert von Keller

Odaliske

Oil on canvas

93 x 73 cm. 

Private collection

An odalisque was a chambermaid or a female attendant in a Turkish seraglio, particularly the court ladies in the household of the Ottoman sultan. An odalık was not a concubine of the harem, but a maid, although it was possible that she could become one. An odalık was ranked at the bottom of the social stratification of a harem, serving not the man of the household, but rather, his concubines and wives as personal chambermaids. Odalık were usually slaves given as gifts to the sultan by wealthy Turkish men. Generally, an odalık was never seen by the sultan but instead remained under the direct supervision of his mother, the Valide Sultan. More on An odalisque

Albert von Keller

Female Nude on a Lion Pelt, c. 1920

Oil on board

28 × 38 cm

Private collection

Albert von Keller

Vanity

Oil on canvas

28 x 33 1/4in (71.2 x 84.4cm) 

Private collection

Albert von Keller

Reclining Nude on a Fur Pelt

Oil on canvas

15 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches 

Private collection

After 1865, he decided to pursue a career in art instead, but spent only a short time at the Academy of Fine Arts. He made numerous study trips throughout Germany, France, Italy and the Low Countries. 

Keller, Albert von

The judgment of Paris, c. 1887

Oil on canvas

70.5 x 87 cm (object size)

Swiss Institute for Art Research

The judgment of Paris was a contest between the three most beautiful goddesses of Olympos--Aphrodite, Hera and Athena--for the prize of a golden apple addressed "To the Fairest."

 

The story began with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis which all the gods had been invited to attend except for Eris, goddess of discord. When Eris appeared at the festivities she was turned away and in her anger cast the golden apple amongst the assembled goddesses addressed "To the Fairest." Three goddesses laid claim to the apple--Aphrodite, Hera and Athena. Zeus was asked to mediate and he commanded Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris of Troy to decide the issue. The three goddesses appearing before the shepherd prince, each offering him gifts for favour. He chose Aphrodite, swayed by her promise to bestow upon him Helene, the most beautiful woman, for wife. The subsequent abduction of Helene led directly to the Trojan War and the fall of the city. More on The judgment of Paris

Keller, Albert von (Gais 1844 - 1920 Munich)

Venus, c. 1867.

Oil on canvas

39 x 49 cm

Private collection

Venus is the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.

The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus becomes one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. More on Venus

From 1867 he worked at several different studios throughout Munich, including that of Arthur von Ramberg, where he drew nude studies. He had his first showing at the Glaspalast in 1869 and became a member of Allotria [de], an artists' association, in 1873.

Keller, Albert von

Study of Witch Burning, c. 1888

Oil on cardboard

58.3 x 45.7 cm (object size)

Swiss Institute for Art Research

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920)

Spiritualistic Transport of a Bracelet, c. 1887

Oil on cardboard

84 x 76 cm

Kunsthaus Zürich

It could be that von Keller and von Max, by choosing female practitioners of the Occult as their subjects, painted modern women whose inner lives not only extended beyond the margins of the frame, but beyond the margins of normative consciousness, to realms impenetrable to the masculine gaze. To refer once again to Mary Douglas’s theories of pollution danger and the permeability of bodily borders, the female medium occupies an inherently sexualized border

space—psychic penetrability mirroring the inherent permeability of the sexual female body. More on this painting

Below are some of Keller’s enigmatic subjects—corpses, séances, dancers in trancelike states, martyred saints, and burning witches—to reveal a potent combination of religious fervor, mysticism, and sensuality. 

After Albert von Keller

The raising of the daughter of Jairus

Oil on canvas

106 x 180 cm

Private collection

The episode of the daughter of Jairus is a combination of miracles of Jesus in the Gospels.

The story immediately follows the exorcism at Gerasa. Jairus, a patron or ruler of a Galilee synagogue, had asked Jesus to heal his 12-year-old daughter.

As they were traveling to Jairus' house, a sick woman in the crowd touched Jesus' cloak and was healed of her sickness. Jesus turned round to the woman and said "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace." In Mark's and Luke's version, a messenger arrived with the news that Jairus' daughter had died, and he was advised not to trouble Jesus any further.

