Pierre Andrieu (1821–1892)

Andrieu joined Delacroix's studio in 1844, accepting the severe apprenticeship imposed by the painter on young artists who could help him with his large decorative projects.

From 1850 to 1861, he was an unobtrusive but efficient collaborator: he worked alongside Delacroix in the library of the Palais Bourbon, in the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre, and at the Hôtel de Ville. In keeping with Delacroix's demands, he worked to adapt his own style to that of the master; he therefore rarely had an opportunity to free himself from his learned "manner."

However, the notes he took concerning Delacroix's working methods are invaluable.

Jules-Robert Auguste dit Monsieur Auguste (1789–1850)

The son of a rich goldsmith, Jules-Robert Auguste worked first as a sculptor and in 1810 received the Grand Prix de Rome in this discipline.

He than gave up sculpture and devoted himself to watercolor and pastel. He took long trops to Greece, Egypt and Asia Minor, and returned with costumes, weapons and objects that he willingly loaned to the young romatic artists who gathered in his studio.

The Orléans Musée des Beaux-Arts has a large collection of his works.

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)

Baudelaire was a poet (Flowers of Evil, 1857, Artificial Paradises, 1860...) and Edgar Allan Poe's translator.

A major part of his work, however, was devoted to art criticism and theory. He met Delacroix in 1845, but was never one of his close friends. By the time the painter had reached fifty, he had already isolated himself in his studio, where only a few rare friends could get near him - provided they could get past Jenny, his housekeeper.

Yet Baudelaire would write the best words every written about a painter by a poet.

Pierre-Antoine Berryer (1790–1868)

A lawyer, politician, and legitimist Catholic, Pierre-Antoine Berryer was a peerless orator, famous for his eloquent court speeches and causes.

He was Delacroix's first cousin. They grew closer after the death of Madame Berryer, and the artist was always delighted to visit his relative in his property at Augerville, where musicians and men of letters were also often frequent guests.

Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899)

Rosa Bonheur achieved international success during her lifetime as an animal painter.

Following the instruction received from her father, Raymond Bonheur, a landscape painter and drawing professor, she started making animal sketches by the age of ten and continued by drawing her subjects from life. She frequently went to places where she could observe animals: markets, fairs, and slaughterhouses. Indeed, in 1857, with this aim in mind she requested - and received - permission from the prefect of Paris to wear pants, which women were not allowed to do at the time. An independent spirit, Rosa Bonheur pursued a brilliant artistic career, receiving critical acclaim and amassing awards and honors.

Her most famous paintings are undoubtedly Ploughing in the Nivernais (1849; Paris, Musée d'Orsay) and The Horse Fair (1853; New York, Metropolitan Museum).

Richard-Parkes Bonington (1802–1828)

Most of this British painter's short career took place in Paris.

Although much of his inspiration often came from his compatriots (Constable, Turner), he was highly influenced by the art of the Venetian painters, whom he copied at the Musée du Louvre, before traveling to Venice in the spring of 1826 with Baron Rivet. His friendship for Delacroix, with whom he visited London in 1825, is well known: he perfected his watercolor technique alongside the painter. He paid Delacroix a vibrant posthumous tribute with this words: "No one ... has such a light touch in his execution, particularly in watercolor, which makes his works something like diamonds that flatter and delight the eye, independent of any subject or imitation."

The two artists painted small "troubadour-style" painting that were similar in facture and the choice of subjects.

Marie-Elizabeth Boulanger-Cavé (1809–after 1875)

Marie-Elizabeth was a painter, a student of Camille Roqueplan, and was married to the painter Clément Boulanger.

She met Delacroix during the famous masked ball at the 1833 Carnaval organized by Alexandre Dumas. A love affair blossomed between the two painters, although after an escapade in Flanders in September 1839, their relationship transformed into a deep friendship, tinged with nostalgia.

In 1843 she was remarried to François Cavé, then head of the Beaux-Arts at the Interior Ministry. In 1860 she published an essay on drawing, which was reprinted in 1862, with a preface by Delacroix.

Philippe Burty (1830–1890)

Best known as an art critic and writer, Burty was also an avid collector, an illustrator, and a lithographer.

He worked with the Gazette des Beaux-Arts from its creation in 1859, writing a column on arts and curios, with an aim of transmitting his love of etchings and prints to his readers. On Delacroix's request, Burty worked with Andrieu, Dauzats, Dutilleux, Schwiter, etc. to organize the drawings and notebooks that were then to be dispersed at public auction (22-27 February 1864).

Burty also wrote the catalogue. He published several articles about Delacroix, as well as the painter's letters (first edition, 1878; second edition, revised and expanded, 1880).

Etienne Carjat (1828–1906)

Etienne Carjat, who was, in turn, an actor, industrial draftsman, caricaturist, and editor of a weekly cultural journal called Le Boulevard, opened his photography studio in 1861 at 56 Rue Lafitte in Paris.

He invited politicians (Jules Ferry, Léon Gambetta), writers (Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire), painters (Corot, Delacroix, Daumier), actors (Frédérick Lemaître, Sarah Bernardt), his Bohemian friends, and those in the opposition to sit for him.

He made two portraits of Delacroix, one shown here representing the artist's bust (1860) and the other cut off at the knees (1862).

Théodore Caruelle d’Aligny (1798–1871)

The "Ingres of landscape painting," as Théophile Gautier called him, started his career by making landscape drawings for a porcelain manufacturer.

