Musée Delacroix

Le succès de la NUIT DES MUSEES18 mai 2013 entre 19h et 23hplus de 500 participants !

Marie-Christine Megevand — 2013-05-15T11:16:15Z

Visites guidées par la conservation du musée
Regards croisés sur une oeuvre : le Portrait de Richard de la Hautière par Eugène Delacroix

La classe, l'œuvre !

Dans le cadre de la Nuit Européenne des musées, le musée Eugène Delacroix sera exceptionnellement ouvert le 18 mai 2013 de 19h à 23h (dernière entrée à 22h30).
Des visites guidées par la conservation du musée seront organisées à 19h, 20h, 21h et 22h.

Une œuvre d'Eugène Delacroix, le Portrait d'Auguste-Richard de La Hautière, sera particulièrement proposée à l'attention des visiteurs. Ce tableau fait partie d'une série de dix portraits d'élèves commandés à Eugène Delacroix par Prosper-Parfait Goubaux, cofondateur et directeur de l'Institution Saint-Victor, rue Chantereine à Paris (actuellement rue de la Victoire). Ce charmant jeune homme blond fut peint par l'artiste en 1828 : il avait obtenu un second prix de version latine au concours général ainsi qu'un accessit en thème latin.

En lien avec la direction des publics du Louvre, cette œuvre a fait l'objet d'un travail d'observation et de rédaction de latinistes de classes de 5ème B et C du Collège Maurice Ravel de Paris (20ème arrondissement). Ils ont, avec leur professeur de latin, regardés attentivement l'œuvre en classe et au musée. Leurs commentaires justes, sensibles, interrogatifs, soulignent leur intérêt pour ce portrait d'un adolescent.

« C'est le portrait à mi-corps d'un jeune homme triste et sérieux. Il porte un manteau sombre qui se fond dans le paysage de l'arrière-plan et contraste avec son gilet beige, presque blanc. Son foulard jaune à motif vert est noué en cravate. Ses cheveux d'un blond roux sont un peu ébouriffés par le vent et ses joues un peu rosies par l'air frais. Son visage aux traits fins est tourné vers la droite, comme s'il voulait éviter le regard du peintre ou du spectateur. Il est pensif, comme perdu dans ses rêves, dans la lune. Il a l'air timide et réservé. Ses lèvres fines sont légèrement pincées.

…« Il n'a pas envie d'être là. Il pose à contre cœur, c'est pour cela qu'il ne nous regarde pas. Peut-être était-il en train de fêter sa réussite avec sa famille lorsque le directeur de la pension est venu lui demander de poser ? Mais lui préfèrerait rester auprès de sa famille.

…« Peut-être est-il au contraire déçu, car il a travaillé dur pour le concours général et la deuxième place est un échec ? C'est pour ça qu'il a l'air contrarié. Peut-être regarde-t-il un groupe de camarades qui jouent dans le parc où il pose ? Lui ne s'amuse jamais. Il passe son temps à étudier. Il a toujours rêvé d'avoir un prix au concours général et maintenant qu'il l'a, il n'est pas plus heureux. Il doit rester un bon élève pour ne pas décevoir sa famille et ses professeurs mais il préfèrerait être moins sérieux et plus libre, avoir des amis et plus de temps pour lui.

…« A l'arrière-plan, le ciel est sombre et lugubre, le paysage est inhabité. C'est peut-être un paysage inventé, un paysage intérieur, celui où Richard s'évade pour réfléchir et réaliser tous ses rêves... »

Abdoulaye,Alexandre,Amel,Andreï,Basile,Camille,Elise,Esraa,Fatima,
Garance,Héloïse,Imane, Joeris, Léo, Marie, Marie-Agnès, Mehdi, Nabil, Nathan, Octave, Sarah, Sonia.

Le nouveau jardin

Marie-Christine Megevand — 2013-03-17T15:35:00Z

Le jardin du musée Eugène Delacroix, que l'on découvre après avoir traversé la dernière demeure occupée par le peintre, constitue une des parties essentielles du musée, au même titre que les pièces de l'appartement ou l'atelier. Sa rénovation, achevée en décembre 2012, est donc récente. Un jardin à la floraison généreuse et conforme aux goûts d'Eugène Delacroix s'offre désormais aux visiteurs.