Jesus continued to the house, where He "saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly". He informed all those present that the girl was not dead but asleep. He then went upstairs and restored the girl to life. More on this painting

Albert von Keller (German, 1844--1920)

Jairi's daughter, awakening from death , c. 1884

Oil on cardboard

19 x 31.5 cm (7.5 x 12.4 in)

Private collection

Albert von Keller (German, 1844--1920)

Sketch for Salomé

Oil on wood

25 x 35 cm (9.8 x 13.8 in)

Private collection

Salome was the daughter of Herod II and Herodias. She is infamous for demanding and receiving the head of John the Baptist, according to the New Testament. According to Flavius Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, Salome was first married to Philip the Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trakonitis. After Philip's death in 34 AD she married Aristobulus of Chalcis and became queen of Chalcis and Armenia Minor. They had three children. Three coins with portraits of Aristobulus and Salome have been found. Her name in Hebrew meaning "peace". More on Salome

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920) 

The Martyr

Oil on cardboard, circa 1892

30.3 x 38.0 cm

 Städel Museum

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920)

Crucifixion Vision II, circa 1903

Oil on canvas

190 x 241 cm

Deutsch: Kunshaus Zürich

Albert von Keller (German, 1844--1920)

The witch burning , around 1891

Oil on canvas

99 x 150.5 cm (39 x 59.3 in)

Private collection

Albert von Keller (German, 1844--1920)

Witch dance , c. 1875

Oil on wood

17.8 x 21.8 cm (7 x 8.6 in)

Private collection

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920)

In the Moonlight, c. 1894

Oil on Canvas

150 x 100,5 cm,

I have no further description, at this time

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920)

La Descente aux Enfers/ Journey to Hell, c. 1912

Oil on canvas

I have no further description, at this time

The frequented the circles of influence and in 1878, he married Irene von Eichthal (1858–1907) (See below), great-granddaughter of the Bavarian Court Banker, Aron Elias Seligmann, Freiherr von Eichthal. Her father was the founder of the Bavarian Mortgage and Exchange Bank. Keller lived at one of Munich's best addresses and was a welcome guest in the most rarefied social circles.

He would eventually paint over forty portraits of her. Their first son died as an infant. Their second son, Balthasar, was born in 1884, but died in 1906, shortly before his mother.

Keller, Albert von

Spring in Paris (Irene von Keller), c. 1882

Oil on canvas

31.5 x 22 cm (object size)

Swiss Institute for Art Research

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920)

Irene von Keller with son Balthasar, c. 1888

Height: 106 cm (41.7 in); Width: 74 cm (29.1 in)

Lenbachhaus, Munich

Keller, Albert von

Irene von Keller, sitting, c. 1890

Oil on cardboard

110 x 84 cm

Swiss Institute for Art Research

He exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1883, while living in Paris. In 1886, he became a member of the new "Munich Psychological Society"; actually a group devoted to the paranormal, founded by Albert von Schrenck-Notzing. Soon he began representing parapsychological motifs, connected to Christian themes, with visions and hallucinations (See above). 

Keller, Albert von

Camilla Eibenschütz, c. 1910

Oil on canvas

72.5 x 49 cm

Swiss Institute for Art Research

Camilla Eibenschütz (July 20, 1884 – July 12, 1958) was a German stage actress. She was known as a collector of art, to decorate her two residences, a country home at Bogensberglehen and a villa at Dahlem. More on Camilla Eibenschütz

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920)

, The dancer Madeleine, The Dream-Dancer, circa 1904

Oil on panel

41 × 24 cm (16.1 × 9.4 in)

New Pinakothek Gallery, Bavarian State Painting Collections 

Dream Dancer, Madeleine  from 1904, depicts the Georgian dancer Madeleine Guipet, who von Keller saw perform in Munich and who “astonished audiences with her highly expressive, dancelike movements while in a somnambulant or hypnotic state”. The extreme darkness of the background serves to foreground her contorted body, wrapped in the loose white robes that seem emblematic of the female medium. The cataleptic rigidity of her body, the upraised arm, and the opisthotonic arch of her spine serve as additional bodily signifers of her status. More on this painting

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920)

The Dream Dancer Madeleine

I have no further description, at this time

Fascinated by the mysteries of the human psyche, Albert von Keller is remembered today more for his spectacular subject matter than for his exceptional artistic ability. Keller was a founding member of the Munich Secession, an influential artists’ association, and was highly regarded in Europe and America at the dawn of the 20th century for his “modern” psychological painting. More on this painting

Albert von Keller

Dancing lady

Oil on canvas

143 x 100 cm 

Private collection

In 1892, he was one of the co-founders of the Munich Secession and served as Vice President from 1904 to 1920. He was also a board member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund. In 1898, he received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown, which entitled him to use the noble "von" in his name.