With an aim to perfecting his technique, he worked in a series of studios, starting with Watelet and followed by J.-B. Regnault and Victor Bertin. From 1824 to 1827, he traveled to Italy where he became friendly with Corot; he would return to Italy several times. He settled in Paris and continued to take frequent trips (like Diaz, Millet, and Rousseau) to Fontainebleau, Barbizon, and the Normandy coast. In 1843, he also traveled to Greece to make drawings of the major sites for the École des Beaux-Arts; from there, he went on to Asia Minor.

He was essentially a landscape painter, but gradually moved away from his neoclassical training to concentrate more on lines, shapes, and landscape designs, at times renouncing details to move toward a more schematic style.

Philarète Chasles (1798–1873)

Victor-Euphémion-Philarète, son of Louis Chasles (1754-1826) a member of the Convention, studied at the imperial lycée (now the Louis-le-Grand lycée) at the same time as Delacroix.

His work with the Journal des Débats and the Revue des Deux Mondes earned him a chair in foreign literature at the Collège de France and a position as curator at the Mazarine library. Author of many studies on Germany and England, he was one of the writers of his time who contributed most to promoting the literature of these two countries (his Mémoires were published in 1876-1877).

Joseph Chinard (Lyon, 1756 –Lyon, 1813)

After completing his apprenticeship in Blaise's studio, Joseph Chinard traveled to Rome, where in 1786 he won a prize inaugurated by the pope on the subject of Perseus Saving Andromeda. He entered the Salon for the first time in 1798, submitting Child Escaping from a Shipwreck. His reputation grew quickly, and he became a professor at the École de Lyon, a corresponding member of the Institut.Throughout his entire career, Joseph Chinard demonstrated a preference for portraiture, either in the form of busts or medallions. He participated in numerous decorative projects in homage to Bonaparte, and was also commissioned by Charles Delacroix for his artistic projects, first for the city of Marseille, then the city of Bordeaux.

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)

Born in Zelazowa-Wola near Warsaw, Chopin was a child prodigy; he performed his first concert at the age of eight. After achieving a certain level of success in Vienna, he settled in Paris in 1831.

In 1837, he started a relationship with George Sand that lasted until 1847. He died of consumption in Paris. Among his most famous works are the 12 major Etudes (1829-1832), the Four Ballads (1831-1842), the Nocturnes, the Waltzes, the Mazurkas, and the Polonaises. Delacroix admired Chopin tremendously and never missed a chance to meet him and discuss the music he so loved.

Léon Cogniet (1794–1880)

In 1812, Léon Cogniet entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied with Pierre Guérin at the same time as Géricault and Delacroix.

In 1817, he was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome. After an early period of classicism, he adopted a more romantic style through his selection of subjects (Tintoretto Painting his Dead Wife, 1845; Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts) as well as his interest in color. He received numerous official commissions, notably for the rooms of the historical museum of Versailles, and trained many painters, including Léon Bonnat and Alfred Dehodencq.

Alexandre-Marie Colin (1798–1873)

A student of Girodet and a great friend of Delacroix and Bonington, Alexandre-Marie Colin participated in the Paris Salon starting in 1819 until the end of his life, obtaining a second-class medal in 1824 and 1831, and a first-class medal in 1840.

Known as a great portraitist, he portrayed well-known figures (actors wearing the costumes of their roles) and also depicted romantic subjects, views of Italy, and scenes illustrating the struggle for independence in Greece.

John Constable (1776–1837)

Son of a rich flour-mill owner from Suffolk, Constable studied at the London Royal Academy.

His passion for painting nature soon emerged: he discovered his primary inspiration from his native countryside, the lush and calm landscape along the banks of the Stour. The spiritual heir to Jacob van Ruisdaël, Rubens, and Claude Gellée, he only mastered his art after quite some time, becoming a member of the Royal Academy in 1819. In the anglomania that reigned in Paris in 1820, his paintings were greeted with glowing praise at the 1824 Salon, where the king of France awarded him a gold medal for "the merit of his landscapes." Delacroix, in London the following year to perfect his watercolor technique, was struck by the brilliant canvases and described the man as "admirable, outside the rut of old landscapes," which he considered to be too academic.

Constable, a masterful landscape artist who reinvented the representation of nature, halfway between naturalism and romanticism, as in his Field of Wheat (London, National Gallery), was one of the first artist to paint outdoors, thereby leading the way for the Impressionists.

Charles Cournault (1815–1904)

Uninterested in his law studies, Charles Cournault devoted much of his time to drawing.

From 1833 to 1838, he worked at Charlet's studio, before being introduced to Delacroix's. In 1840, he traveled to Algiers, where he produced a large number of drawings and watercolors. He traveled a second time to Algeria in 1843. This trip reinforced the artistic connection between the two artists, and they discussed their experiences and loaned each other objects brought back from their trips.

They were especially close between 1847 and 1852, when Charles Cournault got married and settled into his home in Malzéville (near Nancy); he would later transform this house into a sumptuous Arab-style dwelling called "the Douëra." Delacroix did not forget his friend in his will, as he bequeathed Cournault "two chests from Morocco, and all the objects from Algiers, weapons, clothing, cushions, scarves, etc."

Adrien Dauzats (1804–1868)

Dauzats was one of the first painters to embark on exploratory trips to exotic countries.

Born in Bordeaux, he studied set painting, then worked in Paris painting sets for the Théâtre Italien. He began working with Baron Taylor in 1827 on Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l'ancienne France (in 1829, Delacroix also contributed to the volume devoted to the Auvergne). He thus made a large number of architectural paintings and drawings. In 1830, he traveled with Baron Taylor to Egypt, the Sinai, Palestine, and Syria. He went to Spain several times (1835 to 1837), then to Algeria (1839) and Tangiers (1850). Although his orientalist work was free of the constraints inherent in a commission, it essentially consisted of views of monuments with landscapes of varying size, depending on the work.