Historique

Lorsque Delacroix décida de quitter son grand atelier de la rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, au sein du quartier de la Nouvelle-Athènes, alors si à la mode, le choix de la rue Fürstenberg fut en grande partie conforté par l'existence du petit jardin dont il pouvait avoir la jouissance exclusive avec la possibilité d'y construire un atelier. Au cœur d'un quartier animé, il pouvait ainsi évoluer dans un îlot de verdure et de tranquillité. Dans ce jardin, d'environ 400 m², invisible depuis la rue, le peintre fit donc construire son atelier.

Aussitôt après son installation, le 28 décembre 1857, il note dans son Journal : "Mon logement est décidément charmant. J'ai eu un peu de mélancolie après dîner de me retrouver transplanté. Je me suis peu à peu réconcilié et me suis couché enchanté. Réveillé le lendemain en voyant le soleil le plus gracieux sur les maisons qui sont en face de ma fenêtre. La vue de mon petit jardin et l'aspect riant de mon atelier me causent toujours un sentiment de plaisir."

Delacroix aimait la nature. Son Journal et sa Correspondance permettent de le suivre au cours des nombreux séjours qu'il fit à la campagne (Champrosay, Augerville, Nohant, Croze,...) ou au bord de la mer (Fécamp, Dieppe...). Son œuvre témoigne également de cet attrait pour la nature. A partir de 1845, le peintre s'attacha en effet à l'étude de la nature pour elle-même. George Sand, témoin de ses premiers essais, rapporta une anecdote datant d'un des premiers séjours effectués par le maître à Nohant, en 1845 : "J'ai vu Delacroix essayé pour la première fois de peindre des fleurs. Il avait étudié la botanique dans son enfance, et comme il avait une mémoire admirable, il la savait encore (...). Je le surpris en extase de ravissement devant un lis jaune dont il venait de comprendre la belle architecture." (George Sand, Nouvelles lettres d'un voyageur, Paris : Calmann-Lévy, 1877)

C'est sans doute lors d'un de ces premiers séjours dans la propriété de la romancière, entre 1848 et 1850, que Delacroix dut exécuter le Bouquet de fleurs (Paris, musée du Louvre,), mis en dépôt au musée Eugène Delacroix. Celui-ci possède également une Etude de fleurs, représentant un pavot, une pensée et une anémone, réalisée au cours des mêmes années. C'est aussi en février 1849 que Delacroix rencontra le botaniste Adrien de Jussieu (1797-1853) dont il rapporta la conversation dans son Journal. A cette époque, les écrits du peintre révèlent une curiosité quasi-naturaliste pour toutes les choses de la nature. Enfin, Delacroix travailla à cinq compositions florales qu'il souhaitait proposer au Salon de 1849 ; il n'en exposa finalement que deux, Corbeille de fleurs renversée dans un parc (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art) et Corbeille contenant des fruits posée dans un jardin (Philadelphie, Philadelphia Museum of Art), d'un format rectangulaire, en partie plus conformes à la tradition du genre, mais cependant profondément originales.

Un jardin rénové

Concernant l'état ancien du jardin, le musée possède un document essentiel, intitulé : "mémoire de jardinage pour le compte de Monsieur Delacroix", daté du 26 novembre 1857. Il faisait partie des documents conservés par le légataire universel du peintre, Achille Piron, et dont la plus grande partie a pu être acquise par les archives des musées nationaux lors d'une vente publique en 1997. Cette facture détaille les interventions successives : d'abord une remise en état du sol, un élagage et la taille des massifs existants et de la vigne, la création de massifs de fleurs bordés de thym et la plantation d'un grand nombre de rosiers divers, groseilliers, framboisiers ainsi que plusieurs arbres. Le jardin devait avoir une végétation dense et très variée. Cependant, ce document, s'il souligne l'intérêt de Delacroix pour la remise en état du jardin, n'apporte pas d'indications précises sur la configuration du jardin lors de l'installation du peintre ou sur les plantations effectuées et il n'existe aucun croquis, même sommaire, du jardin. Une reconstitution historique s'avérant délicate, une première rénovation, en 1999, a adopté une orientation délibérément contemporaine.

Une approche plus sensible, répondant mieux à l'atmosphère générale du lieu, est désormais proposée aux visiteurs depuis décembre 2012. Entièrement financé grâce au mécénat du japonais Kinoshita, le projet se rapproche davantage des écrits de Delacroix qui évoquent son plaisir pour un jardin de campagne foisonnant. Inspiré de ses compositions florales qui offrent un échantillon de fleurs appréciées par le peintre et d'une relecture plus précise des documents conservés, ce nouveau jardin retrouve ainsi sa place centrale dans la visite de ces lieux inspirés au même titre que l'atelier et l'appartement.

