Christ on the sea of Galilee - a study

Details

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)
Christ on the sea of Galilee - a study
oil on board
7¼ x 9 3/8 in. (18.4 x 23.2 cm.)
Painted circa 1853.

Provenance

Fernand Antonin Mercié, Paris, 1918.
Walter Pach, New York.
Anonymous sale; Parke-Bernet, New York, 6 January 1949, lot 31 (unsold).
By descent from Walter Pach to the present owner.

Exhibited

New York, Marie Harriman Galleries, Courbet & Delacroix, 1933.
Portland (OR), Portland Art Museum, and Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, Delacroix, 1940.
New York, Wildenstein, Delacroix, 1944, no. 35.

Brought to you by

Alexandra McMorrow

amcmorrow@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2538

Lot Essay

This small oil study can be dated with certainty to between 1841 and 1858 due to the Deforges stamp on the reverse.

Delacroix treated the subject on a larger scale in six canvases, executed between 1841 and 1853, four of which are larger variants of the present composition. The glowing halo around the head of the sleeping Christ brings it closest to two works painted in 1853, one of which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (fig. 1).

This lot will be included by Brame & Lorenceau in their archives on the artist.

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