Dauzats moved to rue Notre-Dame de Lorette in 1844n near Delacroix's home. A friendship soon developed between the two, along with a regular correspondence. Delacroix asked him to be one of his executors.

Anatole Demidoff (1812–1870)

Anatole Demidoff, a member of a powerful Russian family, was raised in France.

He became a count in 1837, prince of San Donato in 1840 (after purchasing this land near Florence), and in 1851 married Princess Mathilde (1820-1904), the daughter of Jerome de Bonaparte.

It may have been through the intermediary of Count Charles de Mornay (Delacroix painted a double portrait of these two men), that he met the painter, from whom he then commissioned a certain number of works, including two canvases on the theme of Chrisopher Columbus, which were displayed in his famous San Donato gallery.

Maurice Denis (Granville, 1870–Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1943)

In 1887, after studying at the Lycée Condorcet, Maurice Denis enrolled at the Académie Julian, where he met Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, René Piot and Paul Sérusier, among others. Sérusier, just back from Pont-Aven, where he had followed the instruction of Paul Gauguin, encouraged his colleagues to synthesize shapes and use uniform areas of color. In 1890, Maurice Denis, the youngest of all these artists, wrote down these principles in an article, which was adopted as the Nabi manifesto. His painting, nourished by these precepts and influenced by Japanese art and the Italian Primitives, was characterized by a simplification of shapes in keeping with the principles of "Synthetism."

Maurice Denis was increasingly productive in the early 20^th century. He took on large decorative projects, such as the ceiling and friezes for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in 1912. He also illustrated literary works, such as Dante's La Vita Nuova. Finally, he worked on religious compositions, which he rendered with a modern spirit.

Alongside his work as a painter and illustrator, he published numerous theoretical essays (Théories, 1890-1910), as well as texts on art history dealing with religious art, Ingres, Symbolism, among other subjects.

Like Signac, Maurice Denis played a decisive role in the history of the Musée Eugène Delacroix. When Delacroix's studio was faced with the threat of destruction, the two artists, both great admirers of the painter, decided to take action. Working with André Joubin, Raymond Escholier and the Doctor Viau, they created the Société des Amis de Delacroix in 1929. Maurice Denis was its first president and, until his accidental death in 1943, was one of the most active members.

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870)

Alexandre Dumas was certainly one of the most famous French novelists and a leading figure of literary romanticism, along with Victor Hugo.

He was self-taught, and had been forced to earn his own living from the age of fourteen. In 1823, he moved to Paris, and the first dramatic turn of events, both literally and figuratively, took place in 1829 at the Comédie Française with the performance of Henri III and His Court. Subsequent plays, Christine (which inspired Delacroix) and Antony, confirmed his success with the public.

In 1844, he took on novel-writing with the publication of four books, which are famous to this day: The Three Musketeers, the Regent's Daughter, The Count of Monte-Cristo and Queen Margot. His production seemed to be almost industrial in scope. With an amazing productivity and speed, he wrote a succession of novels in serial form, memoirs, memories and theatrical adaptations. Delacroix and Dumas saw each other fairly frequently around 1830, and their relationship remained cordial until the end (Delacroix sketched a painting for a costumed ball organized by the author; King Rodrigue, Bremen, Kunsthalle).

Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904)

Fantin received his first drawing lessons from his father, the painter Théodore Fantin-Latour.

He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1854, but was at odds with its teaching methods. He was refused by the 1958 Salon, as were Manet and Whistler, and then exhibited at the 1861 Salon. He won his first award in 1870 with A Studio at Batignolles (Paris, Musée d'Orsay), a friendly tribute to Manet. He painted portraits, genre paintings, flowers, and allegorical compositions, while keeping his distance from the reigning academic style and the Impressionist movement. He situated himself along the lines of Delacroix, for whom he painted his famous Homage to Delacroix (1864, Musée d'Orsay) as a sign of disapproval for the official indifference at the great painter's death.

The many portraits by Fantin of his painter and poet friends constitute an incomparable iconographic resource of his period.

Faust

Starting in the late sixteenth century, the myth of Faust - the man who sold his soul to the devil -had become deeply rooted in the German psyche and had spread throughout all of Europe.

In 1825, Delacroix was profoundly affected by a play of Faust that he was able to attend in London. This same year, the first French translation of Faust by Goethe (1749-1832), first published in Tübinger in 1806, came out. It was by Albert Stapfer (1802-1892) and was the last of four volumes published under the general title Traduction des œuvres dramatiques de J. W. Goethe. Two years later, Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855) worked on the translation of Goethe's Faust. The publisher Charles Motte commissioned this series of lithographs.

The Fielding brothers

The four British-born Fielding brothers, sons of the portrait painter Nathan-Théodore (circa 1747-1814 or 1818), all knew Delacroix, who mentions them in his Journal of 16 May 1823. Théodore Fielding (1781-1851), the eldest, was a landscape painter, watercolorist and engraver.

He was also a theoretician and a drawing professor in an English military college. Copley Fielding (1787-1855) specialized in marine and landscape painting, winning a gold medal at the 1824 Paris Salon (the same year Constable exhibited Hay Cart). Thales Fielding (1793-1837) came to Paris in 1821 or the spring of 1822, and worked with his brother Newton for the publisher J.-F. d'Ostervald. Twice, he shared the same studio as Delacroix and taught him the technique of watercolor. Newton Fielding (1799-1856), the youngest of the brothers, divided his time between London and Paris, where he traveled for the first time in 1821 or early 1822.

