Lot Essay
Delacroix's 1832 journey to Morocco as a member of Comte Charles de Mornay's diplomatic retinue profoundly influenced the young artist. His prolific output of drawings and watercolours executed in situ during his six-month sojourn were sources for many compositions throughout his career.
This signed watercolour appears to be from a dismembered sketchbook from his stay in Morocco as its dimensions match that of other intact sketchbooks from that period. There are three intact notebooks in the Louvre, and one in the Musée Condé, Chantilly.
A similar reclining Berber occurs on some sheets in one of the Louvre sketchbooks as well as watercolours of the Moroccan military officer, Ben Abou ben Abdel (see Delacroix in Morocco, exh. cat., Paris, Institut du monde arabe, 1994, p. 150, no. 15, p. 151, no. 16, p. 196, no. 67). The same man in the same setting but in a slightly different pose is also depicted in a watercolour by Delacroix sold in Paris in 1925 (see The James Fairfax Collection, op. cit., p. 71, under no. 17, fig. 17.1).
This signed watercolour appears to be from a dismembered sketchbook from his stay in Morocco as its dimensions match that of other intact sketchbooks from that period. There are three intact notebooks in the Louvre, and one in the Musée Condé, Chantilly.
A similar reclining Berber occurs on some sheets in one of the Louvre sketchbooks as well as watercolours of the Moroccan military officer, Ben Abou ben Abdel (see Delacroix in Morocco, exh. cat., Paris, Institut du monde arabe, 1994, p. 150, no. 15, p. 151, no. 16, p. 196, no. 67). The same man in the same setting but in a slightly different pose is also depicted in a watercolour by Delacroix sold in Paris in 1925 (see The James Fairfax Collection, op. cit., p. 71, under no. 17, fig. 17.1).