L'exposition ainsi que la rénovation du jardin, bénéficient du soutien de KINOSHITA HOLDINGS CO., LTD.

CONFERENCELa rénovation du jardin du musée Eugène Delacroix

Marie-Christine Megevand — 2013-03-12T09:52:08Z

Renaissance d'un enclos secret au coeur de saint-Germain-des-Prés
par Dominique de Font-Réaulx, musée Eugène Delacroix
Pierre Bonnaure et Sébastien Ciret, musée du Louvre

En lien avec l'exposition Eugène Delacroix. Des fleurs en hiver

Tarifs : de 3€ (moins de 26 ans) à 6€ - Gratuit pour les étudiants en art
Réservations : 01 40 20 55 00

READINGNature, flowers and gardensby Catherine Salviat, sociétaire of the Comédie-Française

Anne-Myrtille.Renoux@louvre.fr — 2012-12-20T15:48:36Z

Reading of poems by Alfred de Musset, Victor Hugo, Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud....and texts by Delacroix, George Sand, Théophile Gautier....

Eugène DelacroixAlfred

Anne-Myrtille.Renoux@louvre.fr — 2012-12-20T15:01:30Z

Eugène DELACROIX
Charenton-Saint-Maurice, 1798 – Paris, 1863
Alfred
Autograph manuscript
25 folios in 12°
H. 17.8 cm; W. 11.5 cm
1815-1817
Half morocco bound, Semet & Plumelle
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Guénant, 2012 (MD 2012-6 )

“It's necessary to insist a bit at first, but once the ball gets rolling, I find it just as easy to write as I do to paint. And, strangely enough, I have less of a need to go back over what I've done.” So writes Delacroix of his fondness for writing in his Journal on July 21, 1850.

His talent as a writer, so apparent in the Journal, is already evident in this short story of historical fiction. “Alfred” was written in small, tight and regular script sometime between 1815 and 1817, and tells the tragic tale of an English count in the medieval period – an exoticism at the time. The poor Count de Burtmann, believing his death to be near after a battle with the French, follows the counsel of his treacherous chaplain Harold and decides to offer his only son and heir, Alfred, to God and the church, should his wound heal. The chaplain recommends this pledge because the count is exceedingly wealthy.

The charming Alfred loves Amélie, the daughter of a neighboring lord, but understands when his beloved father returns that he will be torn away from her. The count's dramatic hesitations, the son's internal agonies, and upsurges of hope follow one after the other as they lead to the tragic end of both father and son.

The young Delacroix made use of a style so fluent that he revised very little of the story, drawing the turbulent emotions that bring his characters to life with passion and accuracy. And, young politically engaged writer that he was, Delacroix did not miss the opportunity to champion his liberal ideas and denounce the poor count's villainous and manipulative cleric: “In those gloomy centuries when it was a crime to think for oneself and to see with one's own eyes, when the course as laid was the only one men could follow, when genius – constrained by the narrow bounds that ignorance and fanaticism had forbidden it to cross – was obliged to grovel and stoop beneath the yoke of accepted customs, superstitions that had rooted themselves in the hearts of men, and errors that misled all and sundry, is it any wonder that crafty and cunning men succeeded in controlling men by such crude means? The indignant genius raised his voice as his reason, worn thin by so many insults, attempted to make itself heard. The priests shouted it down as impious, anathema. The fanatical people who believed it was total devastation if the old prejudices were so much as grazed stood up to chastise the bold man, who was the sole to realize his debasement among them; and the pyre was recompense for the rash one unhappy enough to escape the stupidity of his fellow citizens. Such was the state of Europe for over fifteen centuries.” (folio 9)

While the young writer deftly pleads in favor of liberty here, in later years, the painter would go on to make use of his palette's genius to defend it.