He acquired a good reputation for his watercolors of animals and birds in landscapes (he illustrated de la Fountaine's Fables) and was a drawing professor for Louis-Philippe's family.

Joséphine de Forget (1802–1886)

Joséphine de Lavalette de Forget was the daughter of Antoine-Marie Chamans de Lavalette, Comte d'Empire and Louise de Beauharnais, niece of the Empress.

The major event of her childhood - when she was thirteen - was to help her father escape after he had been condemned to death for supporting the Emperor during his attempt to restore the Empire during the Hundred Days. She was thirty-four when her husband died, and she moved to the Rue de Matignon, then the Hôtel de la Rochefoucauld in Paris, where Delacroix often came to visit. She entertained a great deal and introduced the painter into the Parisian salons. They maintained an extensive correspondence from 1832 to 1863, and had an affair that lasted from 1834 to 1850, then transformed into a deep friendship. Delacroix called her his "consuelo," his consoler; he did a pencil portrait of her (Musée Boymans van Beuningen).

There is also a medal of her by David d'Angers (1847) and a portrait painted by Horace Vernet (1769-1863), now in the Musée de Blois.

Guillaume-Egon de Furstenberg (1629–1704)

Cardinal Guillaume-Egon, Comte de Furstenberg, bishop and prince of Strasbourg, was highly ambitious and hoped to become an Elector of Cologne and Prince-Bishop of Liège.

With this aim in mind, had purchased the Château de Modave, which he planned to renovate. His was unsuccessful and then took refuge in France, under the protection of Louis XIV.

Galerie d’Apollon in the Palais du Louvre

Delacroix received a commission for the Galerie d'Apollon as part of the renovation of the museum rooms, which began when the law of 2 December 1848 officially allocated 2 million francs to restore the historical rooms in the Palais du Louvre. He was then asked to complete the decor left unfinished by Louis XIV's leading official painter, Charles Le Brun (1619-1690).

To remain consistent with the initial composition, he decided to depict Apollo Slaying the Serpent Python, a symbol of the fight between good and evil, of light against darkness, of the forces of the spirit against obscurantism.

Théophile Gautier (1811–1872)

Gautier, a novelist, poet, traveler, and collector, was also an art critic with a finely wrought style.

Drawn to painting before finally opting for literature, his early serialized novels date from 1836. His articles in La Presse and in L'Artiste were followed avidly by his readers to whom he wanted to transmit his love of beauty and painting. For Gautier, Delacroix - whom he met in the studio of Boissard de Boisdenier in 1845 - held an eminent position in modern art, as he expressed "all the passion, all the fever, all the dreams of the century."

Yet this admiration did not prevent less favorable criticism from time to time, which Delacroix did not hold against him - on the contrary, the painter often asked for his support.

Théodore Géricault (1791–1824)

Delacroix had tremendous admiration for Géricault, whose early death from a horseriding accident affected him deeply.

The two artists met in Pierre Guérin's studio. When Géricault finished lycée, he first joined the studio of Carle Vernet, a fashionable painter and horse lover, before moving on to Pierre Guérin's studio; he also continued to assiduously copy the old masters in the rooms of the Louvre. He won a gold medal the first year he exhibited at the Salon (1812), with The Chasseur of the Imperial Guard (Paris, Musée du Louvre). He entered the Prix de Rome competition, but didn't win.

In 1817, he traveled to Italy in 1817 at his own expense, but was relatively unimpressed with the beauty of the Eternal City.

On his return, he worked in lithography. His most famous painting, The Raft of the Medusa (Paris, Musée du Louvre) took over a year to complete. This immense canvas caused a scandal at the 1819 Salon (Delacroix posed for one of the shipwrecked sailors).

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Frankfurt am Main, 1749–Weimar, 1832)

Goethe, the German poet, novelist and playwright, was raised in a highly cultivated and wealthy Protestant family, and received a rigorous Humanist education. After studying law and working for a time as a lawyer, he published in 1773 his first drama, Goetz von Berlinchingen, then in 1774 his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, which was an immense success throughout Europe and earned him the patronage and friendship of the duke of Weimar. The duke invited him to court, where he occupied various important positions within the government. After traveling for two years in Italy, from September 1786 to June 1788, a trip that fueled his creative fire, Goethe published Iphigenia in Tauris and Egmont, among other works. Back in Weimar, he gave up all his other occupations to work on his scientific studies, setting literature aside. His encounter with Friedrich von Schiller in 1794 rekindled his interest in literature, and Goethe continued to publish regularly in all genres until his death: Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (definitive version, 1796), which would become a cult book in German literature, and Roman Elegies, to mention only the most famous. Furthermore, Goethe transmitted his ideas throughout his massive correspondence (which has now been published almost in its entirety) and in his conversations, some of which were transcribed by his friends. An extremely prolific author, Goethe is considered one of the last universal geniuses in the Renaissance and Enlightenment tradition.

Pierre Guérin (1774–1835)

Pierre Guérin had a brilliant career as a historical painter. Admitted to the school of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at the age of eleven, he studied with Taraval, Brenet, and then J.-B. Régnault.

He achieved his first major success at the 1799 Salon with The Return of Marcus Sextus (Paris, Musée du Louvre), which received an enthusiastic response. After traveling to Italy (December 1803-November 1805), he devoted himself almost entirely, with the exception of a few private commissions, to depicting his passion for subjects borrowed from antiquity and the theater.

In 1819, he opened a studio, joined by Géricault, Ary Scheffer, Léon Cogniet, Paul Huet, Delacroix, and others.