Albert von Keller

Gisella von Wehner with daughter Ilka - around 1906

Oil on canvas

Frye Art Museum

Gisella von Wehner was a lady of Munich high society and close friend of the artist

Keller, Albert von

In anticipation (Gisela von Wehner), c. 1911

Oil on canvas

85 x 70.5 cm 

Swiss Institute for Art Research

Albert von Keller

In anticipation - 1912 (Gisela von Wehner)

Oil on canvas

Frye Art Museum

Albert von Keller  (1844–1920)

Crouching Nude (Gisela von Wehner), c. 1906

Oil on Canvas

89.5 x 72.5 cm

Kunsthaus Zürich

 Albert von Keller

Lady with a Pearl Earring (Portrait of Gisela von Wehner ), c. 1910

Oil on canvas

33.4 x 27.4 cm

Private collection

Keller, Albert von

Mimi von Ramberg, c. 1881

 Oil on canvas

35 x 26 cm

Swiss Institute for Art Research

Mimi von Ramberg was the daughter of fellow artist Arthur Georg Freiherr von Ramberg.

Albert von Keller (German, 1844--1920)

Young woman in black dress

Oil on wood

40 x 31 cm (15.7 x 12.2 in)

Private collection

Albert von Keller

Portrait of Elisabeth von Wichmann

Oil on canvas

66.7x43.2cm.; 26¼x17in. 

Private collection

Albert von Keller

Elisabeth von Wichmann Seated, c. 1910

Private collection

Albert von Keller

Baronin Elisabeth von Wichmann, 1910

Oil on canvas

126x100 cm

Private collection

Albert von Keller

Portrait of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918), c. 1894

Oil on panel

32 x 24 cm 

Private collection

Alexandra Feodorovna (6 June 1872 – 17 July 1918) was Empress of Russia from her marriage to Emperor Nicholas II on 26 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 16 March 1917. Originally Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine at birth, she was given the name and patronymic Alexandra Feodorovna when she converted and was received into the Russian Orthodox Church. She and her immediate family were all killed while in Bolshevik captivity in 1918, during the Russian Revolution. In 2000 the Russian Orthodox Church canonized her as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer. More on Alexandra Feodorovna

He died on 14 July 1920 in Munich. He and his wife Irene are interred at the Alter Südfriedhof there. More on Albert von Keller

28 Works, Today, April 26th. is artist Eugène Delacroix's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #115

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

La Liberté guidant le peuple/ Liberty Leading the People, c. 1830

Oil on canvas Edit this at Wikidata

Height: 260 cm (102.3 in); Width: 325 cm (10.6 ft) 

Louvre Museum

Liberty Leading the People commemorates the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France. A woman of the people with a Phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads a varied group of people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolour, which again became France's national flag after these events – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne. The painting is often confused for depicting the French Revolution. More on this painting

Delacroix seems to be trying to convey the will and character of the people, rather than glorifying the actual event, the 1830 revolution against Charles X, which did little other than bring a different king, Louis-Philippe, to power. The warriors lying dead in the foreground offer poignant counterpoint to the symbolic female figure, who is illuminated triumphantly against a background of smoke.

The boy holding a pistol aloft on the right is sometimes thought to be an inspiration for the Gavroche character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, Les Misérables.

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.

Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Louis d'Orleans shows his mistress, c. between 1825 and 1826

Oil on canvas

Height: 35.5 cm (13.9 in); Width: 25.5 cm (10 in)

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum 

This painting illustrates an episode from Brantome's Vies des dames galantes; the Duke lifts a veil from his nude mistress for the edification of his chamberlain. However, he takes care to conceal her face, for she is, in fact, the chamberlain's wife. It seems probable that Delacroix, always short of money, chose this subject in hopes of a quick sale. The style and thematic presentation owe much to Delacroix's English friend Bonington, however, the rich colours and textures and the extraordinary virtuosity of the brushwork are pure Delacroix. A series of superlative nudes followed from this precedent. More on this painting

However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible." 

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)

La Vierge des Moissons/ The Virgin of the Harvest 

Oil on paper laid down on canvas

32.5 x 15.5 cm. (12.8 x 6.1 in.)

The Church of Saint Eutrope (Orcemont)

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

Study for the Virgin of the Sacred Heart, c. 1821

Oil on canvas

H. 0, 41 m W. 0.33 m

Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre) 

Originally, the recipient of this order, a large canvas representing the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary , was the painter Théodore Géricault (1791 - 1824) who sold it, in secret, to Delacroix. The latter executed in 1821 this small sketch very close to the final composition of the painting, finally placed in the cathedral of Ajaccio in Corsica.

 It was in 1842 that Louis Batissier revealed the deception in an article by giving the name of the real author, but the exact location of the painting was not known until 1930. More on this painting

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

The Education of the Virgin, c. 1842

Oil on canvas

H. 0.95 x W. 0.125 m

Grand Palais (Louvre Museum) 

"I just saw when I entered the park a superb motif for a painting, a scene that touched me a lot. It was your farmer with her little girl. I was able to look at them quite at my ease behind a bush where they could not see me. They were both sitting on a tree trunk. The old woman had a hand on the shoulder of the child who was attentively learning a reading lesson." Eugène Delacroix

Delacroix painted this painting during a stay with George Sand in Nohant in Berry, in June 1842, and intended it for the village church of which Saint Anne was the patron. Coming, on his own terms, with the intention of doing nothing, the painter very quickly felt the need to get back to work: I'm going to have fun with the son of the house to undertake a small painting for the church of the place (letter to Jean-Baptiste Pierret, June 7, 1842). More on this painting

His early education was at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen where he steeped himself in the classics and won awards for drawing. In 1815 he began his training with Pierre-Narcisse Guérin in the neoclassical style of Jacques-Louis David. An early church commission, The Virgin of the Harvest (1819) (See above), displays a Raphael-esque influence, but another such commission, The Virgin of the Sacred Heart (1821) (See above), evidences a freer interpretation. 

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Dante et Virgile aux enfers/ The Barque of Dante, c. 1822

Oil on canvas

Height: 189 cm (74.4 in); Width: 241 cm (94.8 in)

Louvre Museum

The Barque of Dante, also Dante and Virgil in Hell, is the first major painting by Eugène Delacroix, and is a work signalling the shift in the character of narrative painting, from Neo-Classicism towards Romanticism. The painting loosely depicts events narrated in canto eight of Dante's Inferno; a leaden, smoky mist and the blazing City of the Dead form the backdrop against which the poet Dante fearfully endures his crossing of the River Styx. As his barque ploughs through waters heaving with tormented souls, Dante is steadied by Virgil, the learned poet of Classical antiquity. More on this painting

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Scène des massacres de Scio/ The Massacre at Chios, c. 1824

Oil on canvas

Height: 419 cm (13.7 ft); Width: 354 cm (11.6 ft)

Louvre Museum

The work is more than four meters tall, and shows some of the horror of the wartime destruction visited on the Island of Chios in the Chios massacre. A frieze-like display of suffering characters, military might, ornate and colourful costumes, terror, disease and death is shown in front of a scene of widespread desolation.

The Chios massacre was the killing of tens of thousands of Greeks on the island of Chios by Ottoman troops during the Greek War of Independence in 1822. Greeks from neighboring islands had arrived on Chios and encouraged the Chiotes to join their revolt. In response, Ottoman troops landed on the island and killed thousands. The massacre of Christians provoked international outrage and led to increasing support for the Greek cause worldwide. More on this painting

The impact of Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa was profound, and stimulated Delacroix to produce his first major painting, The Barque of Dante (See above), which was accepted by the Paris Salon in 1822. The work caused a sensation, and was largely derided by the public and officialdom, yet was purchased by the State for the Luxembourg Galleries; the pattern of widespread opposition to his work, countered by a vigorous, enlightened support, would continue throughout his life. Two years later he again achieved popular success for his The Massacre at Chios (See above).