2012
Eugène DELACROIX Charenton-Saint-Maurice, 1798 – Paris, 1863 Alfred Autograph manuscript 25 folios in 12° H. 17.8 cm; W. 11.5 cm 1815-1817 Half morocco bound, Semet & Plumelle Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Guénant, 2012 (MD 2012-6 )

Newton FieldingSkiff and Ducks on the Waterfront

Anne-Myrtille.Renoux@louvre.fr — 2012-12-19T15:40:00Z

Newton Fielding
London, 1799 – Paris, 1856
Skiff and Ducks on the Waterfront
Varnished watercolor, pen and black ink
H. 18.9 cm; W. 26.8 cm
Gift of Mrs. Françoise Heilbrun, 2012 (MD 2012-5)

Like his three brothers Theodore, Thales, and Copley, Newton, the youngest of the four Fieldings, was drawn to Paris around 1821 by the publisher J.-F. d'Ostervald to realize the aquatints and watercolors of Picturesque Travels in Sicily (1821-1826) and Trips to the Coasts and Ports of Normandy (1823-1825): the prints of these works required that they be sketched in watercolor, a technique the brothers had mastered, reproducing the effects of oil paintings through the use of gouache and gum arabic. Thales was in fact the one to initiate Delacroix in the technique, and the mutual friendship of these two painters who shared a studio at 20 rue Jacob from 1823-1824 is well-known. Indeed, their lovely portraits of one another, hung in the museum beside Delacroix's portrait of Newton, attest to this.

Thales returned to London in 1824, and Newton continued to represent the family's interests in Paris with the help of English apprentices. Beginning in 1827, he became the drawing master under the Duke of Orleans, who acquired some of his watercolors despite the criticism of his work shown at the Salon that year (his watercolors risked a mix of genres that was not to the liking of the academics…). He garnered a solid reputation as an animal painter, notably following H. Gauguin's publication of the work entitled A Collection of Animals: Subjects taken from the fables of La Fontaine, drawn and lithographed by Newton Fielding. The two collections of lithographs, Sketches by Newton Fielding and Animals Drawn on Stone, published in 1829 by Motte and Gihaut respectively, confirmed his talent for animal imagery.

This charming waterfront scene recently acquired by the museum further attests to this talent: it portrays a small boat atop a clump of weeds situated on a dune touched by a ray of light and a few green and ocher ducks on the shore whose colors have been enhanced by the varnish and whose feathers are marked by incisions in the paint itself.

Returning to England in 1833, Newton Fielding's career failed to take flight as hoped. Curiously, his influence on other French painters was essentially spread through the intermediary of artists he had trained in Paris, such as William Callow, some of whose watercolors can be found in one of Delacroix's sketchbooks dated 1832-1833 (Sérullaz, Inventory of Drawings by Delacroix, Musée du Louvre, nº1739).

Having fallen ill, Newton Fielding came back to France in 1855 and died destitute on January 13, 1856. Thanking his faithful friend Delacroix for the gift he had given him some weeks earlier, Fielding wrote on November 29, 1855: “Mrs. Pierret came last night and she gave me the hundred-franc note that you have been so kind to send me. I need not tell you how helpful this money is to me[…]”. Lee Johnson, New Letters, William Blake and Co, 2000, p.119.

The sale following Delacroix's death included no fewer than 27 watercolors by the two brothers, Thales and Newton.

2012
Newton Fielding London, 1799 – Paris, 1856 Skiff and Ducks on the Waterfront Varnished watercolor, pen and black ink Gift of Mrs. Françoise Heilbrun, 2012 (MD 2012-5)

Eugène Delacroix: Flowers in WinterOthoniel, Creten

Marie-Christine Megevand — 2012-12-19T10:33:13Z

Organized to celebrate the renovation of its garden, this exhibition at the Musée Delacroix brings together for the first time, under the ironic title “Flowers in Winter,” the artist's major paintings of flowers and his loveliest watercolors on this theme, thanks to loans granted for this occasion by French and foreign museums. As a counterpoint, the exhibition also features works by two contemporary artists, Jean-Michel Othoniel and Johan Creten, thus illustrating the continuing prominence of floral subjects as a source of inspiration, in the nineteenth as in the twenty-first century, for three creative trailblazers very much of their time.

This exhibition is organized by the Musée national Eugène Delacroix. Kinoshita Holdings Co., Ltd. is the proud sponsor of both the exhibition and the garden renovation project.

Although he is best known for his works on themes drawn from his love of literature, historical events, or his fascination for Arab themes and Orientalism, Eugène Delacroix did not neglect this traditional genre, which allowed him to experiment with the dilution of form in an explosion of color. While his major paintings on floral subjects date from the last fifteen years of his life, throughout his career Delacroix took to sketching flowers in his notebooks and mentioned them occasionally in his journal, as during his trip to Morocco in 1832, where he was struck by the “countless flowers of a thousand species creating a dazzling, multi-hued tapestry.”