Etienne-François Haro (1827–1897)

Haro, a painter and a student of Ingres and Delacroix (whose portraits he painted in 1866 and 1868), was also their regular supplier of canvases, stretcher bars, frames, paints, and so on.

The sign on the family-run shop, located near the Rue de Petits-Augustins, read: "Au génie des arts" ("In the Spirit of the Arts"). Étienne's parents ran the store before he took over and transformed it into a large company that repaired, restored and remounted paintings. Haro was a painting restorer for the Palais des Tuileries and the Ministry of Public Works (his father and uncle, M. Rey, had both worked for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and for the Institut).

He worked alongside Delacroix preparing the Galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre. In 1857, he told the painter about the apartment at 6 Rue de Furstenberg and insisted that he sign a lease, saying that it was an "admirable" deal in every way. He felt it was fully worthy of the artist, as it was situated near the Institut, to which Delacroix had been admitted, and faced a garden reserved solely for the tenant of the apartment.

Indeed, Delacroix trusted Haro, to whom he gave the task of bringing together the paintings that were to be exhibited at the Universal Exhibition of 1855.

Hôtel de Ville in Paris

The architects Dominique de Cortone and Pierre Chambige constructed the initial Renaissance building of the Hôtel de Ville on François I's orders.

In 1835, on the initiative of the prefect Rambuteau (1781-1860), two corner buildings, linked to the façade by a gallery, were added to the Renaissance building. The best-known artists of the time were asked to work on the decor of this major project. Delacroix received a commission to decorate the ceiling of the Salon de la Paix, while Ingres worked on the ceiling of the Salon de l'Empereur.

Unfortunately, the Hôtel de Ville, along with the Tuileries and the Cour de Comptes, were burned down by Parisians during the Commune in May 1871. It burned for eight days, as did the archives and all the artwork.

Paul Huet (Paris, 1803–Paris, 1869)

Paul Huet met Eugène Delacroix sometime around 1822 at the Académie Suisse, an establishment run by the "Père Suisse," whose teaching methods were based on the study of live models. This was the beginning of a long friendship underscored by tremendous mutual esteem. At his death in 1863, Delacroix bequeathed a certain number of works by Poterlet, Monsieur Auguste and Charlet to Huet, and it was he who had the honor of giving the oration at Delacroix's funeral. A champion of the romantic landscape and precursor of the École de Barbizon, Paul Huet started painting very early on in the countryside around Paris (Chaville, Bellevue, Fontainebleau) and in Normandy, the Auvergne, the Midi and the Pyrenees, in search of heroic landscapes and strange effects. Over the years, he developed a personal style that is more visible in the small format works painted directly from life (drawings, pastels, watercolors, sketches) than in the large compositions, which often lost some of their spontaneity in the studio.

Gustave Lassalle-Bordes (1815–1886)

The son of a gentry family from the Gascony region, Gustave Lassalle-Bordes went to Paris to study painting, particularly historical painting.

He exhibited in the official Salons and worked with Charles Larivière, a historical painter, and with Jules Claude Ziegler, then working on the wall paintings for the Madeleine church in Paris. Through them, he learned to be an excellent painter "in the manner of" the artist for whom he was working. Starting in 2838, he joined Delacroix's studio on rue Neuve-Guillemin, where he ran the studio until 1846; he helped the master decorate the wall paintings for the libraries of the Palais Bourbon and the Senate. But in 1848, his relationship with the master deteriorated: he told Philippe Burty of his work with Delacroix and about the master's techniques, speaking with interest but in the demanding and bitter way of someone who has been working in the shadows.

He then returned to Auch. Flush with his collaboration with Delacroix, the medals he was awarded at the Salons, and flattering reviews - notably from Baudelaire in the 1846 Salon - he received many commissions from churches and châteaux in the region. He died in Auch in 1886.

Jeanne-Marie, known as Jenny, Le Guillou (1801–1869)

Born in the Finistère region of France, Jenny Le Guillou started working for Delacroix sometime around 1835 and remained with him to his death; she was with him when he died on 13 August 1863.

She was initially a loyal housekeeper, sparing the painter any material concerns, and in time became his friend and confidante. In 1855, Delacroix said that she was "the only being whose heart belongs unconditionally to me."

Library in the Palais Bourbon

Minister Adolphe Thiers had already asked Eugène Delacroix to paint the Salon du Roi in the Palais Bourbon, from 1833 to 1838.

He received a commission to decorate the library on 31 August 1838, yet it was not completed until 1847, as he had so much work elsewhere. He hired two assistants, Gustave Lassalle-Bordes (1815-1886) and Louis de Planet (1814-1876). The library has two hemicycles separated by five bays topped with domes, each of which has four pendants - for a decorative project comprising twenty hexagonal pendants and two hemicycles. He selected the themes of History, Philosophy, Legislation, Theology, and Poetry for the cupolas. He portrayed Peace with Orpheus's Gift of Civilization to Mankind, and the War With Attila's Destruction of Italy.

The Musée Delacroix has a model for the Orpheus hemicycle made by Delacroix. The paintings present a coherent overall unity which proves that Delacroix oversaw every detail of the work, and form "one of the most complete and most striking decorative ensembles, and one in which France can be proud" (M. Sérullaz).

Pierre de Montreuil (vers 1200–1267)

Very little is known about this architect, although he had acquired a reputation as one of the best architects of the Rayonnant Gothic style.

In Paris, he oversaw the construction of the Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the Chapel of the Virgin in the Saint-Germain-des-Près abbey (where he is buried), and worked on the construction of Notre-Dame. He also completed the Saint-Denis Abbey near Paris.