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

La Grèce sur les ruines de Missolonghi/ Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi, c. 1826

Oil on canvas

Height: 208 cm (81.8 in); Width: 147 cm (57.8 in)

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux 

With a restraint of palette appropriate to the allegory, Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi displays a woman in Greek costume with her breast bared, arms half-raised in an imploring gesture before the horrible scene: the suicide of the Greeks, who chose to kill themselves and destroy their city rather than surrender to the Turks. A hand is seen at the bottom, the body having been crushed by rubble. 

Delacroix produced a second painting in support of the Greeks in their war for independence, this time referring to the capture of Missolonghi by Turkish forces in 1825 (See above). 

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Combat du Giaour et Hassan/ The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan, c. 1826

Oil on canvas

Height: 59.6 cm (23.4 in); Width: 73.4 cm (28.8 in)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan is the title of three works by Eugène Delacroix, produced in 1826, 1835 and 1856. They all show a scene from Lord Byron's 1813 poem The Giaour, with the Giaour ambushing and killing Hassan, the Pasha, before retiring to a monastery. Giaour had fallen in love with Leila, a slave in Hassan's harem, but Hassan had discovered this and had her killed.

The painting above shows the Giaour and Hassan, both on horseback, fighting in a gorge. A Turk escorting Hassan kneels beside the Giaour's horse, trying to cut its legs with his knife.

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Le Combat du Giaour et du Pacha/ Combat of the Giaour and the Pasha, c. 1835

Oil on canvas

Height: 95.5 cm (37.5 in); Width: 82 cm (32.2 in)

Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris 

The second version; unlike the 1825 version, it focuses entirely on the two riders

After Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Le Combat du Giaour et du Pacha/ Combat of the Giaour and the Pasha, c. 1856

A Turk Surrenders to a Greek Horseman

Oil on canvas

Harvard Art Museums

“A Turk Surrenders to a Greek Horseman”, 1856, in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. The portrayed subject illustrates an episode in Lord Byron's (1788–1824) 1813 poem “The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale”, featuring the Venetian Giaour (a Turkish word for a non-Muslim/infidel) on a Greek battlefield drawing his gun on the Pasha (a Turk named Hassan) to avenge his lover’s death. More on this painting

Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)

Woman with a Parrot, c. 1827

Oil on canvas

9 7/16 × 12 13/16 in. (24 × 32.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum

Delacroix had suffered a sentimental or sensual crisis between 1825 and 1827 which led him to paint many more or less erotic works - according to his private journal from the time, completing the paintings was thus intertwined with the sexual satisfaction before the young model went away.

The model for this work may be Mademoiselle Laure, who also appears in the same artist's The Death of Sardanapalus (See below) and Greece Among the Ruins of Missolonghi (See above), both dating to the same time. Another possibility is Rose (See below), another of his models.

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Mademoiselle Rose, c. 1817-1824

Oil on canvas

Height: 81 cm (31.8 in); Width: 65 cm (25.5 in)

Louvre Museum

By 1825, he was producing lithographs illustrating Shakespeare, and soon thereafter lithographs and paintings from Goethe's Faust. Paintings such as The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan (1826) (See above), and Woman with Parrot (1827) (See above), introduced subjects of violence and sensuality which would prove to be recurrent.

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

La Mort de Sardanapale/ Death of Sardanapalus

Exhibited in Paris at the Salon of 1827

Oil on canvas

Height: 3.9 m (12.8 ft); Width: 4.9 m (16.2 ft)

Louvre Museum 

The Death of Sardanapalus is based on the tale of Sardanapalus, the last king of Assyria, from the historical library of Diodorus Siculus, the ancient Greek historian, and is a work of the era of Romanticism. 

Sardanapalus, supposed to have lived in the 7th century BC, is portrayed as a decadent figure who spends his life in self-indulgence and dies in an orgy of destruction. The legendary decadence of Sardanapalus later became a theme in literature and art, especially in the Romantic era.

