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Lot Essay
The effect of this elegant drawing owes much to Delacroix’s use of the striped wall covering – blue on beige – which he also employed in his famous picture at the Louvre of the interior of the Count Charles Henri Edgar de Mornay’s Parisian apartment in the rue de Verneuil (inv. RF 2206; see L. Johnson, The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix. A Critical Catalogue, III, Oxford, 1986, no. 219, IV, pl. 40). It was made in preparation of a work, destroyed in 1914, representing Mornay receiving his friend Count Anatole Demidoff, which the artist painted on his return from Morocco in 1832 (ibid., III, no. 220, IV, pl. 41).
Could the present watercolor be inspired by the trip to Morocco, made upon his return to France and after the painting of the apartment of the Comte de Mornay, a diplomat and close friend of Delacroix, as well as his travel companion in Morocco? The harmonious square format and the finished character of the sheet suggest it was not made on the spot, unlike numerous studies made from life during the trip in watercolor and with color notes, many of them at the Louvre and often kept in albums (compare for instance inv. RF4185a, RF4185b, RF4185c; see M. Sérullaz et al., Inventaire général des dessins. École française. Dessins d’Eugène Delacroix, Paris,1984, nos. 1621-1623, ill.). The figure of an Arab seated against a wall on the floor or on a sofa is certainly a topos in Delacroix’s œuvre, which can be found in his work throughout his career. For example, another watercolor in the Louvre shows a young Arab who has placed his rifle next to the sofa on which he is seated, and is datable to around 1824-1835, well before his stay in North Africa (fig. 1; inv. RF 9267; see Sérullaz et al., op. cit., no. 1503, ill.). A Seated Turk, smoking in the same collection, painted in 1838 (inv. RF 1656; see Johnson, op. cit., Oxford, 1981, I, no. 35, II, pl. 30), bears witness to Delacroix’s continued fascination with the Orient, as does the present work, of which the model used looks also very similar to the man in the painting just mentioned.
The inscription on the mount at lower left refers to Delacroix’s gift of the drawing to Princess Charlotte Bonaparte, herself an artist and the daughter of King Joseph Napoleon (see the catalogue of the 1990 sale). It would have been part of an album brought together by her, which also included works by other distinguished artists of the time, perhaps most notably Jacques-Louis David, who was Charlotte’s teacher and with whom she and her sister Zénaïde where acquainted during their and David’s exile in Brussels (P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Jacques Louis David, I, p. 312, under no. 333bis, ill.). David’s portrait of the two sisters, dated 1821, is today at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (inv. 86.PA.740; see A. Sérullaz et al., Jacques-Louis David,1748-1825, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, and Versailles, Musée National du Château, no. 231, ill.).
Could the present watercolor be inspired by the trip to Morocco, made upon his return to France and after the painting of the apartment of the Comte de Mornay, a diplomat and close friend of Delacroix, as well as his travel companion in Morocco? The harmonious square format and the finished character of the sheet suggest it was not made on the spot, unlike numerous studies made from life during the trip in watercolor and with color notes, many of them at the Louvre and often kept in albums (compare for instance inv. RF4185a, RF4185b, RF4185c; see M. Sérullaz et al., Inventaire général des dessins. École française. Dessins d’Eugène Delacroix, Paris,1984, nos. 1621-1623, ill.). The figure of an Arab seated against a wall on the floor or on a sofa is certainly a topos in Delacroix’s œuvre, which can be found in his work throughout his career. For example, another watercolor in the Louvre shows a young Arab who has placed his rifle next to the sofa on which he is seated, and is datable to around 1824-1835, well before his stay in North Africa (fig. 1; inv. RF 9267; see Sérullaz et al., op. cit., no. 1503, ill.). A Seated Turk, smoking in the same collection, painted in 1838 (inv. RF 1656; see Johnson, op. cit., Oxford, 1981, I, no. 35, II, pl. 30), bears witness to Delacroix’s continued fascination with the Orient, as does the present work, of which the model used looks also very similar to the man in the painting just mentioned.
The inscription on the mount at lower left refers to Delacroix’s gift of the drawing to Princess Charlotte Bonaparte, herself an artist and the daughter of King Joseph Napoleon (see the catalogue of the 1990 sale). It would have been part of an album brought together by her, which also included works by other distinguished artists of the time, perhaps most notably Jacques-Louis David, who was Charlotte’s teacher and with whom she and her sister Zénaïde where acquainted during their and David’s exile in Brussels (P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Jacques Louis David, I, p. 312, under no. 333bis, ill.). David’s portrait of the two sisters, dated 1821, is today at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (inv. 86.PA.740; see A. Sérullaz et al., Jacques-Louis David,1748-1825, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, and Versailles, Musée National du Château, no. 231, ill.).