Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)

The Banks of the River Sebou

Details

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)
The Banks of the River Sebou
signed and dated 'Eug. Delacroix 1858' (lower right)
oil on canvas
19½ x 23¾ in. (49.6 x 60.3 cm.)
Painted in 1858

Provenance

Marquis de Lau; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 5 May 1869, lot 8.
M. Fould, Paris.
Mr de L..; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 14 May 1873, lot 24.
Alfred Robaut, Paris;
Constant Dutilleux; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 26 March 1874, lot 11.
Malinet, Paris, 1885.
with Arnold, Tripp & Cie, Paris, 1887.
Theodore Revillion, 1888
Mrs Albert Esnault-Pelterie, Paris, 1906.
Mrs Germaine Popelin, Paris (daughter of the above) and thence by descent.

Literature

P. de Saint-Vincent, 'Salon de 1859', La Presse, 23 April 1859.
P. Mantz,'Salon Review', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, II, 9th livraison, p. 137.
A. Houssaye, 'Salon de 1859', Le Monde illustré, 7 May 1859.
A. Du Pays, 'Salon de 1859', L'Illustration, 21 May 1859.
T. Gautier, 'Exposition de 1859', Moniteur Universel, 21 May 1859.
Z. Astruc, Les 14 Stations du Salon, 1859, Paris, August 1859, p. 266.
M. Du Camp, Le Salon de 1859, Paris, 1859, p. 32.
A. Dumas, 'Salon de 1859', Paris, L'Indipendance Belge, 22 April 1859, p. 10.
H. Fouquier, Etudes artistiques-Lettres sur le Salon de 1859, Paris, 1859, p.33.
M. Stevens, Impressions d'une femme au Salon de 1859, Paris, 1859, Marseille, p. 8.
A. Moreau, E. Delacroix et son oeuvre, Paris, 1873, pp. 195, 274.
A. Robaut, L'oeuvre Complet de Eugène Delacroix, Paris, 1885, p.363, no. 1346.
L. Rouart, 'Collection de Madame Esnault-Pelterie', Les Arts, June 1906, pp. 4, 6 (ill.p. 6).
E. Moreau-Nelaton, Delacroix raconté par lui-même, Paris, 1916, vol. II, p. 188, 192.
R. Escholier, Delacroix, peintre, graveur, écrivain, Paris, 1926-29, vol. II, p. 48; vol III, pp. 248-49 (illustrated p.254).
R. Huyghe, Delacroix, London, 1963, pp. 296, 417.
L. Johnson, The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix, Oxford, 1986, vol. III, p. 205-6, no. 407, vol. IV, pl. 216 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Paris, Salon, 1859, no. 826 (as Les bords de fleuve Sibou royaume de Maroc).
Paris, Ecole national des Beaux-Arts, Exposition Eugène Delacroix au profit de la souscription destinée à élever à Paris un monument à sa memoire, 1885, no. 138.
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Eugène Delacroix. Centenaire du Romantisme, 1930, no. 178 (ill. p. 96).
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, on loan 1951-68.
Paris, L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Delacroix, Le voyage du Maroc, September 1994-January, 1995, no. 100 (illustrated).

Engraved

Lithograph by Alfred Robaut, 1874.

Lot Essay

Although painted in 1858 towards the end of his career, this work harkens back to the visit Delacroix made to Algeria in 1832 with the entourage of the Comte de Mornay. On this journey, the artist was exposed to the exotic influences of North Africa, and this was to make an indelible impression on the young Delacroix.

His subsequent work often features Arab subject matter, in both his figurative and landscape paintings. Au bord de Sebou has a classical quality and some critics have pointed out that the landscape is more reminiscent of Normandy than of any locale in the Middle East. The same can be said of his important work Ovid among the Scythians (National Gallery, London) of 1859. In both paintings, the figures are placed in a landscape that is more universal in conception, rather than in a specific, identifiable place.

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