A frequent guest of George Sand at her château in Nohant, renowned for its lovely gardens, Delacroix painted one of his most uninhibited bouquets for the writer (Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna) and later acquired a house in the village of Champrosay to relax amid the tranquility of his own garden. The artist also chose to move into the apartment on the Rue de Furstenberg in 1857 precisely because it offered access to a private garden.

The exhibition thus pays tribute to a theme that would long preoccupy all later shapers of modernity, from Courbet to Monet or Cézanne, who himself owned a magnificent watercolor of a bouquet of flowers by Delacroix. In parallel, the exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to explore works resonating with this same theme by two present-day creators: Jean-Michel Othoniel, well known for his Kiosque des Noctambules, a canopy at the entrance to the Palais-Royal Metro station in Paris, and the ceramic sculptor Johan Creten, whose recent works produced while an artist in residence at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, the renowned French porcelain factory, have brought him wide acclaim. Flowers are a vital element behind the creative approaches of both of these contemporary artists, who have responded to the museum's invitation by presenting a number of works, many of which have never been exhibited before. Whether in glass, bronze, porcelain or paper, these creations are far from mere transcriptions based on works by Delacroix but, without exception, they reaffirm nature as an enduring and unending source of inspiration for artists.

Delacroix's flowers

An aspect of Delacroix's oeuvre often considered as merely tied to specific circumstances, floral subjects hold an important place in the artist's creative output, due to his extreme sensitivity to the forces of nature and the question of their relationship with humankind. Therefore, against all expectations, in the wake of the social and political unrest brought on by the Revolution of 1848, Delacroix retreated to his country house in Champrosay to prepare his contribution to the Salon to be held the following year, consisting exclusively of floral subjects, with the idea of presenting five large canvases depicting bouquets. In a letter to Constant Dutilleux, he suggests that he “sought to capture fragments of nature just as they appear in gardens, simply by bringing together in the same setting and in a rather opportune manner the great variety and profusion of flowers.”

In fact, these compositions are guided by a sense of decoration far beyond this statement of principle, greatly influenced by Grand Siècle traditions. In the end, Delacroix sent four works to the 1849 Salon. Unsatisfied with their appearance once hung, he withdrew two of them, now lost. The fifth was not finished in time to be included (Musée Ingres, Montauban). His Basket of Flowers Overturned in a Park, one of the two works shown at the Salon, now in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is startling in its turbulence and vibrancy, and stranger than it may seem at first glance. The ominously entwining arch of morning glories, also seen in a pastel study for this painting owned by the same museum, is particularly striking in this regard.

Two contemporary perspectives

His penchant for metamorphosis drawing him above all to materials with changeable properties, Jean-Michel Othoniel (French, born in 1964) first gained recognition in 1992 with a series of small wax and sulfur sculptures exhibited at Documenta IX in Kassel. Othoniel turned to glass the following year, which would soon become the artist's favorite material. His approach to creation is multifaceted and layered, producing works that appear abstract from a distance, but on closer examination reveal their poetic force, often laden with sexual and erotic undertones. In 2003, Othoniel conceived an exhibition called “Crystal Palace,” which was shown at the Fondation Cartier in Paris and at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in North Miami, for which he enlisted teams of craftspeople to make sculptures in blown glass, with the aim of re-enchanting the world. Inventor of a universe of ultimate freedom, Othoniel presented his first retrospective, entitled “My Way,” at the Centre Pompidou in 2011, which has subsequently traveled to Plateau at the Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, the Hara Museum in Tokyo, the Macau Museum of Art in Macau, before reaching its final venue, the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, where it remains on view until December 2, 2012. At the Musée Delacroix, the artist presents his Herbier Merveilleux: two watercolors and two sculptures resonating with works on floral subjects by the nineteenth-century painter. Othoniel and the landscape gardener Louis Benech have been selected to redesign the bosquet, or thicket of trees, surrounding the open-air Théâtre d'Eau at the palace of Versailles, a project due to be completed in 2014.

