The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

EUGENE DELACROIX.

This celebrated artist, says the Morning Post, had been
ill for about two months with chest disease, and for a long
time his life had been despaired of. He died in his 66th
year, having been born at Charenton St. Maurice, near
Paris, April 26, 1798, or, in the then current slang, 7
Floreal, An. VI.

Charles Delderoix Constant, father of the future artist,
was elected deputy for the department of the Marne in
1792; voted for the death of Louis XVI. ; was one of the
most violent of the Thermidorians ; became Minister of
Foreign Affairs under the Directory, and was succeeded by
Talleyrand in 1797 ; was for a time Ambassador to Hol-
land, and died, in 1805, Prefect of thrdeaux. He was 58
when Eugene was born, his elder son being already a soldier
and his daughter of marriageable age.
It is somewhat startling to find that an infant of three
years old had been all but drowned, all but burnt, all but
poisoned, and all but hanged—himself being the execu •
tioner ; but it is true enough of Eugene Delacroix. When
in arms his nurse fell with him into the sea, and was only
saved by the courage of some sailors, who probably were
the cause of the calamity, the bonne being more attentive
to them than to her charge. 'Then the child's cradle caught
fire, and he received serious injuries. Thirdly, he was
nearly killed by some verdigris incautiously left in his way;
and lastly, he nearly finished his carrer by hanging himself,
to see what the sensations were, without taking care to have
a chair near his feet when turned off. This fourth escape
is the only incident of which there is a shadow of doubt,
but anyhow he had as many " squeaks for his lite" as
Horace of old.

His career at the College Louis le Grand was a brilliant
one : here, by the way, he made friends with the since Dr.
Louis Veron. His drawing.master, finding that his per-
formances were far superior to those of his fellow pupils,
advised him to put himself under a great master—David,
for instance. The old organist of Bordeaux Cathedral, a
friend of Mozart's, gave lessons to his sister, and tormented
his mother's life out to have him brought up to the musical
profession. Dis oilier visuin. At 18 the youth entered the
studio of Baron Guerin, the professor at the school of the
fine arts, who numbered Aty Scheffer and Gericault among
his ileres. The selection of Guerin was unlucky, and master
and pupil soon found out the difference of their ideas on
art. Eugene was even now a sharp observer, and possessed
a powerful imagination; he could not follow in the steps of
his master's classicism. The baron could make nothing of
him : " But," said he, " let him stay here ; he has got
money, it is better that he should make daubs than debts',
(znieux taut qu'il fasse des crotztes que des dettes.) Still he
gave Eugene no encouragement whatever. In 1822 the
youthful artist sent to the Exhibition the now famous
"Dante and Virgil in Hell." He begged Guerin to go and
see it at his studio, in the Rue de la Planche, at the bottom
of the Faubourg St. Germain, and, after much ungracious
grumbling, the baron went. The old classicist was petrified.
Here was a revolution. " What is it all about ?" "It is
Dante visiting Virgil in Hell, my dear master—there are the
souls of the damned —." "Not done sufficiently brown,"
sneered Guerin. "The thing is absurd," said the master,
"exaggerated—absurd. Playing a Michael Angelo, are
you? Your servant, sir." The picture was not rejected,
however ; - it commenced undoubtedly a revolution in art,
and it subjected its author to violent abuse, as well as to
enthusiastic applause. Meeting Guerin one day, when in
the height of his young triumph, Delacroix was received
with anything but congratulation. " Puffed out, elated, I
suppose ? After all, this triumph ()sly proves —." " That
you would have rejected the picture, my dear master, had
you been a judge : you are always so kind to me." " Pooh I
pooh I I never had any kindness for heretics. A day will
come when your picture will be burnt on the Place de la
Grave," 16 They have occasionally burnt good things there,
my dear master " Here, the chronicler says, the conver-
sation was broken off, for the baron was apparently in a
state of incipient apoplexy. It was scandalously put about
by Delacroix's enemies that Gericault had had a large share
in Dante and Virgil, the redeeming points being those from
the hand of the author of the " Shipwreck of the Medusa,"
the blemishes Delacroix's own. This was of course a false-
hood. Among all the criticisms to which Eugene was sub-
jected there was one honest and generous one by M. Thiers
in the Constitutionnel. He nobly proclaimed the excellence
of the work, predicted the future fame of the artist, praised
the colouring and the style, which "combined the boldness
of Michael Angelo with the fertility of Rubens." BaronGros
also stood by him, and invited him to audy under him, an offer
which was declined, perhaps happily, for the author of
" Sappho at the Promontory of Leucas" could hardly help
seeing a future rival in Eugene Delacroix. Thiers said
that in Delacroix, Destouehes, Drollet, Cogniet, and Du-
bufe, he saw the rise of a new generation of artists who
would do France honour. M. niers had a penchant for
revolutions in art as well as politics.
The " Massacre at Scio " (1824) produced a great sensa-
tion ; it was the most dramatic picture to which the cen-
tury had given birth. The contrast between the splendour
of the sun and the fierce hatred of man, the groups of half-
naked Greeks, the quivering flesh, the corpses scattered
about, the infants pressing the bosoms of their dying
mothers, were terrible in their reality. Henceforth there
was deadly war declared against Delacroix. His opponents
did what they could to exclude him from the exhibitions,
but in vain, though one remarkable picture, "The Educa-
tion of the Virgin," was rejected. Many well-wishers,
among them M. Sosthenes de la Rochefouald, urged him
to altar his course, or he could have no Government en-
gagements. Luckily he had three or four hundred a year
of his own, and he answered one and all with the Scrip-
tural " Etiam si omnes, ego non." In 1826 he produced
"The Death of Marino Faliero," " Gieece—the Ruins of
Missolonghi " (for the benefit of the Greek revolutionists),
and other pictures. In 1827 appeared " Tasso in the Mad-
house," and "Cardinal Richelieu Officiating in the Chapel
of the Palais Royal, surrounded by guards "—a splen-
did picture, burnt, unfortunately, during the Revolution
of February, 1848 ; in 1829, " The Combat between the
Giaour and the Pasha" (for the museum at Nantes), " The
Giaour after the Combat," and several small pictures for
tho Gallery Colbert; in 1830, "Liberty Guiding the People
on the Barricades" (at the Louvre) ; in 1831, "The Mur-
der of the Bishop of Liege" (from " Quentin Durward"),
" The Wild Boar of the Ardennes," and " Boissy d'Anglas
at the Sitting of the Prairial, An. III."
The Revolution of 1830 terminated the artist's pronrip-
tion. M. Thiers procured for him the engagement to de-
corate the Salon du Roi, in the Palace Bourbon. His re-
presentations of Justice, War, Agriculture, and Industry
adorn the ceiling, and his bold qualities had full play in
this work, He also painted the five cupolas of the library,
with four tableaux in each, and the two hemicycles at the
extremities. Next Delacroix was employed to paint the
cupola of the Luxembourg Library in the Champs Elysees,
and he selected his subject from the fourth chapter of
Dante's "Inferno," decorating the hemicyclo above the
window with the picture of "Alexander Locking up
Homer's Works in a Golden Casket," and " Justinian
Writing his Code." He decorated also the ceiling and
pentices of one of the waiting-rooms in the Hotel de Ville,
with the history of the Theban Hercules and many mytho-
logical personages. At the Louvre he painted the ceiling
of the Apollo Gallery with " Apollo Conquering the
Python."
Before this, however, M. Thiers had procured the ap-
pointment of M. Delacroix as attache to the embassy sent
in 1832 by Louis Philippe 1-,o the Sultan of Morocco-1
Abd-er Rhaman. This was nearly the only foreign journey
he ever took, for he never visited Italy for fear of losing his
originality I He carefully studied African manner! ai3andcostumes, and the fruits of his trip are to be seen in his
" Moorish Scenes," his " Algerian Women". (now at the
Luxembourg), his "Interior of a Court in Morocco,
his
" Arab Mountebanks," &c.
The following pictures, with others, appeared between
1833 and 1838, " Charles V. Playing the Organ in the
Monastery of St. Just," the "Death of Charles the Rash
after the Battle of Nancy," the" Convent of the Domini-
cans at Madrid," the " Prisoner of Chillon," " Christ at
Calvary," the Battle of Taillebourg" (in the Versailles
Museum), " Christ in the Garden of Olivet" (for St. Paul's
Church,
,Paris), " Justinian" (for the hall of the Council
of State), the "Apparition of Mephistopheles to Faust,"
"A Wounded Herdsman of the Campagna Slaking his
Thirst on the Brink of a Marsh," "A young Turk Caress-
ing his Horse," " The blind Milton Dictating ' Paradise
Lost' to his Daughters," and " Sardanapalus Dying in the
midst of his Wives," a gorgeous picture of Oriental luxury
and voluptuousness which Delacroix called his " Waterloo,"
as it gave him a prominent place among artists, and beat
down prejudices at once.

