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Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 30, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000

Death of Sardanapalus: Introduction

In Eugène Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus, the most powerful man is almost the only person who does not struggle. Reclining high on a bed, the king looks out over bodies, weapons, rich fabrics and a terrified horse. Below him, a woman is pulled backwards towards a blade. His stillness makes the surrounding violence more disturbing: the room’s agitation appears to proceed under the authority of someone who need make no effort himself.

Painted in the second half of 1827, the Louvre’s enormous oil on canvas measures 392 × 496 cm and bears the inventory number RF 2346.[1] Its scale gives the violence the dimensions of a public spectacle, while its abundance of beautiful surfaces makes looking uncomfortable. Delacroix brings luxury and coercion into the same field of vision. The very things that invite the eye to linger—pale skin, patterned cloth, gold ornament—belong to a scene in which living beings are being destroyed as possessions.

At a Glance

  • Date1827 [1]
  • MediumOil on canvas [1]
  • Dimensions392 × 496 cm [1]
  • Collection / recordMusée du Louvre; RF 2346 [1]

This work across Eugène Delacroix’s career

Contents

  1. A death ordered before it is shown
  2. The diagonal bed and the crowded foreground
  3. Byron’s ending and Delacroix’s transformation
  4. Beautiful surfaces and the power to possess
  5. A composition that changed in the making
  6. The Salon and the long passage into the Louvre
  7. The smaller version and the restored canvas
  8. Annotated details

A death ordered before it is shown

The title directs attention towards the king’s death, but the painting holds him alive and apparently composed. Those around him undergo the immediate consequences of his decision. This displacement is essential: the destruction begins with people and animals over whom he exercises power, while his own end remains impending.

The second supplement to the Salon booklet, reproduced in the Louvre record, explains that the besieged ruler commands the killing of his women, pages and favourite horses and dogs, and the destruction of his possessions; the pyre is subsequently lit.[1] That account establishes a sequence extending beyond the instant represented. It should not be mistaken for an inventory of actions all equally visible in the picture. The foreground killing is explicit; the eventual consumption of the king and his belongings belongs to the catastrophe towards which the image moves.

Sardanapalus here is a legendary literary ruler, rather than a securely reconstructed historical individual. The chamber has the density of an imagined world assembled for the eye. Its splendour matters because it gives visible form to what the king refuses to relinquish. Ornaments, furniture, flesh and animals are crowded together until the distinction between a collection of treasures and a collection of lives becomes the painting’s central moral problem.

There is no victorious enemy in the foreground to whom responsibility can be transferred. The danger comes from inside the royal household. Armed men work among women, textiles and furnishings; the bedroom has become a place of execution. Even without identifying every secondary figure, the relation between command and suffering is legible. One man retains his elevated repose while others are forced into violent movement beneath him.

The diagonal bed and the crowded foreground

The great red bed provides the composition’s strongest route. It runs obliquely from the reclining king towards the centre and lower part of the picture, carrying the eye down through a succession of bodies and folds. It is both an object within the chamber and a broad coloured structure holding the image together. Its incline makes the ruler seem remote, although he occupies the same mass of fabric that presses into the surrounding turmoil.

A woman sprawls across its edge below him. Her extended body interrupts the red surface, and her hanging posture introduces a downward pull. The softness of the bed offers no refuge. A furnishing associated with rest and pleasure becomes the support over which a body collapses. The relation is repeated throughout the picture: sumptuous things remain sumptuous while becoming entangled with injury.

At the lower right, the principal pair is compressed into a much more immediate encounter. The woman’s pale torso is drawn upright and backwards; her head tips away as the man behind her controls her movement. His bent limbs and enclosing arms make her exposed body the centre of a tight mechanism of force. The curve of her body is beautiful as a painted form, but its beauty cannot be separated from the physical helplessness of the pose.

Her position also unsettles the spectator’s distance. The king is high and withdrawn, whereas this struggle appears close to the front of the canvas. The eye that has travelled down the bed’s broad sweep arrives at an individual act of killing. The composition gives both the remote authorisation and its bodily consequence, without allowing them to merge into a single heroic gesture.

At the lower left, the horse’s head turns sharply into the scene. Its light face and elaborate harness catch attention amid darker bodies. The animal introduces another kind of movement: a wrenching, resistant turn rather than the king’s repose or the woman’s forced backward arch. Its ornament associates it with the splendour of the court, but its physical alarm makes it more than an accessory. The richly equipped animal is caught in the same destructive claim of ownership as the human figures.

Across the lower edge, small objects and tangled fabrics prevent the foreground from resolving into a clear strip of floor. There is little empty ground on which the eye can rest or from which it can calmly measure the room. Bodies seem piled against one another, and the bed occupies space that might otherwise clarify their positions. Depth remains present, but it is repeatedly interrupted by overlapping forms and abrupt changes of scale and direction.

This makes the scene difficult to survey, yet the difficulty is organised. The dominant diagonal gives the painting an unmistakable sweep; the foreground horse and struggling woman pull attention towards opposite sides; the king supplies a still point above them. These are strong visual relationships even where the architecture is hard to reconstruct. The image can feel unstable without being directionless. Its crowded arrangement gives the spectator something analogous to the victims’ confinement: many movements, very little usable space.

Byron’s ending and Delacroix’s transformation

Lord Byron’s Sardanapalus, published in 1821, supplies an important literary point of departure, but the final act makes the difference between play and painting especially clear. In Act V, the king tells Pania to take treasure for himself and his companions, free the slaves and evacuate the palace. Later, Pania and the soldiers depart. Sardanapalus gives Myrrha an opportunity to escape, and she ultimately lights the pyre and joins him.[8]

These actions make the painting’s mass killing a substantial transformation of the drama. Byron’s final scene separates the ruler’s chosen death from the departure of those he could otherwise compel to remain. Delacroix’s picture concentrates instead on people and animals who are being prevented from surviving him. A shared destination—the destruction of the ruler and his palace—does not make the two endings equivalent.

The distinction is sharper because Byron’s king is capable of murderous anger. In the same act, he initially orders the execution of an enemy herald, then revokes that order and releases him with a gift.[8] The text allows an impulse towards violence to be checked. In the picture, the surrounding struggle gives no comparable sign of reprieve. Its suspended action offers little hope that the command will be reversed.