Born in 1963, the Belgian sculptor Johan Creten is known for his many creations in ceramic and bronze exploring the themes of the female body, sensuality and the natural element. His work emerges from a dialogue between art, history and literature. After completing studies in fine arts, Creten's passion for ceramics and his desire to assert this medium's rightful place in today's artistic creations prompted him to travel the world. A true pioneer, together with Lucio Fontana and Thomas Schütte he worked to promote a revival of interest for ceramics in contemporary art and organized his first solo exhibitions quite early in his career: Villa Arson, Nice in 1994 and Musée d'art moderne et contemporain (Mamco) in Geneva in 1998. He has since been appointed an artist in residence on several occasions, notably at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres (2004–2007). Works by Johan Creten were included in the 2005 edition of “Counterpoint” at the Louvre. Recently, his work has been featured in the exhibition “Animal Beauty” at the Grand Palais in 2012 and a personal retrospective has just opened at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle, Belgium (on view until January 13, 2013). At the Musée Delacroix, Creten unveils a new grouping of monumental bronze and earthenware sculptures expressing the erotic essence of flowers, including busts of women in the Odore di Femmina and Génie series as well as wall-mounted works in the Wallflowers series.

Coinciding with this exhibition at the Musée Delacroix, Galerie Perrotin in Paris hosts its own exhibitions of works by Jean-Michel Othoniel and Johan Creten (January 12–March 2, 2013), bringing together works created especially for this occasion.

Visitor information

Exhibition location
Musée national Eugène Delacroix
6 rue de Furstenberg, F-75006 Paris

Hours
Open every day except Tuesdays, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission fees
Exhibition only: €7
Exhibition + Louvre permanent collections: €11
With Louvre ticket purchased the same day: €5

Further information
Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 41 86 50
www.musee‐delacroix.fr

Introduction to the exhibition

In the auditorium at the Musée du Louvre,
January 31, 2013 at 12:30 p.m.
by Christophe Leribault, Director, Petit Palais, with the participation of Jean-Michel Othoniel and Johan Creten.

Reservations
Tel.: +33 (0)1 40 20 55 00
Tickets: €6 (full price) / discounted tickets may be purchased for €5 and €3 by certain categories of visitors upon presentation of identification cards.

Reading
At the Musée national Eugène Delacroix,
December 13 and 14 at 7 p.m
. Nature, fleurs et jardins
Texts selected and read by Catherine Salviat, honorary member, Comédie-Française.

Reservations
Reservation period opens November 29, 2012 (advance reservations are required for this event) Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 41 86 50
Tickets: €14 (full price) / €11 (discounted price)

Antoine-Marie Chamans, Count de Lavalette Portrait of Joséphine de Forget, née Lavalette

Anne-Myrtille.Renoux@louvre.fr — 2012-12-18T17:06:00Z

Antoine-Marie Chamans, Count de Lavalette
Paris, 1769 - Paris, 1830
Portrait of Joséphine de Forget, née Lavalette
1822
Lithograph
H. 16.2 cm; W. 13.7 cm
Gift of Mr. Yvon Bionnier, 2012 (MD 2012-4)

Joséphine was 13 years old when, on December 20, 1815, she took part in helping her father, Count Antoine de Lavalette, escape from imprisonment and a looming death sentence following a failed conspiracy to overthrow Louis XVIII upon hearing of Napoleon's return during the Hundred Days. Her mother, Emilie de Beauharnais, niece of Empress Joséphine, was incarcerated subsequent to the escape in which she had also taken part, and lost her mind.

This moving portrait of his daughter was drawn by the Count de Lavalette upon his return to France in 1822, when he was pardoned by the king.

In 1817, Joséphine married François-Alexandre, Baron de Forget, from whom she separated in 1830 and who committed suicide in 1836, killing his youngest son as well. In an unpublished letter to her cousin Delacroix, with whom she had an affair that started in 1836, she evokes “the anniversary of our happiness, one fine Saturday […] October 15.” Beginning as lovers, and then continuing as lifelong friends, they showed a profound and enduring affection for one another, as is evidenced in the letter Delacroix wrote on August 21, 1859 (Musée Eugène Delacroix): “Farewell, dear friend, he said, and I'll say more, only friend.”

2012
Antoine-Marie Chamans, Comte de Lavalette Paris, 1769-Paris, 1830 Portrait of Joséphine de Forget, née Lavalette 1822 Lithograph Gift of Mr. Yvon Bionnier, 2012 (MD 2012-4)

Letter from George Sand to Eugène Delacroix, October 11, 1846

Anne-Myrtille.Renoux@louvre.fr — 2012-12-17T17:24:00Z

Aurore Dupin alias George Sand
Paris, 1804 – Nohant, 1876
Autograph letter to Eugène Delacroix, signed and dated October 11, 1846
6 pages in-8°
Gift of the Société des Amis du Musée Delacroix (MD 2012-3)

Delacroix met George Sand in November 1834, the day after her relationship with Alfred de Musset ended, and painted a portrait of her in men's clothes, her face marked by the ordeal.

