âDrawing is prayer,â Delacroix famously said. He could have added that itâs play as well. And thinking.
The Giaour on Horseback, by Eugène Delacroix, c. 1824â26, by Eugène Delacroix, pen and iron gall ink with wash over graphite, courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
Shelving books this week, I came across a small volume of drawings by Eugène Delacroix. I flipped it open and the better part of an hour was lost.
Delacroix was a Romantic painter. He is considered the last of the Old Masters and the link between Romanticism and the Impressionists. He rejected the more-structured romanticism of GĂŠricaultand the classical coolness of Ingresin favor of frenzied brushwork and explosions of color. But there is nothing modern in his painting; it is far too topical for us to dive right in. Delacroix was a man of his timesâperhaps the illegitimate son of the great diplomat Tallyrandâand itâs hard for us to skim past the allusions to Shakespeare and Greek myth and find the passion within. But itâs there, a kind of fervor we usually associate with Spanish visionaries.
Louis of OrlĂŠans Unveiling his Mistress, by Eugène Delacroix, c. 1825â26, courtesy Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
|
Still, heâs a cool observer of the human condition. Consider his portrait of the 14th century Duke of OrlĂŠans, above. The historic figure was a young, debauched, power-hungry prince. Delacroix portrays him considering a young woman as if she were a side of beef. Itâs both a well-realized portrait of female powerlessness and a devastating attack on the French nobility. Delacroix was both politically incisive and technically proficient, a combination that is largely lost today.
But it was his drawings I was interested in. Immediately before his death in 1863, he wrote a will ordering the contents of his studio to be sold. At the sale the following year, an amazing 9140 works were attributed to him: 853 paintings, 1525 pastels and watercolors, 6629 drawings, 109 lithographs, and over 60 sketch books. âColor always occupies me, but drawing preoccupies me,â he frequently said.
Study for The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage, by Eugène Delacroix, 1845, graphite, squared in white chalk, courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
Delacroixâs drawings and sketchbooks outline a classical artistic training and developing career. They include academic nude figure drawings, ĂŠcorchĂŠs and compositional studies for his paintings and murals. They included drawings from life and nature, and the many, many drawings he created from his imagination.
The Sultan of Morocco and his Entourage, by Eugène Delacroix, 1845, courtesy
MusĂŠe des Augustins de Toulouse. By this time, the French and Moroccans had been at war. |
They werenât, by any means, all graphite pencil drawings. Many are in ink or wash and demonstrate a calligraphic assurance. Others are in watercolor. âDrawing is prayer,â Delacroix famously said. He could have added that itâs play as well. And thinking.
He couldnât leave the idea alone. Study for The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage, by Eugène Delacroix, c. 1855â56, graphite, courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.
|
If youâre serious about painting, you ought to take him as an example and draw every day. Yes, itâs important to learn to lay down paint, but drawing is the foundation from which painting rises.