The main focus of the painting is a large bed draped in rich red fabric. On it lies a man with a disinterested eye overseeing a scene of chaos. He is dressed in flowing white fabrics and sumptuous gold around his neck and head. A woman lies dead at his feet, prone across the lower half of the large bed. She is one of six in the scene, all in various shades of undress, and all in assorted throes of death by the hands of the half dozen men in the scene. There are several people being stabbed with knives and one man is dying from a self-inflicted wound from a sword, and a man in the left foreground is attempting to kill an intricately adorned horse. A young man by the king's right elbow is standing behind a side table which has an elaborate golden decanter and a cup. There are golden elephant heads at the base of the bed, as well as various valuable trinkets scattered amongst the carnage. In the background, several architectural elements are visible but difficult to discern. More on this painting

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

The Murder of the Bishop of Liège, circa 1827

Oil on canvas

Height: 89 cm (35 in); Width: 119 cm (46.8 in)

Louvre museum  

A variety of Romantic interests were synthesized in The Murder of the Bishop of Liège (1829). It depicts a scene from the Middle Ages, that of the murder of Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liège amidst an orgy sponsored by his captor, William de la Marck. The drama plays out in chiaroscuro, organized around a brilliantly lit stretch of tablecloth. In 1855, a critic described the painting's vibrant handling as "Less finished than a painting, more finished than a sketch, The Murder of the Bishop of Liège was left by the painter at that supreme moment when one more stroke of the brush would have ruined everything".

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

The Execution of the Doge Marino Faliero, between 1825 and 1826

Ol on canvas

Height: 146 cm (57.4 in); Width: 114 cm (44.8 in)

The Wallace Collection 

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

The Execution of the Doge Marino Faliero, between 1825 and 1826

Oil on canvas

Height: 146 cm (57.4 in); Width: 114 cm (44.8 in)

The Wallace Collection  Blue pencil.svg

Faliero (1274-1355) was elected Doge in 1354 but was executed in the following year after conspiring against the Venetian state. The setting in Delacroix's painting recalls (but does not represent) the Giant’s Staircase of the Doge’s Palace (built 1485-9), and the costumes, some of the heads of the dignitaries and the rich colouring are derived from Venetian Renaissance painting. The elderly bearded man at the top of the stairs, for example, is based on Titian's 'Self-Portrait' in Berlin. The picture was a favourite of Delacroix himself. Alexandre Dumas père said that Delacroix estimated it higher than any other of his works. The painting's lack of a strong moral message upset some contemporary critics. More on this painting

Its violent subject is typical of French Romantic painting and places it alongside the same artist's The Death of Sardanapalus (See above) and The Execution of Doge Marino Faliero (See above), also painted in the late 1820s. He produced it at the same time as Boissy d’Anglas Leading a Riot (a chiaroscuro scene of revolutionary violence in a huge room) (See below) and The Battle of Nancy (similarly inspired by late medieval warfare) (See below).

Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)

Boissy d'Anglas at the Convention, sketch, c. 1831

Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 30 13/16 × 40 11/16 in. (78.3 × 103.3 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas, Count of the Empire (1756–1826) was a French writer, lawyer and politician during the Revolution and the Empire.

On May 20, the starving workers of the suburbs had invaded the Assembly and beheaded the deputy Féraud who was trying to intervene. They forced Boissy d'Anglas, president of the Convention, to salute the head of his colleague carried at the end of a pike. By remaining imperturbable, the president had avoided that the Assembly does not yield to pressure by dissolving itself. More on this painting

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Battle of Nancy (1477), c. 1831

Oil on canvas

Height: 237 cm (93.3 in); Width: 350 cm (11.4 ft)

Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy

The Battle of Nancy was the final and decisive battle of the Burgundian Wars, fought outside the walls of Nancy on 5 January 1477 by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, against René II, Duke of Lorraine, and the Swiss Confederacy.

Nancy's 'société royale des sciences, lettres et arts' suggested three possible subjects - the battle itself, Lorraine's victory over the Burgundians or the discovery of Charles the Bold's body - Delacroix chose the first of these, but did not go to Nancy in person, instead basing the work on several preparatory sketches of medieval weapons and costumes, of scenes from literature such as Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein and of topographical maps provided by baron Schwitter. More on this painting

Delacroix's most influential work came in 1830 with the painting Liberty Leading the People (see top), which for choice of subject and technique highlights the differences between the romantic approach and the neoclassical style. 

