Come uncover the secrets of Eugène Delacroix’s creative process

The Musée Delacroix presents a new display to explore the stages of creation and reflect upon the status of a painting, whether it is an original, a copy or a reproduction.

The tour invites visitors to (re)discover the museum’s collection in the artist’s apartment and studio from a fresh perspective through the display of rarely exhibited works.

In the painter’s bedroom, works brought together under the title ‘Delacroix? Looks Can Be Deceiving’ raise the first questions: is authorship always easy to determine? Is an artwork painted by Delacroix (1798–1863) for the use of Géricault (1791–1824) truly a Delacroix? Who is the author of a copy or a reproduction by engraving?
Does a signature provide proof of authenticity?

In the living room, ‘After Delacroix’ features copies by artists such as Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904), Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856) and William Bouguereau (1825–1905) based on works by Delacroix, such as Medea, Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, and The Death of Sardanapalus. The aim is not only to reassess the importance of copying in the training of 19th-century artists (as Delacroix wrote in his journal: ‘COPIES, COPYING. Herein lay the education of most of the great masters’), but also to highlight the connections between artists.

In contrast, the works in the dining room provide insight into Delacroix, not as the copied, but as the copier, demonstrating his great admiration for Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), as well as the inspiration he drew from his personal belongings. His ‘copies’ are often reinterpretations that reveal much about what interested him.

Finally, the display in the studio seeks to reconsider the different statuses of artworks within the context of their creation and dissemination processes in the mid-19th century: sketches, studies from live models, preparatory works, finished paintings intended for exhibitions or made for art dealers and enthusiasts.

Eugène Delacroix worked primarily in his studio. He found inspiration in his own sketches and paintings, the copies and prints of masters that he kept, as well as his memory and imagination.

‘In painting, a fine indication, or a sketch infused with great feeling, can be equal in expression to the most finished production.’ Eugène Delacroix’s journal, 4 April 1854

This new presentation of the collections is accompanied by workshops, talks, guided tours, events and walking tours in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighbourhood.

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