Myrrha’s role also cautions against casually attaching her name to a prominent woman in the painting. In the closing stage directions, she is an agent of the final act: she returns with a torch, ignites the pile and moves into the flames. The foreground woman in Delacroix’s composition is held by another person. The difference between choosing to remain and being physically overpowered is too important to dissolve into a general description of tragic love.

In their 2018 catalogue discussion, Sébastien Allard and Côme Fabre propose Diodorus Siculus as a possible connection in Delacroix’s darker treatment of the story.[9] That possibility does not establish which ancient account the painter consulted. What can be compared securely is the ending of Byron’s drama, the Salon explanation and the action Delacroix puts before us. Together they show how freely the painting reshapes its literary premise.

Explore Delacroix on video

An artist overview and a closer look at Liberty Leading the People.

Eugene Delacroix Paintings

TheHistoryOfArt

An overview of Delacroix’s paintings from TheHistoryOfArt.

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Beautiful surfaces and the power to possess

The picture’s discomfort grows out of the persistence of beauty within violence. The red cloth spreads luxuriously beneath bodies that cannot enjoy its comfort. Jewellery marks out flesh even as that flesh is threatened. The horse’s harness retains its intricate splendour while the animal recoils. These conjunctions prevent the ornaments from functioning merely as a decorative border around the story. They are involved in its meaning.

The king’s pale clothing and supported posture set him apart from the exposed bodies below. He appears protected by the very environment that has become lethal for others. His hand near his face can suggest contemplation, but nothing in the pose requires a specific diagnosis of his thoughts. The visible contrast is sufficient: others expend their bodies in panic or force, while he remains a watcher.

Allard and Fabre read this ruler as a challenge to the exemplary hero of history painting, and suggest an analogy between the king who gathers and destroys and the painter who creates the spectacle.[9] That analogy is a scholarly interpretation. It is useful because it draws attention to the act of arranging such an extraordinary accumulation, but it need not make Sardanapalus a transparent portrait of Delacroix’s mind.

A related question concerns the spectator. In her Open University course, Linda Walsh summarises Linda Nochlin’s interpretation of the picture as masculine sadism, involving fantasies of possessing and destroying women’s bodies, and asks what kind of viewer such an image anticipates.[10] This is an attributed critical reading, rather than an established account of the artist’s private motives. Its force lies in directing attention to how the women are offered to sight at the moment when their freedom is taken away.

The foreground woman makes that question unavoidable. The lightness of her body draws the eye; the controlling arms and blade turn that attraction into an encounter with coercion. Looking is made uneasy because the image supplies so much visual pleasure without allowing the subject to become innocent. A spectator can recognise the beauty of the arrangement and still register what that arrangement does to the person represented.

The imagined eastern court contributes to this problem. It places extreme luxury and absolute power in a distant legendary setting. Such distance does not turn the room into documentary evidence about Assyria. It creates a theatre in which an extravagant household can be made to stand for an extravagant claim over other lives. Reading the painting critically means keeping that European construction visible, rather than treating its accumulated fabrics and ornaments as a reliable record of another society.

A composition that changed in the making

Allard and Fabre discuss an account given by Delacroix’s friend Charles Rivet of a conversation in February 1849. Rivet recalled the artist explaining that work on a woman’s body had altered the effect of the whole composition, with other elements subsequently adjusted around it.[9] This is a retrospective account, more than twenty years after the Salon, rather than a contemporaneous record of each stage of execution.

Even with that limitation, the account raises a useful issue about the finished painting. Its meaning depends on the particular appeal of what has been painted. Horror is not conveyed solely through a list of actions. It emerges from the relation between those actions and the captivating forms that carry them. A body can be at once the focus of pictorial attention and the object of another figure’s violence.

The painting therefore resists a simple separation between subject and treatment. If the same story were arranged as a sober sequence of clearly spaced actions, the viewer’s relation to it would change. Here the abundance is part of the pressure: the eye is drawn from one richly described thing to another, finding that each belongs to the same enclosure. The king’s possessions seem inexhaustible just when their destruction has been ordered.

The Salon and the long passage into the Louvre

Accepted by the jury on 14 January 1828, the painting was displayed from early February until 25 April at the Salon of 1827–28.[1] The double year matters: the date of the canvas and the opening year of the exhibition do not mean that the public saw it in 1827.

Allard and Fabre document a hostile reception, including Charles Paul Landon’s complaint about the confused accumulation of figures, animals and objects and the absence of convincing perspective.[9] His objection concerns how the story could be understood as well as what it represented. The crowded space that can now seem inseparable from the painting’s violence was, for such a critic, a failure to provide intelligible composition.

That response helps explain the stakes of the bed’s diagonal and the obstructed foreground. A viewer expecting a clearly ordered action, with a principal figure who gathered its moral meaning into himself, met a ruler whose inactivity organised the suffering of others. The picture’s most commanding person offered no reassuring example. Meanwhile, the abundance of incidents made it difficult to reduce the scene to a single decisive action. These are reasons to examine the criticism, without turning one critic’s verdict into the opinion of an entire society.

Unsold at the Salon, it remained with Delacroix until Daniel David Wilson bought it for 6,000 francs on 20 July 1846. Paul Durand-Ruel acquired it in 1873; James Duncan, Étienne François Haro and Joseph Raphaël Vitta were later owners. The Louvre purchased it in 1921 for 700,000 francs.[1]

The gap between its first public appearance and its museum acquisition is striking. A painting now encountered as a major public work spent most of its first century in private ownership. Its immense size makes that passage particularly consequential: this was a large physical object to accommodate, move and care for, as well as an image whose reputation could change.

The smaller version and the restored canvas

Delacroix returned to the composition in a reduced replica now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Its owner dates it to 1844 and suggests that he may have made it for himself before selling the large painting. The 2018 catalogue dates the replica to 1845–46.[11][12] The mid-1840s is therefore a prudent broad description; the two published datings should remain distinguishable. The Philadelphia painting is a later version, not the vast canvas criticised at the Salon.

Its existence gives another dimension to the history of ownership. The composition could continue in the artist’s possession at a smaller scale while the monumental original passed to a collector. That change of scale also changes the circumstances of looking. The Louvre canvas confronts the spectator with an encompassing field; a reduced version offers the same central invention in an object of very different proportions to the viewer.