In 1832, Delacroix traveled to Spain and North Africa as part of a diplomatic mission to Morocco shortly after the French conquered Algeria. He went to escape from the civilization of Paris, in hopes of seeing a more "primitive" culture. He eventually produced over 100 paintings and drawings of scenes from or based on the life of the people of North Africa.

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Les Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement/ The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, c. 1834

Oil on canvas

Height: 180 cm (70.8 in); Width: 229 cm (90.1 in)

Louvre Museum 

He managed to sketch some women secretly in Algiers, as in the painting Women of Algiers in their Apartment (1834) (See above), but generally he encountered difficulty in finding Muslim women to pose for him. Less problematic was the painting of Jewish women in North Africa, as subjects for the Jewish Wedding in Morocco (1837–1841) (See below).

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Jewish Wedding in Morocco, circa 1839

Oil on canvas

Height: 105 cm (41.3 in); Width: 140 cm (55.1 in)

Louvre Museum 

This painting depicts the celebration after the formal wedding ceremony. Dancing is a significant feature of Jewish weddings as it is customary for the guests to dance and entertain the couple. The musicians are at the center of the composition. Women are generally on one side of the room and the men in the main on the other side of the room. The women are starting the dance. More on this painting

Animals—the embodiment of romantic passion—were incorporated into paintings such as Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable (1860), The Lion Hunt (of which there exist many versions, painted between 1856 and 1861) (See below), and Arab Saddling his Horse (1855) (See below).

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Arab Horses fighting in a stable, c. 1860

Oil on canvas

Height: 64.6 cm (25.4 in); Width: 81 cm (31.8 in)

Louvre Museum 

The artist assisted in a stallion-fight during his time in Morocco, which left a deep impression and was mentioned in a letter to his friends on 8 February 1832. He produced a sketch of it and noted that "the grey horse passed his head under the neck of the other [horse]". In his diary entry for 19 June 1854 Delacroix mentioned this subject as one of several Morocco-themed works he was then working on, but even so he only seems to have begun Arab Horses around two years later in 1856. He completed it on 14 June 1860,[putting thirty years between the stallion-fight and the work's completion. More on this painting

Delacroix, Eugène. 1798-1863

Arab Saddling his Horse, c. 1855

Oil on canvas

56x47 cm

The State Hermitage Museum

The artist's works on Oriental themes are marked by a synthesis of realistic details rendered with ethnographical precision and the Romantic mood. This work is a good example of such an approach, in which an ordinary scene is treated as something unusual: the wild, deserted landscape, the dark sky with thunder-clouds, the sword in the foreground and the anxiety of the horse all endow the scene with a troublous mood. More on this painting

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Médée/ Medea, c. 1838

Oil on canvas

Height: 260 cm (102.3 in); Width: 165 cm (64.9 in)

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Delacroix painted Medea in 1838, and it was exhibited to great acclaim at the Salon that year.

The savagery of the subject is equalled by the dramatic quality of the painting, reminding some of the work of Caravaggio.

In the Greek myth, when Jason is unfaithful to Media, she first kills his new wife, and then murders Jason's (and her own) children in revenge.

Delacroix shows her the moment before she commits the murder; the dagger is in her hand, and the viewer knows that she will use it. More on this painting

In 1838 Delacroix exhibited Medea about to Kill Her Children (See above). His first large-scale treatment of a scene from Greek mythology, the painting depicts Medea clutching her children, dagger drawn to slay them in vengeance for her abandonment by Jason. The three nude figures form an animated pyramid, bathed in a raking light that penetrates the grotto in which Medea has hidden. Though the painting was quickly purchased by the State, Delacroix was disappointed when it was sent to the Lille Musée des Beaux-Arts; he had intended for it to hang at the Luxembourg, where it would have joined The Barque of Dante and Scenes from the Massacres of Chios.

