Delacroix et la nature éd. par Claire Bessède

Abstract

Reviewed by: Delacroix et la nature éd. par Claire Bessède Karen Quandt BessÈde, Claire, éd. Delacroix et la nature. Musée du Louvre and Le Passage, 2022. ISBN 978-2-84742-482-9. Pp. 160. A product of the pandemic, it is fitting and even poignant that this exhibition extended a breath of fresh air to Delacroix's storied artworks. Country and urban gardens, studies and inventories of trees and flowers, and an array of animal sketches seem like a welcome refuge from the painter's dark and intimidating grand format scenes of massacres, animal combats, and brooding interiors. Yet, the point of Delacroix et la nature is not to position the painter as a nature artist. Instead, all of the letters, journal entries, sketches, curiosities, and paintings recently displayed at the Musée Eugène Delacroix in Paris worked together to embrace the dissonance exemplified by a leading studio artist who was nevertheless sensitive to nature's beauties and processes. The catalog opens with a brief preface by Laurence des Cars, a specialist of nineteenth-century art recently appointed Director of the Musée du Louvre, who applauds the curators' selection of local works that minimized the need for long distance transport. It continues in a "green" vein with three essays that examine how Delacroix "reinvented" nature into his own creations; how his animal paintings differed from conventional hunting scenes of the time period; and how gardens and botany developed his sensitivity to the natural world. The ensuing presentation of the exhibition's works, which are often accompanied by ample notes, helps synthesize an otherwise seemingly eclectic array as it underscores Delacroix's strong sensibilities for nature, his keen eye for flora and fauna, and the processes by which he refashioned his experiences of nature into studio paintings. Smartly interspersed amongst the impressive collection of Delacroix's oil paintings and drawings were several animal sculptures created by Antoine Louis Barye, a friend who often accompanied the painter to the Jardin des Plantes to study its animals and to attend animal dissections. The exhibition culminated in Delacroix's studio (the museum is located on the site of his last residence in Paris, which had the rather unusual distinction of having a garden), where signature colorful oil paintings à la Rubens were juxtaposed with taxidermized animals from the nearby Maison Deyrolle as well as with landscape watercolors by the young Delacroix's friends Theodore and Newton Fielding. Delacroix et la nature might not have the scope of a major retrospective or "blockbuster" exhibition, but it is nonetheless powerful in how it offers an incisive and unique look at an interesting cross-section of Delacroix's works. The catalog is an essential supplement to the exhibition, since it expounds on certain artworks and offers helpful historical and biographical details. Above all, the catalog lends a sense of cohesion to what exhibition viewers might have perceived to be loosely organized themes. Specialists of Delacroix and of nineteenth-century studies are sure to benefit the most from the scholarly expertise that buttresses the catalog, but the exhibition itself was surely a delight for all visitors who could experience the richness of Delacroix's dramatic compositions through his intimate examinations of the natural world. [End Page 204] Karen Quandt Wabash College (IN) Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French