The original has its own substantial history of treatment. The Louvre’s detailed record dates interventions to 1846 and about 1857–58.[1] Its surface has thus come down through successive acts of care, rather than as an untouched survival from the studio.

In the Louvre’s interview published in November 2023, Allard and Fabre describe the restoration undertaken from October 2022 to July 2023, followed by the painting’s return to display in September. Reducing discoloured varnish made its range of colours, textures and materials more legible; in their assessment, the audacity of its spatial arrangement became clearer too.[13] These are institutional findings about the treated painting. Older reproductions cannot be assumed to convey the colour relationships revealed by that work.

Restoration bears directly on interpretation here because the painting’s force depends so much on distinctions within its profusion. Skin, cloth, metal and animal ornament must remain attractive enough to make their entanglement with destruction felt. Greater legibility does not make the scene calmer. It can sharpen the uneasy movement between admiration of what Delacroix paints and recognition of what is happening to it.

The ruler continues to recline above that movement. Below him, the woman’s backward arch and the horse’s resisting turn make the cost of his command immediate. The picture’s extraordinary luxury offers no protection to those who inhabit it. Everything that has served the king’s pleasure has been drawn within reach of his final exercise of power.

Annotated Details from Death of Sardanapalus

The numbered points identify visible features discussed in this article. Return from each detail to the whole composition. Death of Sardanapalus — Eugène Delacroix

Annotated details from Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix

Details from DEATH OF SARDANAPALUS

Compare these details with the complete painting to follow the relationships between bodies, movement and the surrounding space.

1

The ruler’s supported repose

The king reclines in pale clothing with one hand near his face. His supported, elevated posture contrasts with the forced and frightened movements below him.

The ruler’s supported repose detail from Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix
2

Force at the front of the picture

The foreground woman is drawn backwards within the attacker’s enclosing arms. Her pale torso, the grip and the raised blade make the relation between visual attraction and coercion difficult to avoid.

Force at the front of the picture detail from Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix
3

The horse and its ornate harness

The horse turns its head sharply beside the attendant. Gold ornament remains conspicuous within its resistance, linking the animal’s splendour to the destructive claim over the household.

The horse and its ornate harness detail from Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix
4

A body on the red bed

The woman’s extended body interrupts the broad red surface, and an arm reaches across its edge. A furnishing associated with comfort becomes part of the painting’s downward pull.

A body on the red bed detail from Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix

Artworks directory

Selected documented works by or associated with Eugène Delacroix, with dates, media and collection records distinguished. This is a growing research directory, not a complete catalogue. An unspecified medium appears under All media.

