Eugène-Victor-Ferdinand Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)
These lots have been imported from outside the EU … Read more PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE JAMES O. FAIRFAX AC
Eugène-Victor-Ferdinand Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)

A Berber seated on a low couch

Details
Eugène-Victor-Ferdinand Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)
A Berber seated on a low couch
signed 'Eug delacroix' (centre right)
pencil and watercolour on paper
6 7/8 x 10 3/8 in. (17.6 x 26.4 cm.)
Provenance
Private collection, Marseille.
Anonymous sale; Drouot Montaigne, Paris, 2 June 1988, lot 1.
Eddy Batache, Paris, 2000.
Acquired from the above by James Fairfax, Bowral, New South Wales.
Exhibited
Marseille, Musée Cantini, L'Orient en question 1825-1875: de Missolinghi à Flaubert, 1 June-1 September 1975, no. 67.
Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Orientalism: Delacroix to Klee, 6 December 1997 - 22 Februrary 1998, no. 5; also Auckland Art Gallery, 20 March-7 June 1998.
Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, The James Fairfax Collection of Old Master Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, 17 April - 20 July 2003, no. 17.
Special notice
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Clare Keiller
Clare Keiller

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).

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