Delacroix is known for his brilliant colorism and bold brushwork, and for his interest in exoticism and themes derived from literature, mythology, and religion. He is traditionally seen as the pivotal figure in Romanticism, that nineteenth-century movement characterized by a taste for the exotic, for the historical, and for a variety of subject and emotion. Considered the culmination of the painterly tradition of Titian, Veronese, Rubens, and Rembrandt, he nevertheless founded his art on a thorough study of the great masters of classicism, such as Raphael and Poussin. He himself profoundly inspired later artists such as Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse, and Picasso, and thus was an important link to the rise of modern art.
Delacroix was a consummate draftsman as well as a superb painter. Drawing was the very foundation of his art. His method of artistic creation involved the elaborate development of his ideas for paintings through multiple drawings—from rough scrawls, to preliminary studies, to drawings of details, to fully accomplished designs squared for transfer to canvas. The magnificent history paintings for which he is famous are complemented by hundreds of drawings and many sketchbooks and single sheets. The luminous use of color and expressive brushwork in Delacroix’s paintings are paralleled in his drawings by a spontaneity and sureness of touch and by a broad range of inventive graphic effects. The drawings owned by UMMA include works executed in graphite, ink, watercolor, and wash. Subjects include a range of biblical and historical scenes as well as animals and the human figure, many of which can be related to finished paintings.
Delacroix prints, include scenes from Shakespeare. Delacroix saw Edmund Kean in performances of Richard III, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice during a brief trip to London in 1825. Two years later, six plays by Shakespeare were presented at the Odeon in Paris. Delacroix had a strong interest in literary works; he was an admirer of Goethe, Schiller, Scott, and Byron as well as Shakespeare. His enthusiasm for the English playwright's tragedies inspired numerous works in various media.
(A. Dixon and C. McNamara, 1998, taken from text panel of the exhibition, Drawings by Delacroix from the University of Michigan Museum of Art, December 5, 1998–January 24, 1999)
In 1849, Eugène Delacroix was commissioned to execute wall paintings for one of the nineteen chapels of the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. The chapel was initially intended to be dedicated to the baptismal fonts. When, after three months of preparation, he learned that the theme had to be changed, Delacroix wrote, in a letter dated January 22, 1850, that "the just anger I felt left me stupefied." In its final form, the chapel celebrated the Holy Angels, but our drawing representing the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise belongs to the initial theme.
In the present drawing, Adam and Eve, pursued by the angel, move forward together, hunched in shame and covering their genitalia. While Adam bows his head, Eve looks back perhaps attempting to appeal the terrible sentence. A sheet from the Louvre indicates the avenging angel on the left and may clarify the right-hand figure barely indicated in the Michigan drawings as an angel wielding a scythe.
Of the two similar drawings we know (the one at the Louvre and one at the Musée de Picardie, Amiens), neither has the inscriptions which are in the upper part of our drawing. Here Delacroix indicated architectural and landscape elements for the painting.
The composition of the drawing is based on that by the Italian painter, Cesare Cesari, known as Cavaliere d’Arpino, whose canvas was in the collection of the Louvre. In his version, Delacroix exchanged the two figures, bringing Eve closer to the threatening angel.
Inscription
Inscribed in graphite, u.r.: voir les tombeaux dans les montagnes de/Caffan[underlined] Syrie; below that, u.l., taille [sic] dans le roc; below that, u.c.: mur se perdant dans l'ombre; below that, u.r., paysage idem[underlined]; below that, u.c., rochers;
verso; l.r. corner, in graphite: 58.6 [Lannan Foundation acc. no.]
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Delacroix is known for his brilliant colorism and bold brushwork, and for his interest in exoticism and themes derived from literature, mythology, and religion. He is traditionally seen as the pivotal figure in Romanticism, that nineteenth-century movement characterized by a taste for the exotic, for the historical, and for a variety of subject and emotion. Considered the culmination of the painterly tradition of Titian, Veronese, Rubens, and Rembrandt, he nevertheless founded his art on a thorough study of the great masters of classicism, such as Raphael and Poussin. He himself profoundly inspired later artists such as Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse, and Picasso, and thus was an important link to the rise of modern art.
Delacroix was a consummate draftsman as well as a superb painter. Drawing was the very foundation of his art. His method of artistic creation involved the elaborate development of his ideas for paintings through multiple drawings—from rough scrawls, to preliminary studies, to drawings of details, to fully accomplished designs squared for transfer to canvas. The magnificent history paintings for which he is famous are complemented by hundreds of drawings and many sketchbooks and single sheets. The luminous use of color and expressive brushwork in Delacroix’s paintings are paralleled in his drawings by a spontaneity and sureness of touch and by a broad range of inventive graphic effects. The drawings owned by UMMA include works executed in graphite, ink, watercolor, and wash. Subjects include a range of biblical and historical scenes as well as animals and the human figure, many of which can be related to finished paintings.