221 records

NameDateMedium
Male Academy Figure: Half‑Length, Side Viewc. 1818–20Oil painting Catalogue.
Female Academy Figure: Seated, Front View (Mademoiselle Rose)c. 1820–23Oil painting Catalogue.
Two Bearded Heads, after Veronese (detail from “The Marriage at Cana”)1820Oil painting Catalogue.
Self‑Portrait as Ravenswoodc.1821Oil painting Catalogue.
Nereid, after Rubens, detail from “The Landing of Maria de Medici at Marseilles”c. 1822Oil painting Catalogue.
Studies of a Damned Man, for “The Barque of Dante”1822Drawing Catalogue.
Head of an Old Greek Woman1824Oil painting Catalogue.
Tasso in the Hospital of St. Anna, Ferrara1824Oil painting Catalogue.
Turk Mounting His Horse1824Aquatint Catalogue.
Portrait of AspasieAbout 1824Oil painting Catalogue.
Sketch after Goya’s “Caprichos”c. 1822–24Drawing Catalogue.
Study of Babouchesc. 1823–24Oil painting Catalogue.
Thales Fielding (1793–1837)c. 1824–25Oil painting Catalogue.
Studies of Bindings, an Oriental Jacket, and Figures after Goyac. 1822–26Oil painting Catalogue.
Study of an Oriental Vestc. 1822–26Drawing Catalogue.
Study of Greek Costumesc. 1823–26Drawing Catalogue.
Christ in the Garden of Olives (The Agony in the Garden)1824–26Oil painting Catalogue.
Reclining Female Nude: Back Viewc. 1824–26Oil painting Catalogue.
Macbeth Consulting the Witches1825Lithograph Catalogue.
Studies of Seven Greek Coins1825Lithograph Catalogue.
Studies of Twelve Greek and Roman Coins1825Lithograph Catalogue.
Mortally Wounded Brigand Quenches His Thirstc.1825Oil painting Catalogue.
Charles VI and Odette de ChampdiversAbout 1825Oil painting Catalogue.
The Duke of Orléans Showing His LoverAbout 1825–26Oil painting Catalogue.
Count Demetrius de Palatiano (1794–1849) in Suliot Costumec. 1825–26Oil painting Catalogue.
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi1826Oil painting Catalogue.
Combat of the Giaour and Hassan1826Oil painting Catalogue.
Justinian Drafting His Laws, sketch1826Oil painting Catalogue.
Baron Schwiter (Louis Auguste Schwiter, 1805–1889)1826Lithograph Catalogue.
Louis Auguste Schwiter (1805–1889)1826–30Oil painting Catalogue.
Death of Sardanapalus, sketch1826–27Oil painting Catalogue.
A Lady and Her Valetc. 1826–29Oil painting Catalogue.
Woman with a Parrot1827Oil painting Catalogue.
Seated Turk (possibly Paul Barroilhet, 1805–1871)c. 1827–30Oil painting Catalogue.
A Greek and a Turk in an Interiorlate 1820sWatercolour Catalogue.
Faust (illustrated book)1828Illustrated book Catalogue.
Mephistopheles Flying over the City (Study for “Faust,” plate 1)c. 1825–27Drawing Catalogue.
Faust, plate 1: Mephistopheles Aloft1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 2: Faust in His Study1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 3: Faust and Wagner1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 4: Faust, Wagner, and the Poodle1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 5: Mephistopheles Appearing to Faust1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 6: Mephistopheles Receiving the Student1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust and Mephistopheles in the Tavern (Study for “Faust,” plate 7)1825/26Drawing Catalogue.
Faust, plate 7: Mephistopheles in Auerbach’s Tavern1826Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, Marguerite, and Mephistopheles in the Street (Study for “Faust,” plate 8)c. 1825–27Drawing Catalogue.
Faust, plate 8: Faust Trying to Seduce Marguerite1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 9: Mephistopheles Introduces Himself at Martha’s House1827Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 10: Marguerite at the Spinning Wheel1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 11: Duel between Faust and Valentin1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 12: Mephistopheles and Faust Fleeing after the Duel1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 13: Marguerite in Church1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 14: Faust and Mephistopheles in the Harz Mountains1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 15: Marguerite’s Ghost Appearing to Faust1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 16: Faust and Mephistopheles Galloping on Walpurgis Night1826Lithograph Catalogue.
Faust, plate 17: Faust with Marguerite in Prison1826/27Lithograph Catalogue.
Wild Horse Felled by a Tiger1828Lithograph Catalogue.
Wild Horse Felled by a Tiger1828Watercolour Catalogue.
Wild Horse1828Lithograph Catalogue.
Studies of a Lion (Tours sketchbook)12 February 1824 or 1829Drawing Catalogue.
Sketches of Tigers and Men in Sixteenth‑Century Costumec. 1828–29Watercolour Catalogue.
Nineteen Studies of Heads and Skulls of Lionsc. 1828–30Drawing Catalogue.
Tiger Lying at the Entrance of Its Lairc. 1828–30Etching Catalogue.
The Murder of the Bishop of Liège1829Oil painting Catalogue.
Royal Tiger1829Lithograph Catalogue.
Lion of the Atlas Mountains1829–30Lithograph Catalogue.
Young Tiger Playing with Its Mother (Study of Two Tigers)1830Oil painting Catalogue.
The Battle of Poitiers1830Oil painting Catalogue.
The Battle of Nancy and the Death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, January 5, 14771831Oil painting Catalogue.
Boissy d’Anglas at the Convention, sketch1831Oil painting Catalogue.
Interior of a Dominican Convent in Madrid (L’Amende Honorable)1831Oil painting Catalogue.
Jewish Woman of Tangier1832Drawing Catalogue.
Portrait of Schmareck, Tanner at Tangier1832Watercolour Catalogue.
Standing Moroccan1832Watercolour Catalogue.
A Man of Tangier1832Watercolour Catalogue.
Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben‑Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters1832Watercolour Catalogue.
Street in Meknes1832Oil painting Catalogue.
Moroccan Military Exercises1832Oil painting Catalogue.
Arab Cavalry Practicing a Charge (Fantaisie Arabe)1833Oil painting Catalogue.
A Blacksmith1833Aquatint Catalogue.
Collision of Arab Horsemen1833/34Oil painting Catalogue.
Figure Study for “The Women of Algiers”1833/34Watercolour Catalogue.
Women of Algiers in Their Apartment1834Oil painting Catalogue.
The Natchez1823–24 and 1835Oil painting Catalogue.
Christ on the Cross1835Oil painting Catalogue.
Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard1835Oil painting Catalogue.
Combat of the Giaour and Hassan1835Oil painting Catalogue.
Léon Riesener (1808–1878)1835Oil painting Catalogue.
Madame Henri François Riesener (Félicité Longrois, 1786–1847)1835Oil painting Catalogue.
Saint Sebastian Tended by the Holy Women1836Oil painting Catalogue.
Medea About to Kill Her Children, sketchc. 1836Oil painting Catalogue.
Moroccan Chieftain Receiving Tribute1837Oil painting Catalogue.
Self‑Portrait in a Green Vestc. 1837Oil painting Catalogue.
Medea About to Kill Her Children (Medée furieuse)1838Oil painting Catalogue.
Cleopatra and the Peasant1838Oil painting Catalogue.
Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard1839Oil painting Catalogue.
Startled Arabian Horse in a Landscapec. 1835–40Watercolour Catalogue.
The Shipwreck of Don Juan1840Oil painting Catalogue.
Christ on the Lake of Genesareth (Portland version)c. 1853Oil painting Catalogue.
Pietà, first sketchby 1843Oil painting Catalogue.
Pietà, second sketchby 1843Oil painting Catalogue.
Christ on the Cross, sketch1845Oil painting Catalogue.
Christ on the Cross1846Oil painting Catalogue.
Death of Sardanapalus (Philadelphia replica)1844 / 1845–46Oil painting Catalogue.
The Abduction of Rebecca1846Oil painting Catalogue.
The Lamentation (Christ at the Tomb)1847–48Oil painting Catalogue.
Arab Players1848Oil painting Catalogue.