But it was primarily the novelist's romantic involvement with Chopin, begun in 1838, that brought the two closer. Delacroix appreciated the musician, whom he called his “little Chopin,” and was very fond of his music.

In June 1842, the painter paid a first visit to George Sand's house in Nohant, in Berry Province, during which time he witnessed a touching scene – the farmer's wife teaching her granddaughter to read – and painted The Education of the Virgin (Musée Eugène Delacroix). He returned to Nohant, “one of the rare places where everything delights, calms, and consoles me,” in July 1843 and July 1846, painting several studies of flowers. But the lovers separated the following year and Delacroix kept his distance.

The friendship formed between Sand and Delacroix, however, was real and lasting: they maintained the warm and constant correspondence of two people drawn to one another by sympathetic talents and sensibilities. The beautiful letter Sand wrote to Delacroix dated October 11, 1846 (recently acquired by the Musée Delacroix) in response to a letter from the painter on September 12, 1846 attests to this. Within the letter, the painter is referred to as “My good old man.” The novelist gives news of those around her spiritedly, concluding, “Animals and people, it's still Nohant.” She then goes on to recall the fond and enduring memory of Delacroix's visits to Nohant through his Education of the Virgin, writing: “That beautiful S[aint] Anne and the sweet little Virgin do me good, and when someone comes by to bother me, I look at them and don't listen.” Finally, in reply to the painter who complains in his letter of September 12 that he is only able to find wellbeing in his emotions, as when he was a youth, and praises her mature resignation, she writes: “At the present moment, stripped of my torments and my inner storms, I'm not bored by anything, and I'm delighted by everything at hand. And you too, dear artist, you're delighted by a dog, a fly, a blade of grass. […] Chopin interrupts me here to tell me he adores you.”

2012
Aurore Dupin alias George Sand Paris, 1804 – Nohant, 1876 Autograph letter to Eugène Delacroix, signed and dated October 11, 1846 6 pages in-8° Gift of the Société des Amis du Musée Delacroix (MD 2012-3)

Hippolyte-Charles GaultronPortrait of Delacroix, after the Self-Portrait painted by Eugène Delacroix held by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Anne-Myrtille.Renoux@louvre.fr — 2012-12-14T17:41:00Z

Hippolyte-Charles GAULTRON
Saint-Denis, c. 1805 – 1878
Portrait of Delacroix, after the Self-Portrait painted by Eugène Delacroix held by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
Oil on canvas
H. 64 cm; W. 53 cm
Gift of the Société des Amis du Musée Eugène Delacroix (MD 2012-2)

Following the successful acquisition in 2009 of the Portrait of Delacroix by the painter's friend, English painter Thales Fielding, in which Delacroix appears as an elegant young man of 26 years, the museum's collection has been further enriched by the portrait of a mature Delacroix with a penetrating gaze and an energetic expression that seems to contradict the “frail and delicate” physical appearance Baudelaire attributed to him…

This exceptionally faithful copy of the Self-Portrait painted by Delacroix and belonging to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence was painted by Hippolyte Gaultron, a paternal cousin of Delacroix. A painter in his own right, Gaultron joined his cousin's studio in 1841, replacing Gustave Lassalle-Bordes for a short period in his post as massier (the person in charge of finances and other administrative matters).

When did Delacroix paint his Self-Portrait? Historians disagree: his cataloguer, Alfred Robaut, upheld that it was in 1860, but others say that would be too late. Maurice Sérullaz judges that 1840-42 would be more plausible, as Delacroix looks to be in his forties rather than in his sixties… Lee Johnson, another of the painter's cataloguers, finds the way it has been painted to be more in keeping with his work from the 1850s, in which case Delacroix made himself look younger!

Unlike the painting in the Uffizi, the painter wears the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor in this copy. Gaultron, then, must have painted the image after Delacroix received the Legion of Honor in 1846.

2012
Hippolyte-Charles Gaultron Saint-Denis, c. 1805 – 1878 Portrait of Delacroix, after the Self-Portrait painted by Eugène Delacroix held by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence Oil on canvas Gift of the Société des Amis du Musée Eugène Delacroix (MD 2012-2)