Delacroix prints, include scenes from Shakespeare. Delacroix saw Edmund Kean in performances of Richard III, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice during a brief trip to London in 1825. Two years later, six plays by Shakespeare were presented at the Odeon in Paris. Delacroix had a strong interest in literary works; he was an admirer of Goethe, Schiller, Scott, and Byron as well as Shakespeare. His enthusiasm for the English playwright's tragedies inspired numerous works in various media.
(A. Dixon and C. McNamara, 1998, taken from text panel of the exhibition, Drawings by Delacroix from the University of Michigan Museum of Art, December 5, 1998–January 24, 1999)
In 1849, Eugène Delacroix was commissioned to execute wall paintings for one of the nineteen chapels of the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. The chapel was initially intended to be dedicated to the baptismal fonts. When, after three months of preparation, he learned that the theme had to be changed, Delacroix wrote, in a letter dated January 22, 1850, that "the just anger I felt left me stupefied." In its final form, the chapel celebrated the Holy Angels, but our drawing representing the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise belongs to the initial theme.
In the present drawing, Adam and Eve, pursued by the angel, move forward together, hunched in shame and covering their genitalia. While Adam bows his head, Eve looks back perhaps attempting to appeal the terrible sentence. A sheet from the Louvre indicates the avenging angel on the left and may clarify the right-hand figure barely indicated in the Michigan drawings as an angel wielding a scythe.
Of the two similar drawings we know (the one at the Louvre and one at the Musée de Picardie, Amiens), neither has the inscriptions which are in the upper part of our drawing. Here Delacroix indicated architectural and landscape elements for the painting.
The composition of the drawing is based on that by the Italian painter, Cesare Cesari, known as Cavaliere d’Arpino, whose canvas was in the collection of the Louvre. In his version, Delacroix exchanged the two figures, bringing Eve closer to the threatening angel.
Inscription
Inscribed in graphite, u.r.: voir les tombeaux dans les montagnes de/Caffan[underlined] Syrie; below that, u.l., taille [sic] dans le roc; below that, u.c.: mur se perdant dans l'ombre; below that, u.r., paysage idem[underlined]; below that, u.c., rochers;
verso; l.r. corner, in graphite: 58.6 [Lannan Foundation acc. no.]
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Inscribed above plate mark, in engraving, and centered: Fab. 1I. The Formation of Man.; in the plate, l.l.: G. Maas inv.; l.c.: J. de Wit delin.; l.r.: J. Wandelaar fecit
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This engraving is a vertical format. Dominating the foreground are three figures on a slight hill with a large tree. In front of the tree is the corpse of Abel (a strong young man with flowing cloth around his waist) with his head in the shadows. Kneeling over him are Adam and Eve. Adam, a muscular older man with a white beard, clutches his hands together and leans toward his dead son. Eve, covered only from the waist down, throws her arms out in the air above her son and moves towards him on her knees. The tree behind them has a sturdy trunk that splits into three heavy branches and these limbs echo the placement of Eve's back and right arm. On the right is a road leading to a background scene.In the far background Cain and Abel are shown making offerings to God on altars, with Abel’s offering rising higher than Cain’s. In the middle ground along the road, Cain is shown raising a weapon to kill Abel. At the bottom of the work are four lines of text and a signature.
Subject Matter
Derived from the Old Testament story (Genesis 4) of the death of Abel at Cain’s hands, Saenredam imagines the moment when Adam and Eve find the corpse of their youngest son. In the background, along a path leading to the corpse, two scenes that precede the main scene are visible. In the very back, Cain and Abel bring offerings to God on separate altars, and only Abel’s offering rises into the air showing that it is pleasing to God. The next scene along the path shows Cain raising a weapon in the air to murder his struggling brother. In the foreground, only Adam, Eve, and Abel’s corpse are visible: Cain is nowhere to be seen. The fact that the figures are clothed—albeit scantily—alludes to Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve committed what Christians interpret as the Original Sin by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result of Original Sin, Adam and Eve suddenly had shame at their naked bodies. Adam and Eve must no doubt feel some responsibility in the death of their son, as their Original Sin made sin in Cain possible. This trio of figures also evokes a lamentation over Christ's body. Perhaps the absence of Cain is meant to remind the viewer of the ultimate guilt of Adam and Eve.
