Lot Essay
A study for the pastel in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, dated by Lee Johnson to 1853-6, L. Johnson, Delacroix Pastels, London, 1995, no. 36. Delacroix painted a number of compositions of the subject, but the Ottawa version is the only one that depicts the snake at the foot of the Cross and Christ's windblown drapery. The Ottawa pastel is barely larger than the present drawing and shows the Cross on a slight diagonal to the picture plane.