Delacroix and Nature

Delacroix loved nature. He plunged into the contemplation of the sea and landscapes, and took many trips to the countryside, staying in his home in Champrosay or with his friend George Sand in the Berry region. Throughout his career, he lovingly described the beauty of nature in his Journal and in his letters. He sketched with sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye at the Jardin des Plantes menagerie. Animals remained an inexhaustible source of interest to him.

But beyond the curiosity, pleasure and relaxation derived from its observation, nature was above all for Eugène Delacroix a subject of study. He delighted in the manifold details before his eyes, and eagerly made them the focus of countless studies. Featured in the ‘Delacroix and Nature’ exhibition, rare landscapes painted by Delacroix, as well as a number of the painter’s sketches and drawings, form a collection of personal herberia, bestiaries and study sheets that Delacroix would never display to the public during his lifetime.

‘Delacroix and Nature’ continues at the heart of the painter’s studio with a discovery of Eugène Delacroix’s creative process, and the way in which he reappropriated nature to reinvent it in his paintings. The artist drew upon his observations of fauna and flora to compose and create his finest works. The landscapes thus serve as backdrops for numerous bucolic scenes, while the animals he sketched come to life in his masterpieces. 

See the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix website for the full schedule of events

Suggested events (in French)

• Presentation of the exhibition by Claire Bessède, 17 March 2022 at 12:30 p.m., at the Michel Laclotte Auditorium

Suggested reads (in French)

• Delacroix et la nature, edited by C. Bessède. Co-published by Musée du Louvre Editions / Le Passage, €29.
• Guide du musée Delacroix, by C. Bessède. Co-published by Musée du Louvre Editions / El Viso, €6.