Charles Motte (1785–1836)

A lithographer, illustrator, etcher and publisher, Charles Motte exhibited at the Salon from 1827 to 1831, and published a certain number of Delacroix's lithographs between 1820 and 1828. He was Achille Devéria's father-in-law, and also published most of this artist's lithographs.

Library in the Palais du Luxembourg (1840–1846)

In 1840, Delacroix received a commission to decorate the cupola, the four pendants, and the hemicycle of the Palais du Luxembourg library from Adolphe Thiers, then president of the Conseil.

He was assisted by Gustave Lassalle-Bordes. The paintings on the cupola represent limbo as described by Dante. The great men of Antiquities are in the Elysian Fields, divided into four groups: Homer greeting Dante and Virgil; famous Greeks such as Alexander, Aristotle, and Plato; the poet Orpheus; the Romans Cato, Marcus Aurelius, and Trajan. The pendants under the cupola are decorated with four cameos representing Philosophy, Eloquence, Theology, and Poetry. The hemicycle above the windows depicts Alexander Placing Homer's Poems in a Golden Chest, taken from the Persian king Darius. The groups have a perfect rhythm and are interconnected in a harmonious way. The artist was able to re-create the harmony of ancient Greece and the Renaissance, while expressing his own French genius as heir to Poussin and a precursor of the modern artists.

Pierre Petit (1831–1909)

Pierre Petit, nicknamed "Collodion le chevelu" because of his large head of hair, apprenticed with André Disdéri (1819-1889), inventor of the carte-de-visite (visiting card).

He was the photographer for the Universal Exhibition of 1855, 1867, and again in 1878. In 1858, he opened his own studio at 31 Place Cadet (Paris, 9th arrondissement) and in 1959 made a book devoted to the French episcopate.

A series of portraits of contemporary men of letters and artists in 1860 prefigured the Galerie des Hommes du Jour, published the following year with biographical notes. From 1871 to 1886, he was asked to photograph the different stages in the construction of the Statue of Liberty in New York. His son continued his work after his death.

René Piot (1866–1934)

Piot was part of the Nabi and Fauve generation, but he deliberately worked outside the confines of these groups.

In 1890, he met Maurice Denis, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Vuillard, and Bonnard at the Académie Jullian, but discovered the importance of drawing and mastered the organization of colors with Pierre Andrieu, Delacroix's assistant. After working in Gustave Moreau's studio, he started to travel, discovering in Italy the techniques of fresco and tempera that he would use in public and private commissions for mural paintings.

In 1931, when he was asked to restore Delacroix's paintings in the library of the Palais Bourbon, Piot made twenty-two watercolors and gouache copies of the various elements of the decor and in 1931 published a book: Palettes de Delacroix.

He also published the first edition of Delacroix's Journals (1890) in collaboration with Paul Flat.

Achille Piron ( ?–1865)

Piron was one of Delacroix's closest friends from lycée. Although we know relatively little about him, his name is inextricably linked to that of the painter through his unfailing loyalty.

Indeed, Delacroix rewarded this modest postal administrator by making him his heir and one of his executors. Piron not only accomplished this task scrupulously; he also took on the project of publishing a book of souvenirs dedicated to the artist's friends, using archives he gathered dutifully: Eugène Delacroix, sa vie, son œuvre (1865). The archives of the Musée National Eugène Delacroix have the various documents that belonged to Piron.

Louis de Planet (Toulouse, 1814–Paris, 1876)

Son of a wealthy family from Toulouse, Louis de Planet signed up for the École des Beaux-Arts in 1833 after completing his law degree.

He became a friend of Romain Cazes, one of Ingres' students. But once he reached Paris, he selected Delacroix's studio. The painter had just opened a studio on rue Neuve-Guillemin to train students as future assistants to help with the decorative projects at the library of the Palais Bourbon - which Louis de Planet discussed nearly every day, from 1841 to 1844, in his valuable Souvenirs des Travaux de Peinture avec M. Eugène Delacroix.

A great admirer of the master painter, who recognized in him "superior qualities, but a total lack of self-confidence," Louis de Planet died in 1876, virtually forgotten.

Hippolyte Poterlet (1803–1835)

Hippolyte Poterlet's work is not very well known, yet he was a remarkable draftsman.

His early death prevented him from fully developing his art. In the autumn of 1818, he met Delacroix when he was copying the master in the Louvre. This encounter changed his life and the two shared a deep friendship, nourished by their artistic exchanges.

The Louvre has only a single work by this artist: The Quarrel Between Trissotin and Vadius, inspired from Molière's The Wise Women.

Léon Riesener (1808–1878)

Léon Riesener was Delacroix's first cousin and grandson of Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806), a famous cabinet-maker under Louis XVI.

He was the son of Henri-François Riesener (1767-1828), a painter who achieved some success under the Empire, then enjoyed a brilliant career in Czar Alexander's court. Delacroix was particularly fond of his aunt, with whom he liked to discuss literature. In 1824, they translated Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage together. After she was widowed, she retired to Frépillon in the Montmorency valley, where Delacroix often visited her.

Léon Riesener started working in Gros's studio at age fifteen. In the 1930s, he started to exhibit his works regularly, and in the 1940s received major commissions for large paintings (the Charenton hospice chapel, ceilings of the Senate library, the Saint-Eustache Church, and the Paris Hôtel de Ville). Léon Riesener explored every genre, but he nevertheless pursued the great colorist tradition and was strongly influenced by his famous cousin, who had always supported and recommended him to others.

Delacroix loaned him a large sum of money and bequeathed the Champrosay home and all its contents to Riesener.