It would be impossible to give an enumeration of all the
pictures of this prolific artist ; they would occupy half a
column of this paper. One or two remarkable efforts of his
genius may be mentioned. In 1838 his " Medea" (now in
the Lille Museum) produced a great sensation. Medea is
represented as having poisoned Crensa, and flying with her
children. She bears a poinard in her hand, and looks round
to see if Jason is pursuing her, in which case she will kill
the children. Her body is full of light, but her terrible_
eyes quite in the shade. The next year a half length ofCleopatra preparing for death was issued from Delacroix s
her
studio. Cleopatra has received a basket of figs from,en she
slave, and is thinking, her chin on her
.hand,
espietshoaungahstps tuicarmn noongithheen_figs, and there is no doubtw what
her

" - fortis et asperas
Tractare serpentee, ut strum
Corpore combiberet venenura
Deliberatft morte ferocier."
Next we have hamlet contemplatin
with the sombre
the attitude of the figures in harTdcs•
awful i
goityhe skull of Lorick,
" The Shi
I subject in in spite of some negligence It is awful to contem-
th half naked men a
wreck" (1841) is a noble picttiLre.
fbuelireigriesoadteeni.n
tThhe issew,cootnid-
plate the calm sea, the deep
sligliceu'ngeer and death, draprey to despair, to the horrors
W-
ing lots for the frightniu
,rt'.hilTeahudecreesuaodfn rose red and fier •
canto of "Don Juan.
theu .
dorful picture represe,,tis
might yse'e' °l3.
" the third day there came a calm ;" seventh there
was no wind."
gone,
" They g
Water,l ar eadn
and
upon n
ee,aacrihdoitohoedr, other;
and all was was
The longings of the cannibal arise,
Although they spoke not, in their wolfish .
eyes."
We can only mention byname such well-known pictures

* It may be said of this fine picture that the artist has,
apparently by design, sacrificed correctness of design, and
the nobleness and beauty of the character' to three or Jour
bold and brilliant touches more of less harmcniged, The
pictuto is a marvel for colourit,g,