Arch of Morning Glories, study for “Basket of Flowers”1848/49Pastel Catalogue.
Basket of Flowers1848–49Oil painting Catalogue.
Basket of Flowers and Fruit1849Oil painting Catalogue.
Basket of Flowersc. 1848–50Oil painting Catalogue.
Christ at the Columnprobably 1849Oil painting Catalogue.
Landscape at Champrosaypossibly 1849Oil painting Catalogue.
Michelangelo in His StudioAbout1849–50Oil painting Catalogue.
View in the Forest of Sénartc. 1849–50Oil painting Catalogue.
Forest View with an Oak Treec. 1849–50Watercolour Catalogue.
The Triumph of Genius over Envyc. 1849–51Drawing Catalogue.
Jacob Struggling with the Angel1850Drawing Catalogue.
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel1850Drawing Catalogue.
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel1850Oil painting Catalogue.
Sunsetc. 1850Pastel Catalogue.
Apollo Slays the Python, sketchc. 1850Oil painting Catalogue.
Apollo Victorious over the Serpent Python, sketchc. 1850Oil painting Catalogue.
PietàAbout1850Oil painting Catalogue.
The Agony in the Garden1851Oil painting Catalogue.
Study of the Sea1851(?)Watercolour Catalogue.
Marphise1852Oil painting Catalogue.
The Sea at Dieppe1852Oil painting Catalogue.
Christ Asleep during the Tempestc. 1853Oil painting Catalogue.
Saint Stephen Borne Away by His Disciples1853Oil painting Catalogue.
Christ on the Sea of Galilee1854Oil painting Catalogue.
The Sea at Dieppeprobably 1854Watercolour Catalogue.
A Lion and a Tiger, Fightingc. 1854Drawing Catalogue.
Lion Hunt, sketch1854Oil painting Catalogue.
Lion Hunt (fragment)1855Oil painting Catalogue.
Lion Hunt1855–56Oil painting Catalogue.
Hilly Landscapec. 1855Oil painting Catalogue.
The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage1856Oil painting Catalogue.
The Bride of Abydos (Selim and Zuleika)1857Oil painting Catalogue.
Lamentation over the Body of Christ1857Oil painting Catalogue.
Abduction of Rebecca1858Oil painting Catalogue.
Ovid among the Scythians1859Oil painting Catalogue.
Amadis de Gaule Delivers a Damsel from Galpan’s Castle1859–60Oil painting Catalogue.
Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable1860Oil painting Catalogue.
Shipwreck on the Coast1862Oil painting Catalogue.
The Battle of Taillebourg won by Saint Louis (Château de Versailles)1837Oil on canvas Catalogue.
Christ on the Lake of Gennezaret (Christ Asleep during the Tempest) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)About 1853Oil on canvas Catalogue.
The Coast of Spain at Salabrena (Christie’s 1998 sale 6059, lot 123)19 January 1832Pen and ink Catalogue.
Crouching Tiger (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)1839Pen and ink Catalogue.
The Education of Achilles (J. Paul Getty Museum)1862Pastel Catalogue.
Fallen Warriors and a Runaway Horse (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)1862Pen and ink Catalogue.
George Sand's Garden at Nohant (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)About 1842–43Oil on canvas Catalogue.
The Giaour on Horseback (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)1824–26Pen and ink Catalogue.
Lion Hunt (Art Institute of Chicago)1860–61; signed 1861Oil on canvas Catalogue.
Figure Studies related to Liberty Leading the People1830Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash Catalogue.
Chios: Head, Shoulder and Foot Studies1823Graphite Catalogue.
Figure Studies for the Salon du Roi, Palais Bourbon1833–35Pen and iron gall ink Catalogue.
Four Studies of Horses1824–25Pen, ink, black wash and graphite (recto); graphite (verso) Catalogue.
Studies of a Horse and Rider for Heliodorus Driven from the Temple1849–50Pen and iron gall ink, graphite Catalogue.
Liberty Leading the People1830Oil on canvas Catalogue.
Massacre at Chios1824Oil on canvas Catalogue.
Death of Sardanapalus (Louvre original)1827Oil on canvas Catalogue.
Barque of Dante1822Oil painting Catalogue.
Orphan Girl at the Cemetery1824Oil painting Catalogue.
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (Saint-Sulpice wall painting)Completed 1861Wall painting Catalogue.
Heliodorus Driven from the Temple (Saint-Sulpice wall painting)Completed 1861Wall painting Catalogue.
African Pirates Abducting a Young Woman1852Oil painting Catalogue.
An Arab Horseman at the Gallop1849Oil painting Catalogue.
Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains1863Oil painting Catalogue.
Moroccan Horseman Crossing a FordAbout 1850Oil painting Catalogue.
A Moroccan (Arab) Saddling a Horse1855Oil painting Catalogue.
The Execution of the Doge Marino Faliero1825–26Oil painting Catalogue.
Christopher Columbus and his Son at La Rábida1838Oil painting Catalogue.
Horse Frightened by Lightning1825–29Watercolour Catalogue.
Horses Leaving the Sea1860Oil painting Catalogue.
Tiger with a Tortoise1862Oil painting Catalogue.
TigerAbout1830Watercolour Catalogue.
Tiger and Snake1862Oil painting Catalogue.
Tiger Hunt1854Oil painting Catalogue.
Lion Hunt in Morocco1854Oil painting Catalogue.
Lion Rending Apart a CorpseAbout1848;historical catalogue placementWatercolour Catalogue.
Frederic Chopin1838Oil painting Catalogue.
Portrait of George Sand1838Oil painting Catalogue.
Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand1838Oil painting Catalogue.
Mademoiselle RoseAbout 1820Oil painting Catalogue.
Head of a Woman in a Red Turban1831; archive dateOil painting Catalogue.
Two Views of a Standing Indian from CalcuttaAbout 1823–24Oil painting Catalogue.
Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius1844Oil painting Catalogue.
Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople1840Oil painting Catalogue.
Medea1862Oil painting Catalogue.
The Death of Laras1858Oil painting Catalogue.
The Bride of AbydosAbout 1852–53; dating disputedOil painting Catalogue.
The Bride of LammermoorAbout1826Watercolour Catalogue.
Cromwell at Windsor Castle1828Oil painting Catalogue.
Milton Dictated to his Daughters the Paradise Lost1827–28Oil painting Catalogue.
Tasso in the Madhouse1839Oil painting Catalogue.
Christ on the Cross1853Oil painting Catalogue.
The Disciples at Emmaus1853Oil painting Catalogue.
The Entombment of ChristNineteenth century; precise date unestablishedOil painting Catalogue.
Fanatics of Tangier1837–38Oil painting Catalogue.
Jewish BrideUndated; Moroccan subject associated with the1832journeyWatercolour Catalogue.
Jewish Wedding in Morocco1839; Salon1841Oil painting Catalogue.
Moroccan Fantasia1847Oil painting Catalogue.
The Sultan of Morocco1845Oil painting Catalogue.
Bouquet of Flowers 18431843Watercolour Catalogue.
Bouquet of Flowers, 18491849Watercolour Catalogue.
Cliffs Near Dieppe1852–55Watercolour Catalogue.
The Edge of a Wood at Nohantc.1842/1843Watercolour Catalogue.
Still Life with Lobsters1826–27Oil on canvas Catalogue.
A Corner of the Studio (attribution disputed)1825–1850; attribution disputedOil on canvas Catalogue.
Study of the Sky at Sunsetc.1849Pastel Catalogue.
Self-Portrait, about 1840c.1840Oil on canvas Catalogue.
Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1849)1849Oil on canvas Catalogue.
Susanna and the Elders1841Oil on canvas Catalogue.
The Education of Achilles (Drawing)c.1844Graphite Catalogue.
Attila the HunCompleted 1847Mural detail Catalogue.
The Italian Theatre1821Lithograph Catalogue.
A Turkish Man on a Grey HorseUndatedNot specified Catalogue.
Study for The Massacre at ChiosAbout 1823–24Graphite, watercolour and gouache on paper Catalogue.
The Prisoner of Chillon1834; Salon of 1835Oil on canvas Catalogue.
Two Knights Fighting in a LandscapeSecond quarter of the nineteenth century; precise date uncertainOil on canvas; possible later completion Catalogue.