Alfred Robaut (Douai, 1830–Fontenay-sous-Bois, 1909)

In 1846, Alfred Robaut, son of the painter and lithographer Félix Robaut (1799-1880), joined his father's print shop that specialized in the production of cards and regional views. He started publishing a large number of lithographs inspired, among others, from works by his father-in-law, Constant Dutilleux, and later by Eugène Delacroix. He also mastered the technique of facsimile printing and published seventy drawings by Delacroix (in several batches) belonging for the most part to his own collection, as well as a work that included twenty-nine letters written by Delacroix to Dutilleux.

Robaut moved to Paris in late 1871 and devoted most of his time working on the complete catalogue of Delacroix's works, which-although it did not meet with the success he had hoped for when it was published in 1885-nevertheless remains to this day a key reference for any research on Delacroix. He was also one of the instigators for the major retrospective of Delacroix's works organized at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1885; the profits from this exhibition were to be used to finance a monument to Delacroix in the Luxembourg gardens.

After 1890, Alfred Robaut somewhat neglected his studies of Delacroix to work on a catalogue of Corot's works, which was published in four volumes in 1905.

Alexis Rouart (Paris, 1839–Paris, 1911)

The son of an industrialist and the younger brother of Henri Rouart (1833-1912), whose collection of paintings (Delacroix, Millet, Degas, Corot) was already famous, Alexis Rouart himself amassed a remarkable collection of paintings and drawings by great masters of the 19th-century, as well as numerous objects from the Far East and a large selection of lithographs. His beautiful collection of lithographs was not included in the sale after his death, and went to one of his two sons, who sold them privately from 1930 to 1935.

Edme Saint-Marcel (Paris, 1819–Fontainebleau, 1890)

A painter, illustrator and printmaker, known primarily as an animal painter, Edme Saint-Marcel studied in the studios of Steuben, Caruel d'Aligny and Léon Cogniet before working alongside Delacroix. Through Delacroix's teaching, he developed a strong affinity for animals, and his studies are often very similar to those of his master, although he demonstrates an individual sense of composition. Saint-Marcel was also a talented landscape painter; in order to be closer to nature, he moved to Fontainebleau around 1845. From this time on, his entries to the Salons included numerous landscapes of forests and "effects" of winter and spring.

Saint-Sulpice Church

Construction on Saint-Sulpice, one of the largest churches in Paris, began in 1646, but the work was only completed in the early nineteenth century, once Chalgrin had finished the neoclassical façade and the two towers begun by Servandoni.

In 1849, Delacroix received a commission to decorate the Saints-Anges Chapel; he decided to portray Archangel Saint Michael Slaying the Dragon, Heliodorus Driven From the Temple, and Jacob Wrestling With the Angel, often considered by historians to be his spiritual testament.

Salon

Colbert created the Salon in 1667 to exhibit works by members of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and artists approved by this academy. In 1725, the exhibition was housed in the salon of the Carré du Louvre (hence its name), and in the second half of the nineteenth century in various Parisian sites.

It was initially held annually, but at times, biannually and it was even cancelled several times due to political upheavals.

Depending on the year, it lasted from a few weeks to several months. The Academie was disbanded during the Revolution and the Salon became a venue open to all artists, but a jury was soon formed to limit the number of exhibitors. From 1830 to 1848, the jury imposed an increasingly severe censorship, which led certain painters to create parallel independent exhibitions.

The Salon continued through the late nineteenth century. It was an extremely important and highly anticipated event in the cultural life of Paris.

Salon du Roi in the Palais Bourbon

Adolphe Thiers had praised Eugène Delacroix's work at the Salon starting in 1822.

In 1833, he commissioned the painter to decorate the Salon du Roi, known as the Salon Delacroix, in the Palais Bourbon; it was completed in 1838. It included a ceiling divided into eight coffers, - four large and four small - a continuous frieze above the archivolts on the four sides of the room, and eight pilasters between the bay windows. He used a mixture of oil paint combined with wax, which he painted directly on the wall or on a canvas stretched over a frame, which gave the paint a mat texture similar to that of distemper. Delacroix chose the themes of government power, depicted allegorically: Justice, Agriculture, Industry, and War.

He personified the seas and rivers of France on the pilasters. He worked alone on this large project, which clearly reflected his classical aspirations.

Aurore Dupin, Baroness Dudevant, known as George Sand (1804–1876)

Born is Paris, but raised in the Berry by her grandmother, George Sand became successful in 1832 with her first intesnely romantic novel, Indiana.

She then turned toward realism (Cadio, 1868) and even toward naturalism (Francia, 1872). Her best-known works are pastoral novels, notably The Devil's Pond (1846), Francis the Waif (1847/48), and Fadette (1849). A feminist, she separated from her husband in 1836, went to Paris, and had a number of lovers, including Jules Sandeau, Musset, and Chopin. She courted scandal by dressing as a man, smoking cigars, and displaying highly independent behavior. Under the reign of Louis-Philippe, she became an advocate of socialism. In 1846, George Sand retired to her property, Nohant, and died thirty years later after a serene old age. Starting in 1838, Delacroix spent an increasing amount of time in George Sand's circle and traveled to Nohant three times.

They had a sincere friendship and corresponded regularly until Delacroix's death.

Louis de Schwiter (1805–1889)

Schwiter was a landscape and portrait painter, and an illustrator.

He was part of the small circle of Delacroix's close friends linked to the Pierret family, to which Schwiter was related. The two men met before Delacroix's trip to England (1825). They maintained a fairly regular correspondence until Delacoix died.