Eugène Delacroix

Pietà

1844

355 x 475 cm

Church of Saint-Denis-du-Saint-Sacrement, Paris

The Pietà is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most often found in sculpture. As such, it is a particular form of the Lamentation of Christ, a scene from the Passion of Christ found in cycles of the Life of Christ. When Christ and the Virgin are surrounded by other figures from the New Testament, the subject is strictly called a Lamentation in English, although Pietà is often used for this as well, and is the normal term in Italian. More the Pietà

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, c. 1860 / 1849 / 1861

Oil and wax on plaster

Height: 751 cm (24.6 ft); Width: 485 cm (15.9 ft)

Saint-Sulpice

Delacroix described this composition: "Left-hand picture. Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. Jacob is bringing the flocks and other gifts by which he hopes to assuage the ire of his brother Esau. A stranger appears who stops him and engages him in a stubborn struggle, which ends only when Jacob, wounded in the tendon of the thigh by his opponent, is made powerless. This struggle is regarded, by Holy Scripture, as a sign of the ordeals that God sometimes visits upon his chosen ones." More on this painting

From 1833 on Delacroix received numerous commissions to decorate public buildings in Paris. In that year he began work for the Salon du Roi in the Chambre des Députés, Palais Bourbon, which was not completed until 1837, and began a lifelong friendship with the female artist Marie-Élisabeth Blavot-Boulanger. For the next ten years he painted in both the Library at the Palais Bourbon and the Library at the Palais du Luxembourg. In 1843 he decorated the Church of St. Denis du Saint Sacrement with a large Pietà (See above), and from 1848 to 1850 he painted the ceiling in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre. From 1857 to 1861 he worked on frescoes for the Chapelle des Anges at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. They included "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel" (See above), "Saint Michael Slaying the Dragon" (See below), and "The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple" (See below). These commissions offered him the opportunity to compose on a large scale in an architectural setting, much as had those masters he admired, Paolo Veronese, Tintoretto, and Rubens.

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

St Michael defeats the Devil, c. between 1854 and 1861

Oil and wax on mounted canvas

Height: 441 cm (14.4 ft); Width: 575 cm (18.8 ft)

Saint-Sulpice

In the New Testament, Michael leads God's armies against Satan's forces in the Book of Revelation, where during the war in heaven he defeats Satan. In the Epistle of Jude, Michael is specifically referred to as "the archangel Michael". Sanctuaries to Michael were built by Christians in the 4th century, when he was first seen as a healing angel. Over time his role became one of a protector and the leader of the army of God against the forces of evil. More on St Michael

Given that it was consecrated to the Holy Angels, Delacroix chose to represent Saint Michael Defeats the Devil on the ceiling, and Jacob Wrestling with the Angel and Heliodorus Driven from the Temple on the walls. Now badly weakened by illness, he relied heavily on the help of his faithful assistants, Pierre Andrieu and Louis Boulange. More on this painting

Eugène Delacroix  (1798–1863)

Heliodorus Driven from the Temple, c. between 1854 and 1861

Oil and wax on plaster

Height: 751 cm (24.6 ft); Width: 485 cm (15.9 ft)

Saint-Sulpice

Around 178 BC Seleucus sent Heliodorus to Jerusalem to collect money to pay the Romans. There may be a reference to this in Daniel 11:20, "He will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor". 2 Maccabees 3:21–28 reports that Heliodorus entered the Temple in Jerusalem in order to take its treasure, but was turned back by three spiritual beings who manifested themselves as human beings. More on Heliodorus

This Biblical subject, taken from the Second Book of Maccabees, depicts Heliodorus, prime minister to Seleucus IV Philopator, king of Syria in the second century B.C., who was sent to seize the treasures of the Temple of Jerusalem. The artist borrows it from Titian's famous fresco at the Vatican, but treats it in a very different manner. The sumptuous decor, the passionate fire of the characters, the wealth of color, the contrasting lights and shadows, once again place Delacroix in the lineage of the great Venetians - Veronese and especially Tintoretto - but with what added daring and originality of invention! The dynamic strength of the avenging angels caught and fixed in flight doubtless derives from Rubens, but with perhaps an even more supernatural power. More on this painting

The winter of 1862–63 was extremely rough for Delacroix; he was suffering from a bad throat infection that seemed to get worse over the course of the season. On 13 August, Delacroix died, with Jenny by his side. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.  More on Eugène Delacroix

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