Label Copy
Jan Saenredam was one of the most talented engravers in the circle of Hendrick Goltzius in Haarlem. He produced over 115 engravings, most of which were based on the designs of other artists, such as Goltzius, Abraham Bloemaert, and Cornelis van Haarlem.
The present print is Plate 6 from a series of six prints that Saenredam executed in 1604 (dated on the first print) after designs of Bloemaert on the history of Adam and Eve, beginning with Adam's naming of the animals and ending with the first parents lamenting over the death of their son Abel. Our print shows the latter scene, with Adam and Eve kneeling over the body of their son. The great tree behind them enframes and anchors the scene, its branches complementing their movements. Encapsulating several narrative moments, the print shows in the background smoke billowing up from Abel's burnt offering, signifying God's acceptance of his gift, while the smoke from Cain's offering barely rises. In the middle ground Cain is represented slaying his brother.
This is a superb impression, exhibiting the delicate use of line and the silvery tonality that Saenredam achieved in his late prints. It is the first state of three, before the plate was reworked in the second state, and before the address of the publisher Isack Houwenes was added in the third. A drawing by Bloemaert for this print is in a private collection in Brussels. The collector's marks on our impression, those of William Esdaile, Samuel Leith, and Bindon Blood, attest its history in several great 19th-century British collections.
Gallery Rotation Fall 2010
Jan Saenredam
The Netherlands, 1565–1607
Adam and Eve Lamenting over the Corpse of Abel
1604
Engraving on laid paper
Museum purchase made possible by the Jean Paul Slusser Memorial Fund, 1996/2.3
The last in a series of six engravings devoted to the lives of Adam and Eve, this print depicts them mourning over the body of their son Abel. A great tree frames the grief-stricken parents and echoes their gestures with its limbs, while also separating the scene from the events leading to Abel’s death. In the distant background smoke billows up from Abel’s burnt offering, signifying God’s acceptance of his gift, while the smoke from his brother Cain’s offering barely rises. In the middle ground Cain, driven by jealously, murders his brother.
Inscription
Signed in image, below figures: A. Bloemaert invt./J. Saenredam Sculp. 6 Inscribed in plate, below image: Hornâ fruge Cain, lecto que aram imbuit agno/Gratus Abel: Tum felle Cain accensus, et ira,/Sanguine fraterno terram inces favit avitam:/Heu lessum faciunt natorum in coede parentes!/ T Sereuelius (?)
Collector's marks: Inscribed in brown ink, below image, l.r.: WE. [monogram of William Esdaile, Lugt 2617}; (verso) l.l.: WE [same monogram]; in graphite, c.c.: c/a Leith/Nov.12/1840 [inscription by Bindon Blood, Lugt 3011]
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This black and white print has a long vertical format showing two nude figures standing in front of a tree trunk. The female is holding an apple in each hand and has her left foot resting on a tablet with the letters HGB. Her face is turned to look at the figure behind her. This figure holds her shoulder with one hand and with the other places a leafy branch in front of her genitalia. On the bottom left corner is a date 1519.
Subject Matter
This woodcut print depicts a scene from the Book of Genesis in the Bible, Genesis 3:1-7. After Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit, they are aware of the nakedness and cover themselves with fig leaves. The gestures of the figures suggest the erotic aspects of Adam and Eve's post-fall state of sin.
Label Copy
By placing Eve's body in front of Adam's and highlighting it, Baldung emphasized Eve's role in the Fall of Man. Yet the artist showed both reacting to their initial experience of sexuality in a mixed way. The close placement of their bodies suggests mutual desire. However, Eve appears to pull away from Adam, and his hold on her shoulder is slack. Eve wears an expression of repulsion, while Adam seems pensive.
Inscription
Signed on block, l.r.: IGB Dated on block, l.l.: 1519 Ex COll: Fürst zu Fürstenberg (stamp, green, verso) Lugt: 2811
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A group of figures at the left stand in a vaulted space under a cross. They look towards the lower right of the composition where a man holding a standard with a cross on top is bending forward and offering his hand to an old bearded man in an arched doorway. Above the doorway are several fantastical figures with beaked or animal heads and arms with claws.
Subject Matter
After his death and before the Resurrection, Christ descended into Hell to bring out righteous people who had lived before him, including Adam and Eve, Moses, and other Old Testament prophets. Here Christ holds a standard in his left hand while he brings out of hell one of these patriarchs with his right hand. Other redeemed figures look on as the man at the lower right is released from Hell.
Label Copy
Albrecht Dürer
Germany, 1471–1528
Christ in Limbo [The Harrowing of Hell], from the Small Woodcut Passion
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