When Delacoix returned to France, he painted a life-size portrait of his friend that he submitted, unsuccessfully, to the Salon jury of 1827 (London, National Gallery; this painting belonged to Degas). Schwiter collected antiques, and he asked Delacroix to negotiate with the Louvre for works he had brought back from Italy. We know that the painter traded one of his most romantic watercolors, Horse Frightened by a Storm (Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts) for a collection of "imprints" made from antique medals. Delacroix asked Schwiter, along with Andrieu, Burty, Dutilleux, Dauzats, and others, to organize his portfolios.

In return, Schwiter was able to select a drawing, and received a bequent of three small canvases from the painter.

Walter Scott (1711–1832)

Between 1821 and 1847, Delacroix drew inspiration from twelve poems and novels by this famous Scottish author.

He, like many of his fellow painters, had embraced the anglomania that had spread through the cultural strata of French society.

Thanks to the rapid translation of his works, Walter Scott was spectacularly successful. Ivanhoe (1820) and Quentin Durward (1823) were among his most popular novels, but Delacroix also borrowed several subjects from The Bride of Lammermoor (1821), which was adapted to the opera by Donizetti in 1835. He traveled to the Touraine region in 1828 to visit his brother, General Charles-Henri Delacroix, but also to follow in the footsteps of Walter Scott, seeking the ghosts of Louis XI and Quentin Durward.

Toward the end of his life, the painter's enthusiasm for Walter Scott diminished, as he derived less pleasure from reading these historical novels, in which the intrigue was buried under a mass of details.

Friedrich-Albert-Alexander Stapfer (Paris (?), 1802–Paris, 1892)

Son of Philippe-Albert Stapfer (Berne, 1766-Paris, 1840), a Protestant theologian and politician who was born in Switzerland and moved to France in 1801, Albert Stapfer received an extensive philosophical education that directed him toward scholarly work and literature. Starting in 1822, he began to oversee the publication of the French translations of J. W. Goethe's dramatic works. Faust, which Mme de Stael had already published in part in her De l'Allemagne, appeared in French in 1823, and Goethe himself-whom Stapfer visited in the spring of 1827 during a trip to Weimar along with his friend, Jean-Jacques Ampère (1800-1864), literature professor at the Collège de France-told him the translation was a brilliant success.

Charles de Steuben (1788–1856)

Charles de Steuben, the son of a Russian army officer, started his artistic education at the Saint Petersburg Academy, then became a student of Baron Gérard, Robert Lefebvre, and Prud'hon in Paris.

He exhibited at the Salon from 1812 to 1843 and worked at the historical museum created at Versailles from 1834 to 1838.

George Stubbs (1724–1806)

This English painter started his career as a portraitist.

After returning from Italy, he traveled to Morocco where he witnessed a lion attacking a horse, a subject he depicted many times. The engraving of this scene influenced both Géricault and Delacroix. He was fascinated with anatomical studies of horses and made this his specialty - and in the process acquired a clientele consisting of British aristocrats whe shared his passion.

He is also famous for his "portraits" of wild animals such as kangaroos, monkeys and so on.

Universal Exhibitions

In 1851, Victorian England launched the concept of an exhibition that would be truly universal (encompassing all themes) and international (all nations were invited).

Held in the Crystal Palace, designed specially for the event, the exhibition was a great success and had six million visitors.

It was devoted to mankind's progress in the nineteenth century, and participating nations presented their industrial innovations; a large part of the exhibition was also devoted to the exoticism of the colonies. In 1855, France organized the second Universal Exhibition, and Napoleon III added an innovative element by reserving a large section to the arts (more then 5,000 paintings and sculptures).

Henriette de Verninac (1780–1827)

In 1798, Henriette, Delacroix's older sister, married Raymond de Verninac-Saint-Maur (1762-1822), who had just been named Ambassador to Sweden, and later Constantinople.

After their marriage, when Raymond was named prefect of the Rhône region, the couple moved to Lyon. The portrait of Henriette as Diana the Huntress Preparing Her Arrows, sculpted by Chinard, and another painted by Jacques-Louis David that Delacroix kept to the end of his life (both in the Musée du Louvre) date from this period. When his mother died, Delacroix lived with his sister and brother-in-law. The deep fondness he held for their son, Charles, just five years younger than Delacroix, did little to improve the difficult relations that arose over money issues, due in part to mismanagement of the family's property of Boixe. Y

et when Henriette died, Delacroix took responsibility for his nephew. When the latter, who became a diplomat, died from yellow fever after returning from a mission in Vera Cruz (1832), Delacroix grieved deeply. The funerary mask of Charles de Verninac is in the Musée Delacroix.

Frédéric Villot (Liège, 1809–Paris, 1875)

Frédéric Villot was a scholar, collector, bibliophile, and engraver.

A painting curator at the Musée du Louvre from 1848 to 1861, he began to catalogue the collections by setting up a chronological order by schools. He quit his job in the wake of criticism of his restoration policies. He amassed a collection of paintings, drawings, and engravings by Delacroix, and himself engraved a series of etchings after drawings by the master.

They maintained a loyal friendship, despite a few clashes. Frédéric and Pauline Villot, of whom Delacroix was very fond, sometimes invited the painter to Champrosay, the very place where he would later purchase his country home.

Jules-Claude Ziegler (1804–1856)

A student of François-Joseph Heim and of Ingres, Jules-Claude Ziegler exhibited his first works in 1828 and 1829.

In 1830, he traveled to Italy and then to Germany, where he learned fresco painting with Peter von Cornelius. Named chargé de mission by the government in 1834, he studied ceramics and stained-glass painting in Germany.

On his return, he founded an artistic stoneware works inspired by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century German stoneware in Voisinlieu, near Beauvais. From 1835 to 1838, he painted the dome of the Madeleine church in Paris.