Discussion

Look again at the images and ideas explored in Death of Sardanapalus. These editorial prompts invite your observations.

Reader Insights

Editorial prompt · Follow the composition

Trace the diagonal of the red bed. Where does it carry your eye, and where do bodies interrupt it?

Editorial prompt · Look again

Compare the ruler’s stillness with the struggling figures below. How does the difference make his power visible?

Join the Conversation

Share a detail, comparison or question about Death of Sardanapalus below.

References

  1. Musée du Louvre, Département des Peintures. “Mort de Sardanapale,” Eugène Delacroix, 1827, RF 2346; description, material details and detailed history. Louvre Collections. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The Giaour on Horseback”, Eugène Delacroix, 1824–26, accession 2015.713.2, collection record and recto image. Source language: English. Accessed 27 October 2026. View source.
  3. Musée du Louvre, Mort de Sardanapale, RF 2346, 1827. Object details and historical record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  4. Ministère de la Culture, base Joconde, Bataille de Taillebourg. 21 juillet 1242, notice 000PE005883; collection du château de Versailles, MV 2676 / INV 3822 / LP 2780. French. Accessed 27 October 2026. View source.
  5. Asher Miller, compiler, “Checklist,” entries 1–145, in Sébastien Allard and Côme Fabre, Delacroix. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, pp. 275–297. Basic title, date and medium metadata consulted; not a complete catalogue of the artist’s works. Source language: English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  6. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Eugène Delacroix: Christ Asleep during the Tempest,” collection record, accession 29.100.131, object details and introductory commentary. Source language: English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  7. George R. Goldner and Lee Hendrix, with Kelly Pask, European Drawings 2: Catalogue of the Collections. Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992, entry 56, p. 140; colour plate 8. Source language: English. Accessed 27 October 2026. View source.
  8. Byron, George Gordon, Lord. Sardanapalus: A Tragedy (1821), Act V, scene 1, especially lines 255–263, 306–340, 375–417 and the closing stage directions. In The Works of Lord Byron: Poetry, vol. V, edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge, London: John Murray, 1901. Project Gutenberg electronic edition. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  9. Allard, Sébastien, and Côme Fabre. “The Sphinx of Modern Painting,” discussion under “‘Fame Is Not an Empty Word’: 1822–32,” in Delacroix, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, printed pp. 48, 53 and 57 (PDF pp. 64, 69 and 73). Catalogue PDF. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. Landon and Rivet are cited through Allard and Fabre. View source.
  10. Walsh, Linda. Delacroix, OpenLearn, The Open University, section 6.7, “Delacroix – Orientalism and personal identity,” including its summary of Linda Nochlin’s interpretation. OpenLearn course. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  11. Philadelphia Museum of Art. “The Death of Sardanapalus,” Eugène Delacroix, dated 1844, accession 1986-26-17, object 82626; object heading and commentary. Collection record. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  12. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Delacroix, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, checklist, cat. 104, “The Death of Sardanapalus,” printed p. 290 (PDF p. 306), dated 1845–46. Catalogue PDF. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  13. Saretta, Olivier, interviewer, with Sébastien Allard and Côme Fabre. “Sardanapale révélé : un chef-d’œuvre à la vivacité retrouvée,” Musée du Louvre, 21 November 2023. Louvre interview. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  14. Asher Ethan Miller, “Eugène Delacroix, Christ on the Sea of Galilee, 1853 or earlier,” French Paintings and Pastels, 1600–1945, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2021. Narrative and notes, including the revised Portland chronology; Glynnis Napier Stevenson documentation note 1 also consulted. Source language: English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  15. Christie’s, “The Coast of Spain at Salabrena”, Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, Impressionist & 19th Century Art, Pt. II, sale 6059, lot 123, 1998. Object details, sale-room notice and lot essay; unpaginated. Source language: English; artist’s inscription in French. Accessed 27 October 2026. View source.
  16. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Eugène Delacroix: Crouching Tiger”, collection record for accession 2013.1135.5, 1839; object details and curatorial commentary, unpaginated. Source language: English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  17. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Fallen Warriors and a Runaway Horse”, collection record, object details, curatorial commentary and collection image; unpaginated. Source language: English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  18. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “George Sand’s Garden at Nohant,” Eugène Delacroix, collection record, accession 22.27.4; object details and curatorial overview. Source language: English. Accessed 27 October 2026. View source.
  19. Art Institute of Chicago, “Lion Hunt”, collection record, especially “About this artwork”, object information, inscriptions and provenance; unpaginated. Source language: English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  20. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Figure Studies related to Liberty Leading the People, 1830, 2013.1135.12. Visible object metadata and short commentary. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  21. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Head, Shoulder, and Foot, Studies for Scenes from the Chios Massacres, 1823, 2013.1135.22. Visible object metadata and commentary. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  22. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Figure Studies for the Salon du Roi, Palais Bourbon, 1833–35, 2013.1135.24. Visible metadata and commentary. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  23. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Four Studies of Horses, 1824–25, 2024.591.65. Recto and verso metadata and commentary. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  24. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Studies of a Horse and Rider for Heliodorus Driven from the Temple, 1849–50, 2024.591.78. Visible metadata and commentary. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  25. Musée du Louvre, Le 28 juillet 1830. La Liberté guidant le peuple, RF 129, 1830. Object details and historical record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  26. Musée du Louvre, Scènes des massacres de Scio, INV 3823, 1824. Object details and historical record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  27. Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Death of Sardanapalus, object 82626, 1986-26-17, dated 1844. Heading and short commentary; dating differs from the 2018 catalogue. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  28. Musée du Louvre, Dante et Virgile, dit aussi La barque de Dante, INV 3820, 1822; object metadata and history. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  29. Musée du Louvre, Jeune orpheline au cimetière, RF 1652, 1824; object metadata and history. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  30. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, La Grèce sur les ruines de Missolonghi, Bx E 439, 1826; collection record and audio transcript. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  31. Ville de Paris, Retrouvez les chefs d’œuvres de Delacroix à la chapelle des Saints-Anges de Saint-Sulpice, updated 30 November 2016; chapel commission/completion and material history. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  32. Musée du Louvre, Pirates africains enlevant une jeune femme, RF 1965 9, 1852; object record, interpretation and provenance. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  33. Qatar Museums, Tales of a Connected World: About the Galleries; Arab Horseman at the Gallop, 1849, Lusail Museum Collection, and Delacroix’s Gaze. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  34. National Gallery of Art, Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains, 1863, 1966.12.1; object metadata, interpretation and provenance. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  35. J. Paul Getty Museum, Moroccan Horseman Crossing a Ford, about 1850, 2001.42; Getty-authored commentary and metadata on Google Arts & Culture. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  36. State Hermitage Museum, Moroccan Saddling a Horse, 1855, ГЭ-3852; complete indexed Russian owner text and object fields. Russian. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  37. Paris Musées / Petit Palais, Le Combat du Giaour et du Pacha,1835,PDUT1162; object record and interpretation. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  38. Art Institute of Chicago, The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan,1826; owner-authored Google Arts & Culture object record. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  39. Ackland Art Museum, Cleopatra and the Peasant,1838,59.15.1; indexed owner object fields. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  40. The Wallace Collection, The Execution of the Doge Marino Faliero,1825–26,P282; object record and description. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  41. National Gallery of Art, Christopher Columbus and His Son at La Rábida,1838,1963.10.127; object record and provenance. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  42. Musée d’Orsay, Chevaux arabes se battant dans une écurie,1860,RF1988; indexed owner object fields. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  43. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest / Zsuzsa Gonda, Horse Frightened by Lightning,1825–29,D_1935-2698; owner-authored Google Arts & Culture record and essay. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  44. The Phillips Collection, Horses Coming Out of the Sea,1860,0486; collection record and commentary. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  45. Musée du Louvre, Jeune Tigre jouant avec sa mère,1830,RF1943; full object record and history. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  46. Christie’s, Tigre jouant avec une tortue,1862; Rockefeller2018 sale16718 lot3, record and essay. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  47. National Gallery of Art, Tiger, about1830,1943.3.3375; indexed owner record, inscription and visual description. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  48. National Gallery of Art, Tiger and Snake,1862,2014.136.30; indexed owner record, provenance and visual description. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  49. Musée d’Orsay, Chasse au tigre,1854,RF1814; indexed owner record and commentary. French/English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  50. State Hermitage Museum, Lion Hunt in Morocco,1854,3853; official guide2014,entry195,pp248–249. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  51. Alfred Robaut / Ernest Chesneau, L’Œuvre complet de Eugène Delacroix,1885,p279,entry1054,watercolour Lion déchirant un cadavre. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  52. Musée du Louvre, Frédéric Chopin, 1838, RF 1717; current owner record of the surviving fragment. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  53. Museum Ordrupgaard, George Sand, 1838, 280WH; current owner dimensions/materials/signature record. Danish. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  54. Musée du Louvre, Preparatory study for Chopin and George Sand, circa 1838, RF 9357; owner record and commentary. French/English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  55. Musée du Louvre, Portrait de Léon Riesener, 1835, RF 1960 58; current owner metadata, label transcription and commentary. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  56. The National Gallery, London, Louis-Auguste Schwiter, 1826–30, NG 3286; current owner record and in-depth commentary. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  57. Musée du Louvre, Nu assis, dit Mademoiselle Rose, about 1820, RF 1942 14; complete owner object record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  58. Musée Fabre, Étude d’après le modèle Aspasie, about 1824, 868.1.36; current owner fields and short commentary. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  59. Musées d’Orléans, Head of an Old Greek Woman, study for Chios,1824,96.2.1; full owner record and commentary. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  60. Art Fund, Head of a Woman in Red Turban By Lamplight; archive date1831, rounded dimensions and1962acquisition support; archive cautions record notupdated. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  61. National Gallery of Art, Two Studies of a Standing Indian from Calcutta,c1823/1824,2006.128.18; current owner record and visual description. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  62. National Gallery of Art, Two Studies of an Indian from Calcutta,Seated and Standing,c1823/1824,2006.128.19; separate comparative canvas,current owner record. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  63. Musée du Louvre, The Assassination of the Bishop of Liège,1829,RF1961 13; complete owner fields and selected provenance. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  64. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, The Battle of Nancy, signed1831,177; current object fields, narrative and acquisition history. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  65. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius,1844,A2928; complete owner record and interpretation. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  66. Mar Borobia, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, The Duke of Orléans Showing His Lover,about1825–26,127(1977.19); complete object record and essay. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  67. Musée du Louvre, Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople,1840,INV3821/LP4674; current owner description, commission and provenance. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  68. Musée du Louvre, Medea,1862,RF1402; later variant of the1838Lilleoriginal,current object record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  69. Musée du Louvre, The Shipwreck of Don Juan,1840,RF359; current owner fields and1883gift record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  70. Musée du Louvre, The Bride of Abydos,RF1398; current dimensions/bequest and broad date differing from the2018catalogue. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  71. Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Medea About to Kill Her Children,1838,P542; the earlier large original,current owner record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  72. Kimbell Art Museum, Selim and Zuleika,1857,AP1986.04; separate final version, complete indexed owner narrative/provenance. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  73. Art Gallery of Ontario, The Bride of Lammermoor,about1826,80/83; graphite,watercolour andgouache,collection/provenance record. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  74. Christie’s, Cromwell at Windsor Castle,1828,Johnson129;2002auction record/lotessay and1831Salon listing. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  75. Musée Fabre, Michelangelo in His Studio,1850,868.1.40;current object fields andinterpretive notice. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  76. Kunsthaus Zürich, Milton Dictating Paradise Lost to His Daughters,1827–28,1988/0028;current ownerPDF. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  77. Sammlung Oskar Reinhart Am Römerholz, Tasso in the Madhouse,1839,oil60×50cm;owner object record. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  78. The National Gallery, London, Christ on the Cross,1853,NG6433;oil73.5×59.7cm,currentobjectrecord. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  79. The Walters Art Museum, Christ on the Sea of Galilee,1854,37.186;oil59.8×73.3cm,currentobjectrecord. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  80. Brooklyn Museum, The Disciples at Emmaus,1853,50.106;oil55.2×47cm,currentobjectrecord. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  81. INHA / Joconde, La Mise au tombeau,copyafterTitian,LyonB286;oil40×55.5cm,nineteenthcentury,currentobjectfields. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  82. Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Pietà,about1850,NG.M.01179;oil35.6×27cm,currentobjectrecord. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  83. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Convulsionists of Tangier,1837–38,73.42.3;oil95.57×128.59cm,owner-published collection data. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  84. Musée du Louvre, Mariée juive à Tanger,undated,RF4614Recto;watercolour/graphite28.5×23.2cm,currentobjectrecord. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  85. Musée du Louvre, Noce juive dans le Maroc,1839,INV3825/LP4737;oil105×140.5cm,Salon1841,currentobjectrecord. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  86. Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Marokkanische Soldaten bei einer Gefechtsübung,1847,SOR1936.3;oil66×82cm,Römerholz,currentobjectrecord. German. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  87. Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, Moulay Abd-er-Rahman,sultan du Maroc,1845,2004 1 99;oil384×344cm,currentobjectrecord. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  88. French Ministry of Culture / Musée Fabre, Bouquet de fleurs, 1843, inventory 876.3.101; black pencil and watercolour, 20.5 × 26.4 cm. Current Joconde collection record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  89. Musée du Louvre, Bouquet de fleurs, 1849, RF 31719, Recto; watercolour, gouache and pastel over black pencil on two joined sheets of grey paper, 65 × 65.4 cm. Current collection record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  90. Musée Marmottan Monet, Monet collectionneur – Chefs-d’œuvre de sa collection privée, 2017 press dossier, printed p.24 (PDF p.23). Cliffs near Dieppe, 1852–55, watercolour, 20 × 30.7 cm; reproduction and collection history. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  91. National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Edge of a Wood at Nohant, c.1842/1843, accession 1985.16.2; watercolour, 15.5 × 20.5 cm. Current collection record. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  92. Musée du Louvre, La mer vue des hauteurs de Dieppe, RF 1979-46; oil on cardboard glued to wood, 36 × 52 cm. Current collection record; 1852 dating follows the 2018 Delacroix catalogue, no.128. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  93. Musée du Louvre, Nature morte au homard, RF1661,1826–27, oil on canvas80.5×106.5cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  94. Musée du Louvre, Coin d’atelier. Le poêle, RF2058,1825–1850,oil51×43.4cm; doubtful signature and disputed attribution. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  95. Musée du Louvre, Etude de ciel au soleil couchant, RF3706 Recto,c1849,pastel on grey paper19.2×23.8cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  96. Ministero della Cultura / Gallerie degli Uffizi, Autoritratto di Delacroix,0900099717,Inv1890no3914,c1840,oil66×54cm; complete six-page SIGEC record. Italian. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  97. Musée du Louvre / Musée national Eugène-Delacroix, Portrait de Delacroix en Hamlet, formerly Ravenswood,MD2021-2/RF1953-38,c1821,oil41×33cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  98. Musée Fabre, Femmes d’Alger dans leur intérieur, 1849, 868.1.38, oil on canvas, 85 × 112 cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  99. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Femme caressant un perroquet, 1827, B 566, oil on canvas, 24.8 × 33 cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  100. Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Suzanne et les vieillards, 1841, P 986, oil on canvas, 27 × 35.5 cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  101. Kunstmuseum Basel, Ein sterbender Brigant trinkt an einer Quelle, c.1825, 1726, oil on canvas, 32.7 × 40.8 cm. German. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  102. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Education of Achilles, c.1844, 2014.732.3, graphite, 23.6 × 29.7 cm. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  103. Assemblée nationale, Attila and His Hordes Overrun Italy and the Arts, War hemicycle detail, library of the Palais Bourbon, completed 1847, oil and wax on plaster. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  104. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Théâtre Italien, 13 August 1821, 2004.198, lithograph, sheet 25.6 × 18.6 cm. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  105. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Macbeth Consulting the Witches, 1825, 22.63.19, lithograph, third state of five. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  106. Musée du Louvre, Hamlet et Horatio au cimetière, 1839, RF 1942, oil on canvas, 82 × 65 cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  107. National Gallery, London, Ovid among the Scythians, 1859, NG6262, oil on canvas, 87.6 × 130.2 cm. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  108. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Louis Lami, 1873, 88.341. Comparative attribution correction; not a Delacroix work. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  109. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Devotion to Drawing: The Karen B. Cohen Collection of Eugène Delacroix, 2018 exhibition overview. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  110. New York Public Library, Print Collection: Print Glossary, definitions of impression, state, edition and processes. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  111. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, CAMEO, Lithograph, planographic printing glossary. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  112. Musée Eugène-Delacroix, Delacroix and colour, 5 July 2022, collection article. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  113. Musée du Louvre, Eugène Delacroix: artist biography. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  114. Eugène Delacroix / Philippe Burty, editor, Lettres (1815–1863), Paris: A. Quantin, 1878, pp. 120–121; the published extract of 25 January 1832 and opening of 8 February. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  115. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Wall Decorated in Spanish Tiles, 1832, 2013.1135.16; collection record. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  116. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Mephistopheles in the Air, 1828, 1994.60.13; first state of five. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  117. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hamlet Sees the Ghost of His Father on the Terrace, 1843, 22.56.7; first state of five. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  118. Eugène Delacroix / Paul Flat and René Piot, editors, Journal, 22 June 1863; Paris: Plon, 1893, volume III, page 438. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  119. Musée du Louvre, Apollo Slays Python, 1850–51; INV 3818. Collection record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
  120. Sotheby’s, A Turkish Man on a Grey Horse, catalogued under Eugène Delacroix; sale N07716, 2001, lot 20. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.

More DELACROIX Artworks

Liberty Leading the People — Eugène Delacroix
Liberty Leading the People
Death of Sardanapalus — Eugène Delacroix
Death of Sardanapalus
Massacre at Chios — Eugène Delacroix
Massacre at Chios
Women of Algiers — Eugène Delacroix
Women of Algiers
Barque of Dante — Eugène Delacroix
Barque of Dante
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi — Eugène Delacroix
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi
Orphan Girl at the Cemetery — Eugène Delacroix
Orphan Girl at the Cemetery
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel — Eugène Delacroix
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel